🤝How It Works

Architecture

Smart Contract (Base L2)
       |
Backend API (Express + PostgreSQL)
       |
       +-- Frontend (Next.js on Vercel)
       +-- Discord Bot
       +-- Telegram Bot
       +-- SDK (npm package)

Payment Flow

Subscriber pays $10 USDC
  |
  +-> 95% ($9.50) --> Creator's wallet
  +-> 5%  ($0.50) --> Platform wallet

1. Creator registers on-chain with a monthly USDC price

2. Subscriber calls subscribe(creator, months) on the contract

3. USDC is split automatically: 95% to creator, 5% platform fee

4. Subscription expiration timestamp is stored on-chain

5. Backend indexer picks up the event within 30 seconds

6. Access is granted through Discord, Telegram, SDK, or API

The smart contract is the source of truth. The backend indexes events for fast queries, but on-chain data always wins.

Access Control Methods

Method	How It Works	Best For
Discord	Bot assigns/removes roles based on sub status	Community servers
Telegram	Bot manages private group access	Private alpha groups
SDK	checkAccess() reads the contract directly	Custom apps/sites
API	GET /api/gate/check with your API key	Backend integrations
Widget	Embeddable subscribe form for any website	Landing pages/blogs

Subscription Lifecycle

subscribe() --> ACTIVE --> time passes --> EXPIRED
                                            |
                                 renew() --> ACTIVE again

subscribe() only works for new subscriptions. If already active, use renew() to extend. This prevents accidentally overwriting remaining time.

• subscribe() — creates a new subscription (reverts if already active)

• renew() — extends an existing or expired subscription

• Maximum 12 months per transaction

• Manual renewal only (no auto-charge, no recurring payments)

Event Indexer

The backend runs a background indexer that:

1. Polls the blockchain every 30 seconds

2. Fetches all contract events in a single RPC call per chunk

3. Writes events to PostgreSQL (append-only subscription_events table)

4. Updates materialized projections (subscriptions_current, creator_metrics)

5. Uses a cursor (indexer_state) to track progress

6. Has exponential backoff on rate limits (429 errors)

7. Prevents overlapping syncs with an in-memory lock

The frontend can trigger an immediate sync after a transaction via POST /api/index/sync.