Trust and legitimacy
Why should I trust this payment platform for my AI agent?4Mica is built for x402 agent payments: buyers sign collateral-backed guarantees, you verify and settle before serving paid work, and payable guarantees are netted in clearing cycles. How do buyers know my agent is legitimate?
Publish a consistent domain, your
payTo address, agent name, route list, and support policy. Marketplaces or registries can add verified profiles on top.
How do buyers verify that my agent is the real one and not a fake copy?They compare the API domain, protected route, your
payTo address, and profile metadata against your canonical listing.
Can my agent have a verified profile?Yes, if the marketplace, registry, or application provides profiles. Bind the profile to your domain and your payment address. Can I show my agent’s payment address publicly?
Yes. Showing your
payTo address helps buyers detect fake payment requirements.
Can buyers see my agent’s pricing before paying?Yes. Fixed prices appear in payment requirements. Dynamic work should use a quote-before-pay flow. Can buyers see what they are paying for?
Yes, if your route or quote describes the task, price, expiration, and completion rule clearly. Can I prove that my agent delivered the requested result?
Yes, by logging request IDs, guarantee IDs, payment results, payload hashes, response hashes, timestamps, and agent versions. Can I build reputation or ratings around my agent?
Yes. Use payment records plus delivery outcomes such as success rate, latency, refunds, disputes, and repeat buyers. What happens if another agent impersonates my agent?
You should reject mismatched domains or seller addresses. You should publish canonical identity information and report fake listings to the marketplace or registry. For profile, address, or impersonation questions, use the dashboard first, then contact support if anything does not match.
Pricing and monetization
Can I charge per request?Yes. Protect a route with a fixed price. Can I charge per API call?
Yes. Price each endpoint according to value and cost. Can I charge per task completed?
Yes. Quote the task, require payment or a guarantee, then execute and record delivery. Can I charge based on usage, like tokens, compute, data, or time?
Yes. Meter usage in your app and use prepayment, caps, staged payments, or quote updates. Can I offer subscriptions?
Yes, but subscriptions are usually enforced by your application. 4Mica is most useful for usage, overages, and agent-initiated paid calls. Can I offer free trials or free credits?
Yes. Keep them capped by wallet, identity, account, IP, or API key to prevent abuse. Can I create different pricing tiers?
Yes. Use different routes, metadata, policies, or application checks. Can I change pricing dynamically based on demand or cost?
Yes, as long as the buyer sees the quoted price before signing. Can I charge different prices for humans and agents?
Yes, if your application can distinguish the context and publishes the terms clearly. Can I set minimum payment amounts?
Yes. Set minimums that cover your costs and support burden. Use 4mica dashboard to review the seller pricing state buyers will see.
Microtransactions
Does the platform support very small payments?Yes. 4Mica separates fast authorization from later settlement so small payments can be practical. Can I charge fractions of a cent?
Yes, if that price makes sense for your product economics. Are fees low enough for microtransactions to make sense?
The model avoids settling every request on-chain. You should still measure your own compute, data, and support costs. Can multiple small payments be batched?
Yes. Clearing cycles and deferred settlement let many small obligations accumulate before settlement. How often are microtransactions settled?
Settlement depends on the guarantee state, clearing cycle, payment window, and active deployment configuration. What happens if the buyer does not have enough balance?
They cannot produce a valid collateral-backed guarantee, and your server should not serve paid work. Can I require prepayment before my agent starts working?
Yes. Require a valid guarantee, prepayment, or staged payment before expensive execution. Can I lock payment until the task is completed?
You can design completion and release rules in your application. 4Mica provides guarantees, clearing, settlement, and default coverage. Can I refund tiny payments easily?
Use automated credit or refund rules for failures on your side, duplicates, or timeouts. Tiny manual refunds can cost more than they are worth. Can I avoid losing money on gas fees or network fees?
Use 4Mica credit, clearing cycles, and deferred settlement instead of sending an on-chain transaction for every small call.
Agent-to-agent payments
Can other AI agents pay my agent directly?Yes. Any compatible x402 buyer agent can pay your protected route. Can my agent receive payments without human approval every time?
Yes. Your server can accept valid guarantees automatically. The buyer decides how much authority its agent has. Can my agent call another paid agent and resell the result?
Yes. Track downstream cost, permissions, and delivery evidence in your workflow. Can my agent split revenue with other agents?
Yes at the application layer. Track each participant and pay each obligation through the appropriate paid route or settlement process. Can I define who is allowed to buy from my agent?
Yes. Use allowlists, blocklists, identity checks, route policy, and rate limits. Can I block suspicious agents or buyers?
Yes. Block by wallet, identity, account, domain, API key, IP, or behavior depending on your integration. Can my agent reject requests that are too expensive to fulfill?
Yes. Reject or requote when estimated cost exceeds the authorized payment. Can my agent negotiate price before accepting a task?
Yes. Add a quote endpoint or negotiation step before returning final payment requirements. Can my agent expose payment requirements through an API?
Yes. HTTP 402 is the machine-readable API flow for payment requirements. Can my agent receive payment from multiple agents in the same workflow?
Yes. Treat each paid request as its own obligation with its own payer, seller, amount, and delivery record.
Risk, control, and abuse prevention
How do I prevent spam requests to my agent?Keep unpaid requests cheap, return 402 before expensive work, and rate limit unpaid traffic. How do I prevent buyers from abusing free trials?
Cap trials by wallet, account, IP, identity, or API key and monitor repeated new identities. What happens if a buyer claims my agent failed?
Use payment logs, delivery logs, and your published completion rule to decide refund, retry, credit, or denial. How are disputes handled for AI-generated work?
4Mica provides payment evidence. Your product policy handles subjective quality, technical failure, refunds, and support. Can I define refund rules?
Yes. Define them before launch and make them visible. Can I limit how much one buyer or agent can spend?
Yes. Enforce per-buyer caps, concurrency limits, route limits, and downstream spend limits in your application. Can I pause payments if something looks suspicious?
Yes. Reject invalid guarantees, block buyers, disable routes, or pause paid execution according to your incident process. Can I require collateral or deposits from buyers?
Yes. 4Mica guarantees are backed by payer collateral, and your application can require stronger prepayment for expensive tasks. Can I see logs for paid requests?
Yes, if you log them. Store request IDs, guarantee IDs, payer, route, amount, settlement result, and delivery marker. Can I prove which request was paid for and what response was delivered?
Yes. Link the payment record to request and response hashes or stored artifacts.