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Wallet & Billing

All RickyData authentication and payments are wallet-based. Your wallet address is your identity — it scopes your secrets, sessions, budgets, and transaction history.

First 100 requests a day are on us. Tool calls count as 0.25 each, so you can burn through 400 tool calls before the free tier runs out. No credit card required — just sign in with a wallet.

Payment flow at a glance​

x402 Settlement · per-call
~600ms end-to-end
Step 1
Client → Server
Tool call, no payment
→
Step 2
402 Payment Required
Server quotes $0.003
→
Step 3
Sign transfer
Wallet signs USDC perm.
→
Step 4
Gateway settles
On Base L2 · 400ms
→
Step 5
Tool result
Signed receipt attached

Authentication via Privy​

Sign in through any of these methods:

MethodHow
EmailMagic link via Privy
OAuthGoogle, GitHub, Discord
Web3 walletMetaMask, WalletConnect, or any EIP-1193 wallet

All methods produce a wallet address that becomes your RickyData identity. Behind the scenes, Privy creates or links to a wallet.

Wallet tokens​

After authentication, you receive a mcpwt_ wallet token:

  • Self-verifying — the gateway recovers your wallet address via ecrecover
  • Zero server storage — no session state stored on the gateway
  • Long-lived — valid up to 30 days (configurable up to years)
  • Survives restarts — unlike session JWTs
# Create a wallet token
rickydata auth login
# Token is stored at ~/.rickydata/credentials.json (mode 0600)

Payment model​

All payments use USDC on Base mainnet (chain ID 8453).

ActionCost
MCP tool call (managed wallet flow)$0.0005 USDC
MCP tool call (self-custody x402 signing)$0.0005 USDC
Agent chat (BYOK)10% markup on LLM cost + $0.0005 per tool call
Browsing, searching, tools/listFree
Free tier100 requests/day (tool calls count as 0.25 each)
Connect wallet to see your daily usage

Unified wallet ledger​

The Agent Gateway maintains a unified ledger per wallet:

  • One deposit address per wallet
  • On-chain balance cache + off-chain spend accounting
  • Pending withdrawal tracking
  • Per-agent budget limits (daily, weekly, monthly)
  • Full transaction history for audit

Check your balance​

rickydata wallet balance
# API
curl -s https://agents.rickydata.org/wallet/balance \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mcpwt_..." | jq .

x402 payment protocol​

For MCP tool calls, the gateway uses the x402 protocol:

  1. You call a tool endpoint
  2. Gateway returns HTTP 402 with payment requirements
  3. Your client signs an EIP-3009 TransferWithAuthorization for USDC
  4. Client retries with the X-Payment header
  5. Gateway verifies, executes the tool
  6. On success only: USDC transfer settles on-chain
  7. Response includes txHash for verification

Failed tool calls are never charged.

Next steps​