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An AI agent can verify that a citation payment was made and recorded on-chain through several integrated mechanisms: 1. **Direct On-Chain Audit**: Use CitePay's on-chain audit page, which reads directly from Arc Testnet RPC with no database or trust required. It displays DCW wallet balance, transaction count, and USDC paid to creators in real time. 2. **Receipt Hashes and Evidence**: Every PAY decision generates an on-chain receipt with SHA-256 evidence hash and content integrity proof via Circle Gateway settlement. These receipts are cryptographically tied to the specific citation and answer. 3. **Circle Gateway x402 Settlement**: Payments clear through Circle Gateway's batched EIP-3009 authorizations, enabling sub-cent USDC transfers without per-payment gas costs. The settlement is atomic and verifiable on Arc. 4. **Arc's Sub-Second Finality**: Arc provides stablecoin-native settlement with USDC gas and sub-second finality, ensuring payments are confirmed and immutable almost immediately. 5. **Spend Control & Receipt Publishing**: Forum-style mandates bound agent budgets, publish receipts, and make spend controls enforceable. Agents can access receipt data through MCP server tools (cite_query, get_receipt, check_policy) to verify payment status programmatically. 6. **Shareable Receipt Trails**: Research sessions accumulate running totals with full receipt trails showing exactly what was paid, to whom, and why—enabling transparent verification of all citation payments.