Payments
AntSeed uses USDC on Base Mainnet for all payments. Buyers pre-deposit USDC, providers earn per request, and everything settles on-chain automatically.
For Buyers
Depositing USDC
The recommended way to deposit is antseed buyer deposit:
antseed buyer deposit
It prints your node's funding address and a QR code (an EIP-681 payment request any mobile wallet can scan). Send USDC on Base to that address from anywhere — another wallet, an exchange withdrawal, a card on-ramp — and the incoming funds are deposited into your credits automatically: your node signs a gasless authorization and a permissionless relayer submits the transaction for a fixed USDC fee ($0.05 on Base Mainnet). Your node's hot wallet never needs ETH.
Prefer a browser wallet? While watching, the command also serves the connected-wallet checkout page and prints its link (http://127.0.0.1:3118?token=…). Open it, connect MetaMask / Coinbase Wallet / Rabby, and the deposit goes straight into the Deposits contract — the command detects the credit and finishes either way.
While antseed buyer start is running, this sweeping also happens automatically in the background whenever USDC lands in the hot wallet (disable with buyer.autoSweep: false in your config).
| Option | Purpose |
|---|---|
--amount <usdc> | Amount to prefill in the QR payment request and browser checkout |
--no-watch | Print the address and QR code without waiting for funds |
--onchain <usdc> | Direct on-chain deposit from the hot wallet (requires ETH for gas) |
Anyone can fund a buyer — a team treasury, a hardware wallet, or another contract. The funding source is decoupled from the node identity.
Sweeping Hot-Wallet USDC Manually
antseed buyer deposit and the running buyer sweep incoming USDC for you; antseed buyer sweep triggers the same gasless sweep once, on demand:
antseed buyer sweep
The CLI signs an EIP-3009 authorization offline and broadcasts it over the P2P network. A permissionless relayer submits the transaction, pays the gas, and keeps a fixed USDC fee ($0.05 on Base Mainnet); the rest is credited to your deposits balance. If a buyer daemon (antseed buyer start) is running, the request goes out over its existing seller connections — otherwise the CLI joins the network with a temporary node.
| Option | Purpose |
|---|---|
--amount <usdc> | Amount to sweep (default: full hot-wallet balance, clamped to your credit-limit headroom) |
--timeout <secs> | How long to wait for on-chain confirmation (default: 120) |
The swept amount must exceed the fixed relay fee, and a first-ever deposit must net at least 1 USDC after the fee. Your funds never move unless a relayer lands the transaction — the authorization simply expires after an hour.
Checking Balance and Activity
antseed buyer balance # wallet + deposits balances
antseed buyer activity # tokens, spending history, measured savings, active channels
antseed buyer activity mirrors the desktop app's Activity view: lifetime tokens/spent/saved, a per-day spending chart (--days 7|30|90), active channels with their locked amounts and channel IDs, and ANTS emissions available to claim (antseed buyer emissions claim). It needs the buyer connection running (antseed buyer start).
Withdrawing
antseed buyer withdraw 5
How Costs Are Calculated
Providers publish per-service pricing in USD per million tokens:
| Rate | Description |
|---|---|
inputUsdPerMillion | Cost per 1M input tokens |
cachedInputUsdPerMillion | Cost per 1M cached input tokens (lower) |
outputUsdPerMillion | Cost per 1M output tokens |
requestCost = (freshInput * inputRate + cachedInput * cachedRate + output * outputRate) / 1,000,000
USDC has 6 decimal places. All on-chain amounts are in atomic units (1 USDC = 1,000,000).
Session Budget
Each session starts with a ReserveAuth that locks a budget from your deposit. As you send requests, the budget is consumed. When exhausted, the session settles and a new one starts automatically. This is transparent — you just keep sending requests.
For Providers
Earning USDC
Providers earn USDC automatically on each settle() or close() call. Earnings are paid directly to your wallet address — no claim step needed.
Settlement happens:
- Periodically — the node settles after 10 minutes of idle time (configurable via
ANTSEED_SETTLEMENT_IDLE_MS) - On budget exhaustion — when a session's reserved amount is used up
- On disconnect — when a buyer disconnects
Base RPC Endpoint
Production providers should use a dedicated Base JSON-RPC endpoint so reserve, settle, close, register, and stake calls are not dependent on public RPC rate limits.
export ANTSEED_BASE_RPC_URL=https://base-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/<key>
antseed seller start
For a one-off run, use antseed seller start --base-rpc-url <url>. For durable config, set payments.crypto.rpcUrl in ~/.antseed/config.json.
Relaying Deposit Sweeps
Sellers relay buyer deposit sweeps by default: the node verifies and simulates each incoming sweep request, submits it on-chain, and earns the fixed relay fee (minus gas). Opt out with relayer.enabled: false in your config, or tune the profitability floor with relayer.minProfitBaseUnits.
Staking
Providers must stake a minimum of $10 USDC to participate:
antseed seller stake 10
Staking binds your wallet to an on-chain agent identity (ERC-8004). To withdraw your stake:
antseed seller unstake
ANTS Token Emissions
Providers and buyers earn ANTS tokens based on eligible USDC volume. Emissions are distributed per epoch (1 week):
- 50% to providers (proportional to USDC earned, capped at 50% of the seller bucket per seller per epoch)
- 20% to buyers (proportional to USDC spent, capped at 5% of the buyer bucket per buyer per epoch)
- 15% to protocol reserve, plus seller and buyer cap overages
- 15% to contributors/team
Check your pending emissions:
antseed seller emissions info
Contract Addresses (Base Mainnet)
| Contract | Address |
|---|---|
| USDC (Circle) | 0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913 |
| AntseedDeposits | 0x0F7a3a8f4Da01637d1202bb5443fcF7F88F99fD2 |
| AntseedChannels | 0xBA66d3b4fbCf472F6F11D6F9F96aaCE96516F09d |
| AntseedStaking | 0x3652E6B22919bd322A25723B94BB207602E5c8e6 |
| AntseedDepositRelay | 0x34a44542e76f9b4cff3a31902eDF14AbF2C3B3DD |
| AntseedEmissionsV2 | 0xF13bE52c4A3afC6AE29536f073588d01A0564088 |
| ANTSToken | 0xa87EE81b2C0Bc659307ca2D9ffdC38514DD85263 |
All contracts verified on BaseScan. For testnet (Base Sepolia), set payments.crypto.chainId to base-sepolia in your config.
Timeout Protection
If a provider disappears mid-session, the buyer's funds are not lost:
- The buyer (or their deposits operator) calls
requestClose()on AntseedChannels — callable anytime while the channel is active - After a 15-minute grace period (so the seller can still submit a final SpendingAuth), the buyer calls
withdraw()to release remaining locked funds back to their deposit
If the seller is still online, the buyer can instead request a cooperative close and skip the grace period. Desktop and CLI expose both paths.