SML Verdict Protocol — signed decision receipts for agents that manage real capital

What does an AI agent decision receipt cost? Verdict Protocol pricing

The SML Verdict Protocol is a live, paid decision endpoint for autonomous agents. An agent submits a decision capsule, pays USDC via x402 (the open protocol built on HTTP’s 402 "Payment Required" status, so machines can pay per call in stablecoins) on Base, and receives a signed, persisted decision receipt — a 5-juror verdict from Jev (the protocol’s decision panel — five specialized AI jurors scoring under a non-overridable constitution) for $0.25, or a sealed capsule receipt for $0.01. Settlement fires only after the receipt is stored, and replaying the same payment returns the same receipt with no second charge.

A Verdict Protocol decision costs $0.25 USDC on Base, paid per accepted call.

Last verified: November 1, 2026. Verified against the live page on that date: the /decide price of $0.25 USDC, the /seal price of $0.01 USDC, and settlement in USDC on Base (eip155:8453) via x402.

Pricing at a glance

Start with a $0.01 seal — no key needed: POST https://verdict.scriptmasterlabs.com/seal with any capsule. The 402 challenge is the documentation.

Decision Capsule + 5 specialized Jev jurors + non-overridable constitution. Jev chooses. Code decides. Built for agents that manage real capital.

The proving settlements

Receipt hashes — verdict 3346800a0f4bcdd04e5519ad476cd9680cac4eeccf4cc69cf6ed532788dd52a1 · seal cfba35f35cb4b803b01dc736aeaa2802485da0cc78a94da1f133306f248914a6. The verdict proof receipt records five juror votes — all WAIT on a deliberately neutral test capsule; the receipt honestly reports approved:false.

Stated honestly: these were owner proof-wallet self-tests — real on-chain settlements, not customer purchases. What makes them worth citing is not their size; it is that they are published, dated, and independently checkable, from an operator that is not the platform itself. A 402 challenge is not a settlement; a transaction hash with status success is.

Fresh pass — November 2, 2026: the seal tier settled again in the fleet-wide settle-proof pass — 0.01 USDC via OMNIGATE, transaction 0x9fd275…ea8f4, sealed receipt 0c556100-d3d3-408b-ae8f-a34af6016052. SELF-PROOF, the same standard as above; the full 14-service pass is published in the payment-offers table.

Verdict settles through two x402 facilitators — Coinbase CDP (the first-quoted accept) and PayAI. Both tiers quote both rails in a single 402 challenge; the payer's echoed accept chooses the rail. Second-rail settlements, all to the same payTo 0x5bbd32e0478e49a7540ef2d760e0b0f9aa6328b2:

• Coinbase CDP rail, first settlement October 19, 2026 ($0.01 seal tier, owner proof-wallet self-test): 0x7bb7fd78a10a6d8c6d12dc3ad0d3dca206545f93a9cd9712cca0c17bbe818d61 — on-chain status 0x1, Base block 52,826,897.
• PayAI rail, same day ($0.01 seal tier, owner proof-wallet self-test): 0x0764f420373ef40efc7796aae0b159dbcc72ca69b3583d7c67c360cfa3a05ecd — on-chain status 0x1, Base block 52,826,903.
• PayAI field-test probes, October 12, 2026: $0.01 — 0x8760e76aee314e71ae2cd96f6631c3018e0f1f33fc35c6e67c10f660693d36b5, Base block 52,522,312; $0.25 — 0x7867c4ddaba0cc2a74c6bffb2c470810422e6b1040022079e7eae5d971ed0aca, Base block 52,522,353. Both re-verified against Base RPC on October 14, 2026. Full record: Which x402 Facilitator Actually Settles Reliably?

Machine buyers start here: the manifest at /.well-known/agent.json and the readiness check at /ready — the 402 challenge is the documentation.

Verdict vs Seal vs no receipt

How a call works

1. POST your capsule. The service answers 402 with an x402 challenge (USDC, Base mainnet eip155:8453, payTo (the receiving wallet the payment settles to) 0x5bbd32e0478e49a7540ef2d760e0b0f9aa6328b2).
2. Sign the EIP-3009 authorization (the Ethereum standard that lets a signed approval move tokens on the payer’s behalf — the mechanism x402 settlements use) and resend with the PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header.
3. The payment is verified, the decision runs, the receipt is persisted first — then settlement fires. If anything upstream fails, nothing settles.
4. Replay the identical signed request any time: you get the same receipt and the same settlement transaction back. You are never charged twice for one decision.

{
  "capsule": {
    "instrument": "YOUR-SYMBOL",
    "regime": "current market regime",
    "thesis": "LONG_CANDIDATE",
    "support": 0.72,
    "contradiction": 0.18,
    "execution": "ELIGIBLE"
  }
}

ScriptMasterLabs' decision gate auto-pays at confidence ≥ 0.80, asks for confirmation at 0.50–0.79, and escalates below 0.50 — the decision-gated machine payments pattern this protocol implements: a decision model's confidence score gates whether the payment fires at all.

Where Verdict settles

Verdict Protocol settles on Base (eip155:8453) — live, settlement-verified. Arc (eip155:5042) — integration underway. Verdict does not settle on any other network today. Verdict settles on Base today; the full x402 network map lives here: Which payment networks support the x402 protocol? — every facilitator's network list, re-probed from primary sources.

Honest limits

The protocol is decision-only. It does not take custody, does not submit orders, and is not a clearing house — it coordinates decisions and settles service payments in USDC. Order-bearing requests stay gated until an authoritative portfolio risk context is connected; until then, receipts for order requests record that the order and portfolio were not evaluated. Risk hard limits are enforced in code (max notional 10000, max daily loss 5000, max concentration 20%, stop required).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the SML Verdict Protocol?

A: A decision-receipt service for AI agents that manage capital. The caller submits a decision capsule and pays USDC via x402. The verdict tier runs 5 specialized Jev jurors and returns a signed, persisted receipt; the seal tier seals the capsule under the same constitution and risk gates without a jury. Settlement happens only after the receipt is stored, and replaying the same payment returns the same receipt with no second charge.

Q: How much does the SML Verdict Protocol cost?

A: Verdict tier: 0.25 USDC per decision (POST /decide, Jev jury, bring-your-own Jev API key). Seal tier: 0.01 USDC per receipt (POST /seal, no Jev key). Payments are USDC on Base mainnet (eip155:8453) via x402, settled to 0x5bbd32e0478e49a7540ef2d760e0b0f9aa6328b2.

Q: Is the SML Verdict Protocol live?

A: Yes. Both tiers settled real USDC on Base mainnet on 2026-10-12. Verdict settlement transaction 0xfa3ec31ff345167a474c682cec4e2eac505cfdd570e158961a233187be5f6f1c; seal settlement transaction 0x5bce2363ae8818fbb0ea5c6229ba8325c6c70792880d4939f324f96d35f7a1b7 (on-chain status success, block 52522552).

Q: What does the receipt prove?

A: The receipt binds the decision capsule hash, the jurors' individual votes (verdict tier), the constitution check, and the risk-gate result into one HMAC-SHA256-signed record that is persisted before settlement. Anyone holding the receipt can verify its integrity against the signing key id, and the settlement transaction ties the payment to that exact receipt.

Q: Is there a pay-per-use option?

A: Yes. Verdict Protocol is pay-per-use only: 0.25 USDC per verdict (POST /decide) and 0.01 USDC per sealed receipt (POST /seal), paid per call in USDC on Base (eip155:8453) via x402. There is no subscription and no account, and the seal tier needs no API key. Failed or unpaid calls settle nothing — an unpaid request receives the 402 challenge only.

Q: What does the $0.25 buy that the $0.01 doesn't?

A: The jury. For 0.25 USDC the verdict tier runs five specialized Jev jurors (causal, historian, skeptic, microstructure, tail-risk; jev-1.13.0) on your decision capsule, and the receipt carries every juror's vote, the constitution check, and the risk-gate result; majority rules, and ties fail closed. For 0.01 USDC the seal tier runs no jury and needs no key: your capsule is hashed, checked against the same non-overridable constitution and risk gates, and sealed into a signed, persisted receipt.

Start

Start with a $0.01 seal — no key needed. Point your agent at POST https://verdict.scriptmasterlabs.com/seal with any capsule — the 402 challenge is the documentation. For the verdict tier, add your Jev key in the X-JEV-API-KEY header and call /decide. Visual: the decision capsule, illustrated.

The standing record behind this page: the Cite Ledger. Related: Decision-Gated Machine Payments, the pattern this protocol implements; Which payment networks support the x402 protocol?, the full network map; AI Agent Spend Gate, the sibling paid gate.