> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vana.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Payments & fees

> The escrow that funds and settles protocol fees, in VANA or whitelisted tokens.

The protocol provides a **fee primitive**: a per-account **escrow**. Builders fund a balance; the protocol charges fees against it and settles them to a fee recipient. Access is gated on the fee being paid, but the Personal Server never holds funds — payment and access stay cleanly separated.

The escrow holds the native asset **VANA** and any **whitelisted token**, so fees can be denominated in VANA or a stablecoin without changing the contract.

## How it works

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
    b["builder / sponsor"]:::neutral -->|deposit| esc["Escrow balance"]:::protocol
    esc -->|settle| fee["protocol fee recipient"]:::protocol
    esc -.->|grant marked paid| ps["Personal Server serves data"]:::sdk

    classDef protocol fill:#DCE4FF,stroke:#4141FC,color:#11104a;
    classDef sdk fill:#FFF3D1,stroke:#E6A700,color:#5c4400;
    classDef neutral fill:#EEF1F5,stroke:#9AA4B2,color:#1f2937;
```

1. **Fund** — a builder (or a sponsor on their behalf) deposits into the builder's escrow balance. Funding is permissionless: anyone can credit any account.
2. **Charge** — when a grant's fee comes due, the protocol's facilitator settles it from the balance to the fee recipient.
3. **Gate** — a Personal Server serves data for a grant only once its fee shows as **paid**. The server reads payment state; it never moves money.

## Fee model

| Concept              | Meaning                                                                                 |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Deposit**          | Credit an account's balance (native VANA or a whitelisted token)                        |
| **Settle**           | Move funds from a builder's balance to the protocol fee recipient for a specific charge |
| **Withdraw**         | Return unspent balance to the account holder                                            |
| **Registration fee** | A one-time fee when a grant is created                                                  |
| **Access fee**       | A per-use fee charged as data is accessed                                               |

Funding is open to anyone; **settlement and withdrawal are performed only by the protocol's facilitator**, so the escrow can collect the fees an account has explicitly funded but cannot redirect funds elsewhere.

In today's deployment the facilitator is the **RPC gateway** — the same operator that sequences and anchors all protocol transactions (see the [DP RPC](/protocol-reference/dp-rpc) note). Settle and withdraw are access-restricted to it because all transactions route through the gateway and a confirmation gap to L1 would otherwise let on-chain accounting drift. Its powers are deliberately bounded — it can only collect fees an account has explicitly funded, never redirect balances — and decentralizing it (with the move to a decentralized sequencer) is on the roadmap.

## Onchain events

```solidity theme={null}
event Deposited(address indexed from, address indexed account, address indexed asset, uint256 amount);
event Settled(address indexed from, address indexed to, address indexed asset, uint256 amount, bytes32 ref);
event Withdrawn(address indexed account, address indexed asset, uint256 amount, bytes32 ref);
```

In a `Settled` event, `to` is the protocol fee recipient and `ref` tags the charge (e.g. a payment or invoice id).

## Two rails

The fee escrow is the **token rail**, native to the protocol. Separately, a **USD rail** (card/invoice billing) is available for builders who prefer to pay in fiat. They are independent: direct protocol users pay the escrow; enterprise customers can pay in fiat.

<Info>**Two rails, evolving.** The token escrow and the Context Gateway's USD rail operate independently today; reconciling them — so fiat paid to the Gateway settles as protocol token fees — is on the roadmap.</Info>

<Info>**Status.** The escrow — deposits, balances, per-grant settlement in VANA/ERC-20, and the "paid"-gated read on the Personal Server — is live on the Moksha testnet. The broader token economics (staking, conversion, buyback) are a later phase, separate from this fee mechanism.</Info>