Payment Rails & Tokenomics

This is the technical deep-dive on how AxonOS turns on-chain payments into compute credit. If you just want to know what it costs as a user, see Pricing & AXGT instead.

AxonOS access is metered in prepaid credit minutes. The model is ETH-first with an AXGT discount:

Pay with ETH. Save with AXGT.

The model

• ETH is the primary payment currency for compute credits.
• AXGT is not a mandatory payment token. Instead, holders receive a usage discount on the ETH price, scaled by their on-chain AXGT balance.
• Wallet ownership is always proven by an EIP-191 signed challenge before any payment or session.

Three additional rails feed the same prepaid-minutes ledger:

Discount tiers

Discounts scale with the wallet's floored AXGT balance (so 99.999 AXGT is Tier 0):

Tiers are operator-configurable in three formats (in order of precedence):

1. AXGT_DISCOUNT_TIERS_JSON — a full JSON array of tier objects.
2. AXGT_DISCOUNT_TIERS_FILE — a path to a JSON file of the same shape.
3. AXGT_DISCOUNT_TIERS — compact form, e.g. 0:0,100:5,1000:10,10000:15,100000:25.

[
  { "min_axgt": 0,    "discount_percent": 0,  "label": "Tier 0" },
  { "min_axgt": 100,  "discount_percent": 5,  "label": "Tier 1" },
  { "min_axgt": 1000, "discount_percent": 10, "label": "Tier 2" }
]

If all overrides are unset or malformed, the defaults above apply.

How a deposit becomes credit

1. Verify the tx on-chain — confirmations, sender = authenticated wallet, recipient = revenue wallet, value.
2. For supported ETH/USDC pricing flows, re-fetch the sender's AXGT balance via balanceOf.
3. Resolve and apply the eligible holder tier. For direct AXGT, apply only the configured flat payment bonus.
4. Derive credit from the server-side rate; never accept a client-supplied price or amount.
5. Credit minutes to the server-side ledger.

Direct AXGT payments are disabled in the open-source default configuration. The hosted AxonOS service currently enables this rail. When enabled, AXGT deposits are valued using the current protected server-side quote and receive the operator-configured flat payment bonus. The hosted service currently configures +25% through AXGT_USD_BONUS_PERCENT; this is not universal or permanent. With dynamic pricing unavailable or disabled, operators can configure a fixed-rate fallback.

Dynamic AXGT pricing

The preferred quote is a configurable 30-minute Uniswap v3 AXGT/WETH TWAP multiplied by Chainlink ETH/USD. Chainlink data older than its allowed staleness window is rejected. If Uniswap lacks enough TWAP observation history, AxonOS reads the same slot0 spot price used by the AxonDAO dashboard, but accepts it only when CoinGecko agrees within the configured deviation threshold. A large TWAP move from the last trusted price also requires CoinGecko confirmation.

If confirmation is unavailable or disagrees, the last trusted cached AXGT price is retained. CoinGecko remains the fallback when no usable on-chain quote exists. Cached prices older than PRICE_MAX_STALE_SECONDS are refused and the configured fixed-rate path applies. Exact rates and promotions are operator-managed.

AXGT token

See Configuration for the variables that drive these rails, and User Flow for how credits gate live sessions.