Answers before you integrate

smidgen.io is a micropayment paywall for websites. You mark premium content, visitors pay a few cents in USDC on Base or Solana, and the money goes straight to your wallet. Humans pay in the browser; bots and AI agents get an HTTP 402 payment challenge on the same URL.

Publishers, bloggers, researchers, and API owners who want to charge for articles, notes, or endpoints without a subscription. If scrapers or agents hit your pages unpaid, smidgen can return HTTP 402 on your domain when you install an adapter (WordPress, Next.js, nginx, and more).

Install a free wallet, then paste its address into your smidgen project payout settings. For Base (Ethereum-compatible): MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet — create an account, switch the network to Base, and copy your 0x… address. For Solana: Phantom — create a wallet and copy your address. You do not need to “deposit” into smidgen; we never hold your funds. Keep a little ETH (Base) or SOL for network fees if you move USDC later; receiving USDC usually only needs the wallet address.

Yes for paid unlocks today — they connect MetaMask (Base) or Phantom (Solana) in the paywall and approve a small USDC payment. Many readers already have one; others can install MetaMask or Phantom in a minute and buy USDC with a card inside those apps. The demo pages on smidgen.io show the exact checkout flow.

USDC is a US dollar–backed stablecoin. One USDC is meant to equal one US dollar. Readers pay in USDC; you receive USDC in your wallet. You can hold it or cash out later through an exchange or on-ramp that supports Base or Solana.

HTTP 402 Payment Required is a standard status code for “pay to continue.” smidgen uses the open x402 protocol so bots and agents can read the price, pay in USDC, and retry the same URL. Humans usually see a blur or hard-locked teaser and a wallet checkout instead of raw JSON.

Easy blur puts the premium HTML in the page and hides it with CSS until payment — fastest setup, but unpaid View Source can still show the text. Hard lock means your server only sends a teaser until an unlock validates; the secret body never ships unpaid. Hard lock needs WordPress, Next.js, PHP, or another dynamic origin — static HTML alone cannot hard-lock. Both modes can still return HTTP 402 to bots when an adapter is installed on your domain.

No. smidgen is non-custodial. Settlements go to the payout wallet you configure. On the Free plan a small platform fee may apply on-chain; paid plans are designed for 0% platform fee when subscriptions launch.

1) Open smidgen.io and start for free (email magic link or wallet login). 2) Create a project and add your site URL. 3) Paste a Base or Solana payout wallet. 4) Add the script tag (or WordPress / Next adapter) and mark content with data-x402-paywall. 5) Curl your page without browser headers — you should see HTTP 402 when an adapter is installed. Try the live demos first if you want to see the flow before integrating.

Yes. Visit /demos, curl a live URL to see HTTP 402, then open the same link in a browser and pay a few cents in USDC. That is the same path your readers and agents will use on your site.

Browser snippet for any HTML site; official paths for WordPress, Next.js, PHP, and reverse proxies (nginx, Caddy, Apache). Cloudflare Workers are optional. See /integrations for copy-paste setup.

You can start free. Free includes a project, paywall rules, and direct USDC payouts (one chain at a time). A small platform fee may apply on Free. Pro and Business (multi-chain, 0% platform fee) are listed on /pricing and coming soon for self-serve upgrade.

Email website@smidgen.io. Include your site URL and stack (WordPress, Next.js, static HTML, etc.) if you need integration help. You can also open /contact on the website.