README.me

⚡ Live L402 Developer Sandbox

Want to test an active machine-to-machine payment routine? Point your automated bot or scraper loop straight at our live traffic data feed:
https://argentic.network/api/v1/traffic-metrics

Use our loopable client code to automatically catch the 402, settle the invoice via your local node, and pull down the raw network analytics payload on pure autopilot.

Argentic.network

Argentic is a cryptographic "toll‑booth" for machine-to-machine data: a lightweight gateway that combines Bitcoin Lightning micro-payments (via the Phoenix Wallet API) with standardized L402 session handling and short-lived session tokens to authenticate sessions and unlock data at wire speed.

Getting Started

1. Check out the repository and documentation.
2. Run the provided Uvicorn gateway examples.
3. Configure and connect the Phoenix Wallet API (or compatible Lightning client) for invoice creation and settlement callbacks.
4. Configure the gate’s token signing keys and L402 settings so the gate issues signed 1-hour session tokens after invoice settlement.
5. Deploy the gate and observe local token validation and off-chain settlement.

6. Quick Integration Example

import requests
import json

# Step 1: Request an invoice
response = requests.get(
    "https://argentic.network/?url=https://example.com",
)

# Step 2: Handle 402 Payment Required
if response.status_code == 402:
    data = response.json()
    invoice = data["invoice"]
    payment_hash = data["payment_hash"]
    
    # Pay invoice with your Lightning wallet
    # (implementation depends on your wallet)
    
    # Step 3: Poll for session token
    token_response = requests.get(
        "https://argentic.network/",
        headers={"X-Payment-Hash": payment_hash}
    )
    
    token = token_response.json()["token"]

# Step 4: Use token for requests
result = requests.get(
    "https://argentic.network/?url=https://example.com",
    headers={"X-Lightning-Token": token}
)

print(result.json())
#Summary 
Argentic accepts Lightning Network invoices at the edge using the Phoenix Wallet API and issues short-lived session tokens (JWT-style) that grant 1-hour access. These tokens allow subsequent data packets to be verified locally via cryptographic signatures — eliminating slow, stateful database lookups and enabling throughput at the speed of the network. Argentic does not use Macaroons.

## Key Features
- Phoenix Wallet API for Lightning invoices: micro-payments settled off-chain via Lightning.  
- 1-hour session tokens: lightweight JWT-style tokens issued after payment for localized access control.  
- L402 protocol: standardized protocol for session lifecycle and authorization between gates and consumers.  
- Low-latency design: optimized for high-priority, low-weight traffic and minimal server state.  
- Permissionless deployment: any server can run the gateway middleware with no account or corporate permission.  
- Revenue model: tiny protocol fee charged per successful transaction at the gate.

## Technical Overview
- Payment flow: a client requests access → the gate creates a Lightning invoice via the Phoenix Wallet API → on payment settlement (poll/webhook), the gate issues a signed session token (JWT-style) valid for 1 hour.  
- Session tokens: compact JWT-like tokens (signed, optionally encrypted) carry authorization claims and expiry; the edge gate and downstream components validate tokens locally without DB lookups.  
- L402 protocol: Argentic follows the L402 standard for request/response formats, token issuance, and settlement signaling to ensure interoperability across implementations.  
- Settlement engine: Argentic Settlement Engine streams authorized requests to a Lightning layer for instant settlement and finalization.  
- Node/core integrations: integrate with the Phoenix Wallet API or a compatible Lightning client to manage invoice creation and settlement events.

## Competitive Strategy
- Centralized players (e.g., large wallet providers) build "broad" horizontal wallets that centralize user accounts and fees. They want to be the bank for everyone. 
- Argentic is a specialized "toll booth" that takes a "deep" approach: building a  permissionless gate that enable servers to monetize machine-to-machine data without surrendering user control. Argentic is enabling the server not owning it.

## Business Model
- Argentic sells results (anti-scraping + revenue capture) rather than boxed software. "Security guards" get replaced with "speed-of-wire" throughput.
- The revenue engine scales with machine-to-machine consumption by charging a tiny protocol fee on each successful transaction at the gate. It's just a cryptographic handshake. It's peer-to-peer burst of energy.  

## Operational Status
- Initial components (Python Uvicorn gateways, endpoint protection routers, and Phoenix Wallet API integrations) are implemented and verified in production logs.  
- The foundational economy for machine-to-machine micro-payments is running.


## Links
- Website / docs: https://argentic.network

## Tags
#Bitcoin #Lightning #PhoenixWallet #L402 #Web3 #MicroPayments #APIsecurity