settlement
Settlement is the step where an authorised x402 payment is submitted to the blockchain and the transfer actually happens. A quote, a signature and a successful verification all precede it, and none of them is a settlement.
Under the exact scheme the transfer is an EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization: an authorization the payer signs off-chain, which somebody else submits. Settlement is that submission — the facilitator broadcasts the transaction and reports what the chain did with it.
The distinction decides what any count of activity on this rail is counting. A quote is an offer, a signature is an intent, and a settlement is a transfer that happened and can be looked up on-chain. Figures that merge them are adding different things under one word.
→ probe402 counts the settled payments other wallets make to it, week by week and whatever the number is, in the weekly verdict.
Sources
- The x402 specification repositoryx402 Foundation
- EIP-3009: Transfer With AuthorizationEthereum Improvement Proposals
Related verify and settle · EIP-3009 · EIP-712 · facilitator · scheme