Value for Value in USDC on Base

A listener's app holds dollars (USDC) in a wallet that lives on the phone. When you boost or stream, the app reads the show's value block straight from the RSS feed, works out the split, and signs one payment with your message in it. That signed payment goes to Base, Coinbase's low-cost network built on Ethereum. A small public contract pays every recipient in the split in the same transaction and writes the message on the blockchain. The podcaster's Boost Box app is also just a wallet on a phone: it reads the boosts, streams and messages straight from the blockchain whenever it's opened. Nobody has to run a node, a server or anything that stays online to receive. If the podcaster's phone is off for a month, the boosts are waiting when it's turned back on. The only thing in between is the app developer's fee wallet, which pays the network fee for the listener and can't change the payment.

One signature, one transaction, everyone paid, or nobody.

How it's the same as Lightning V4V

• Same tag. The show adds a value block, just like Lightning, with a different type:

<podcast:value type="usdc" method="eip3009" suggested="0.00005">
  <podcast:valueRecipient name="The show"      type="address"
      address="eip155:8453:0x6DB7…e790" split="99"/>
  <podcast:valueRecipient name="Split partner" type="address"
      address="eip155:8453:0x91c4…D8e2" split="1"/>
</podcast:value>

• Same split rules. split and fee="true" mean what they mean for Lightning. The app's own fee is a normal split line.
• Same boosts and streams. A boost is an amount plus a message; a stream is so much a minute while listening.
• Same boostagram fields. The message carries what the Lightning TLV record carries: boost or stream, podcast guid, episode guid, time in the episode, minutes, sender name, message, app name.
• A drop-in for apps. An app that already does Lightning V4V keeps its value-block parser and split code. Where it now sends a keysend per recipient, it signs one USDC payment and hands it to its fee wallet. That's the whole change.
• A drop-in for podcasters. Add one line with a Base address to the value block. Boost Box gives you the address and the exact tag to paste. A Coinbase USDC address (network Base) also receives the money, but only an app like Boost Box shows the messages.

How it's different from Lightning

Autonomous on both ends

The app developer's fee wallet

This is the only thing in between, and it's optional for the podcaster.

• Why it exists: every transaction on Base costs a small network fee, paid in ETH, and listeners shouldn't have to own ETH.
• What it is: the app developer runs one small wallet with ETH on their own server. The phone sends it the signed payment; the fee wallet submits it to Base and pays the fee.
• It can't cheat. The contract checks every payment against the listener's signature: the recipients, the amounts, the total and the message. Change one cent or one letter and Base refuses the payment. We tested ten ways, including:
  • swapping in a thief's address;
  • moving money between recipients;
  • raising the total;
  • changing the message;
  • someone else redeeming the signature;
  • an expired signature.
• The app developer's split pays for it. The app adds itself as a fee recipient (Dial uses 2%). It shows in the split list before the listener presses Send, and in the transaction on the blockchain.
• If the fee wallet is down, a phone that holds some ETH can submit the payment itself. The podcaster needs no fee wallet at all to receive.

The fees

Measured on real payments on Base, with ETH at $1,926.

What a 2% app fee brings in, against the network fee

• About $2.60 of ETH in the fee wallet covers around 1,400 payments.
• Base fees can rise several times over when the network is busy; the 2% still covers boosts of $0.25 and up.

The split contract

Public, permanent and with no owner.

• V4VSplitter on Base: 0xc0fabfcbe0d79515e68d32357999d31ffb227b5c. Its source code is published and verified (exact match), so anyone can read it.
• No owner, no settings, nothing stored. It never keeps money. Nobody can change it, its builders included. Any app can use it.
• Every payment publishes a "Boost" record: the sender, the total, every recipient and amount, and the message. Any app, any Boost Box, or Podcast Index can read and count V4V activity in the open.

Proof it works