# Dual token payment model: own token for nodes, SOL/USDC for clients

Clients pay in SOL or USDC — familiar, easy to buy, no new token required. Node operators stake and earn our native Solana L2 token, which creates speculative upside for early contributors and a staking mechanism for fraud prevention (slashing). The two are decoupled: client payments are auto-converted to partially fund token rewards; clients never need to hold or know about our token.

For the prototype contract boundary, settlement keeps three explicit ledgers: caller SOL/USDC balances by API key, node Token stake balances by wallet, and node Token reward balances by wallet. Every new caller receives configurable starting credit. Epoch settlement debits caller SOL/USDC balances for consumed compute and credits node Token rewards from taxes. Tax distribution is weighted by completed work and historical node speed so faster, larger nodes are economically incentivized. No AMM or real conversion is modeled yet.

Using SOL alone would give node operators no early-adopter upside ("why run my GPU for market-rate SOL?"), killing the viral growth mechanic. Launching a token-only system requires clients to acquire our token, adding friction that kills adoption. The dual model solves both.

## Considered Options

- **SOL only**: simplest, no token launch risk, but no node incentive beyond spot market rates
- **Own token only**: maximum node incentive, but clients must acquire it — high friction
- **Own token (stake/rewards) + SOL/USDC (client pay)**: clean separation of concerns, chosen