Credits & fees

DataPrism uses DPC credits for applicable protocol and relayer charges. The amount depends on the operation and configured fee policy. Network fees are paid separately.

The credit token (DPC)

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

Platform fees: operations consume DPC when their configured protocol charge is non-zero.
Relayer fees: a relayer fronts the network fees and may charge a separately signed relayerFee in DPC.

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. The prism's balance must cover the applicable protocol charge and any separately signed relayerFee. If the total applicable DPC charge is zero, the operation does not require a positive DPC balance. This does not remove authorisation checks or network fees.

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 network fees, and through the delegated API path, where a relayer submits the transaction.

The fee model in practice

Fee	Unit	Paid by	When
Network fees	native currency	the submitting account or relayer	on-chain transactions
`relayerFee`	DPC	the prism balance, to the relayer	delegated Cloud operations, when non-zero
Protocol fee	DPC	the prism balance	operations with a non-zero configured charge

The default is 1 DPC for prism creation and each write, modify, or delete; funding and prism deletion default to zero. Cloud looks up that schedule against the prism owner, not the submitting account or relayer. A contracted account can therefore have an explicit zero override without changing its prism or execution mode.

On the API (delegated) path the relayer fronts the network fees. A non-zero signed relayerFee must still be covered even when the protocol fee is zero. On the SDK's account path, the account pays network fees and no relayerFee is applied. Both paths use the same Cloud prism and owner-scoped fee policy.

Client-submitted Cloud operations are distinct from the direct base-protocol path. A direct prism holds its own DPC escrow and must cover its applicable protocol charges; a zero charge does not require a positive balance there either. Zero DPC charges do not imply free relaying or zero network costs. See Writing & execution for the SDK execution modes.