An HTTP-native micropayment protocol for AI data access. Content providers set a price. AI agents pay per use privately. Humans browse for free.
The web is broken for AI. Publishers block crawlers and earn nothing. Crawlers scrape anyway and risk lawsuits.
We built the payment layer in between.
An MCP server gives any AI agent a wallet to pay for web content.
A few lines of middleware lets any content provider set a price.
Circle Nanopayments handle sub-cent, gas-free transactions. It is chain-agnostic across Arc and Base.
The result: Claude researches a topic across paid sites, pays fractions of a cent per page,
and the content provider withdraws real USDC on-chain.
But every payment is a data point. Without privacy, an agent's wallet becomes a
public activity trail, revealing what it researches, which services it uses,
and how much it's willing to pay. That's a competitive intelligence leak no company can afford.
NanoCrawl uses Unlink's ZK privacy pool to shield the agent's real identity:
a fresh disposable wallet per session, permanently destroyed when the work is done.
AI Agent
Claude Code, Codex, custom
MCP Server
wallet, budget, receipts, proactive payment
Unlink ZK
ephemeral burner · identity shielded
Circle Nanopayments
gas-free USDC, EIP-3009, batch settlement
Content Provider Middleware
detect agents (user-agent, robots.txt), 402, verify, serve
$0.001
per page, gas-free
0 gas
per payment — off-chain EIP-3009 signatures batched by Gateway. Sub-cent crawl economics only work at scale because there is no per-payment gas cost.
63%
faster with proactive flow — 1 HTTP request instead of 2
<0.5s
Arc Testnet block time — deposits and withdrawals confirm instantly
An agent's wallet is its fingerprint. Every page it visits, every service it calls, every cent it spends is visible on-chain. That's not just a privacy problem — it's a competitive intelligence leak. A company's AI agent reveals its research strategy, vendor choices, and budget to anyone watching.
NanoCrawl uses Unlink's ZK privacy pool to create a fresh disposable wallet for each agent session. The real identity is shielded by a zero-knowledge proof on Base Sepolia — never linked to the burner on-chain. When the session ends, the wallet key is permanently destroyed. No history. No trace. No fingerprint.
Real Identity
agent EOA
ZK Privacy Pool
Unlink · Base Sepolia
Burner Wallet
ephemeral EOA
Payment + Destroy
key gone forever
Real identity → ZK proof (shielded) → burner wallet → payments → key destroyed
Content providers publish pricing in robots.txt for proactive agents,
or return HTTP 402 with a
PAYMENT-REQUIRED header on first contact.
Either way the agent learns price, network, and recipient address.
MCP server signs an off-chain EIP-3009 authorization (zero gas).
Proactive flow: payment attached on the first request — no 402 round-trip.
Reactive flow: retries after the 402 with a
PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header.
Circle Gateway verifies the signature and locks funds. Content provider sees revenue on the dashboard in real time. Withdraw with one click — real USDC on-chain via Arc or cross-chain via CCTP.
Any AI agent connects via MCP. Calls browse(url) and gets content back.
Payment happens automatically — the agent never touches private keys or knows about x402.
browse(url) — pay and fetch
peek(url) — check price
get_balance() — check funds
set_budget(max) — spending cap
get_receipts() — payment log
unlink_status() — privacy mode on/off
close_session() — destroy burner key
Any Next.js site adds middleware + config. Humans see the site as usual. AI crawlers get a 402 with the price. Revenue appears on a live dashboard. Withdraw earnings with one click.
Traffic classification — human vs. crawler
x402 402 responses — machine-readable pricing
Circle Gateway settle — instant verification
SSE dashboard — real-time revenue
CCTP withdrawal — 6 chains supported