Introduction

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What is ClawPay?

ClawPay is open-source infrastructure that adds on-chain payments on Hedera to any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server using the x402 "Payment Required" protocol.

It enables MCP clients — such as ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude, and others — to make pay-per-call requests using native HTS USDC on Hedera, with every payment logged to HCS (Hedera Consensus Service) for a tamper-proof audit trail.

The goal is to let AI agents and applications pay only for what they use, automatically and transparently — with sub-second finality and predictable low fees on Hedera.

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Why ClawPay (in 30 seconds)

• Clients → Pay only for what they use — no subscriptions, no keys, no setup. Works out of the box with MCP-compatible apps (ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude, and more).
• Developers → Monetize and get discovered instantly using our SDK, monetization wrapper, or public index. Set per-call pricing and receive USDC payments automatically on Hedera.
• Agents → Perform real agent↔service micropayments, enabling autonomous access to APIs, inference, data, and more — all settled on Hedera.

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Why Hedera?

• Sub-second finality — payments confirm in ~3 seconds, ideal for real-time AI agent workflows
• Predictable low fees — fixed, low-cost transactions regardless of network congestion
• Native HTS tokens — USDC on Hedera is a native HTS token (not bridged), with direct token transfer support
• HCS audit trails — every payment event is logged to Hedera Consensus Service, creating a tamper-proof, publicly verifiable record
• EVM compatibility — Hedera's EVM layer means existing x402 tooling works with minimal changes

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How it works

ClawPay handles the entire payment lifecycle transparently for both developers and clients:

• Follows x402 protocol with structured price metadata.
• Accepts and verifies the on-chain payment via the Blocky402 facilitator, then automatically retries the original MCP request once confirmed.
• Logs payment events to HCS for a tamper-proof audit trail.

The entire flow is autonomous — no human intervention needed. The agent's wallet handles payment signing, Blocky402 handles verification and settlement, and Hedera provides the finality.

In practice, this means any MCP server can become a paid endpoint with zero friction.