I stopped detecting bots and started charging them: HTTP 402 + USDC for agent traffic

Описание и применение

Автоматизированный трафик теперь оплачивается фиксированной USDC‑суммой за запрос, превращая ранее бесплатный трафик в измеряемый доход без ненадежной детекции ботов.

Задача

Crawler or agent requests consume bandwidth and ad revenue without generating income because they never trigger ad rendering or affiliate clicks.

Результат

Automated traffic now pays a fixed USDC fee per request, converting previously free bot traffic into measurable revenue while avoiding unreliable bot detection.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. Client requests protected resource endpoint. 2. Server responds with HTTP 402 and a JSON offer containing price, network, amount, asset, payTo, description. 3. Client reads offer, signs a payment authorization for the exact request. 4. Client sends signed payload in payment-signature header and retries request. 5. Server verifies on-chain receipt (transaction success, correct payer, recipient, amount, nonce). 6. Upon successful settlement, server returns the requested content. 7. If payment fails or expires, server returns specific error or conflict with recovery route.

Доказательства

When a page is fetched by a crawler or an agent that reads the markup and leaves, three things happen at once: the request costs bandwidth and origin work, the ad slot is never rendered for a person, and the affiliate link is never clicked through to a purchase.

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The server verifies the authorisation, the payment settles, and only then is the payload released.

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The price belongs to the resource, not to the visitor.

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An authorisation is not a settlement.

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