Credits & fees

Every write operation in DataPrism is paid for in DPC, the platform's credit token. This page explains what DPC is, how users acquire it, and how it funds a prism.

The credit token (DPC)

Credits are a token native to the platform, with 18 decimals. DPC pays for:

Platform fees: every write, modify, or delete of data consumes DPC.
Relayer fees: when the user does not pay network fees themselves, a relayer fronts the operation in exchange for a commission in DPC (the relayerFee).

Topping up

A user funds their DPC balance in one of two ways.

By card

Card payments are processed by Stripe. Once the payment is confirmed, the platform acquires the matching amount of DPC and transfers it to the user's account, at the rate corresponding to the amount paid.

By crypto (USDC)

The user can also fund their balance directly in USDC, approving the amount and buying through the platform exchange, or in a single atomic batch on accounts that support it. The rate is 1 USDC for 1,000 DPC, the same rate as card payments (1 dollar buys 1,000 DPC).

Assigning credits to a prism

Once DPC is on the account, the user assigns it to a prism. A prism's DPC balance is what funds all of its operations (index writes, relayer fees). A prism with no credits cannot write anything.

account (DPC)  ──fund──►  prism balance  ──consumed by──►  writes + relayer fees

Single-operation funding

Funding does not require a separate approval step. The SDK has the user sign a token permit, a free, offline signature, and the platform applies the permit and the funding in a single operation. This works on both execution paths: with an account that pays its own fees, and through the delegated (fee-free) API path.

The fee model in practice

Fee	Unit	Paid by	When
Network fees	native currency	the user's account	direct execution path
`relayerFee`	DPC	the prism balance, to the relayer	API execution path
Platform fee	DPC	the prism balance	every write / modify / delete

In practice the platform fee is 100 DPC (0.1 USDC) per data operation (write, modify, or delete) and 1,000 DPC (1 USDC) to create a prism. Funding, transferring, and deleting a prism are free.

On the API (delegated) path the user pays no network fees; instead they set a relayerFee in DPC when signing, which compensates the relayer for fronting them. On the direct path the account pays network fees itself and relayerFee is ignored. See Writing & execution for how this is exposed in code.