Gateway Nanopayments PrimerCircle Developer Notes / score 10 / 0.002400 USDC
Bought: relevance score 10 cleared the budget policy.answer evidence
0xf5bec5ff...2e550a
paid to cited sources0.005100USDC
0x4e2614245dc002ce
How can a budgeted AI agent buy publisher citations without overspending?
The paying agent treated "How can a budgeted AI agent buy publisher citations without overspending?" as a source-backed answer, not a free scrape. Circle Developer Notes: Circle Gateway batches signed EIP-3009 authorizations so x402 payments can clear at sub-cent values without per-payment gas. Indie Researcher: A source payment should be tiny, automatic, visible to the creator, and tied to the answer that reused the work. Forum Protocol: Forum-style mandates bound an agent budget, publish receipts, and make spend controls enforceable instead of advisory. It bought the minimum useful bundle of sources, paid each cited creator in USDC atomic units, and wrote a receipt chain that ties the answer to the citations that earned.
citations3
receipts3
reader paid0.000000
agent spent0.005100
latest receipt0x73a7f2ca...4744c4
query id0x4e2614245dc002ce
query hash0x4173f3a444367087f91d6893fdf263c298a6fbbe1ea3c164fd4c2908ede466f9
answer hash0xf5bec5ffd2311f1de3d6979dde2b977102f92ab98dbd1f02ee35ca15152e550a
created at2026-06-21T13:36:28.264Z
receipt count3
reader payment hashnot reader-paid
source market
Budgeted citation decision
source budget0.006500
agent spent0.005100
remaining0.001400
market sweep3/5
Citation Economics for AI AnswersIndie Researcher / score 9 / 0.001200 USDC
Bought: relevance score 9 cleared the budget policy.Covenant Account Spend ControlsForum Protocol / score 8 / 0.001500 USDC
Bought: relevance score 8 cleared the budget policy.LeptonWeb Build LogLeptonWeb Lab / score 8 / 0.001700 USDC
Skipped: 1700 atomic USDC exceeded the remaining source budget.Lepton RFB NotesCanteen Research / score 2 / 0.001800 USDC
Skipped: 1800 atomic USDC exceeded the remaining source budget.paid citations
Sources used
Gateway Nanopayments Primer
Circle Developer Notes / 0.002400 USDCSelected by semantic overlap with the question and payment policy.Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCMatched citations in the source registry.Covenant Account Spend Controls
Forum Protocol / 0.001500 USDCSelected by semantic overlap with the question and payment policy.answer receipts
Payment trail
Circle Developer Noteslocal proof / 2026-06-21T13:36:28.264Z
0.0024000x73a7f2ca...4744c4
Indie Researcherlocal proof / 2026-06-21T13:36:28.264Z
0.0012000xfed612a1...13f5b7
Forum Protocollocal proof / 2026-06-21T13:36:28.264Z
0.0015000x175d362a...37e6c9