OPEN Cloud Payments

Cloud Payments is the financial backbone of the OpenGPU Cloudverse — a smart contract-driven billing system that ensures transparent, decentralized, and usage-based payment for GPU compute.

Unlike traditional cloud providers that rely on opaque pricing models and centralized billing, Cloud Payments enables real-time, trustless settlement between GPU providers and consumers, while offering staking incentives, refunds, and cross-chain flexibility.

✨ Core Principles

Principle
Description

⛓️ On-chain Metering

Every compute job is measured and billed on-chain

⚖️ Pay-as-you-go

Users are charged per second of actual usage

🤝 Trustless Settlement

Smart contracts automate payment distribution and refunds

🪙 Multi-token Support

$OPEN is default, but stablecoins and fiat gateways are supported

🎁 Incentivized Staking

Stakers of $OPEN receive discounts + rev share

🔁 How Cloud Payments Works

1. Wallet Funding

Before launching jobs, users must fund their Cloud Wallet (a non-custodial smart contract wallet). This can be done via:

  • $OPEN token (native)

  • $USDC / $DAI (on supported chains)

  • Fiat payment (via Stripe, Transak) – Coming Soon

2. Job Cost Estimation

When a user submits a job:

  • The Cloud Payment Engine estimates GPU runtime cost (based on per-hour rates)

  • Required funds are temporarily locked in an escrow contract

Example Calculation:

  • Job estimated to run for 2.5 hours on an RTX 4090 (140 $OPEN/hr)

  • Estimated cost = 350 $OPEN + 5% buffer = 367.5 $OPEN

  • User confirms and signs the transaction

3. Smart Metering + Job Execution

During job execution:

  • Actual time usage is tracked in 1-second intervals

  • The job status is streamed back to the user (UI/CLI)

  • Resource metrics are logged to IPFS + a blockchain timestamp

4. Settlement + Refunds

After job completion:

  • The exact cost is calculated

  • GPU provider is paid in full from escrow

  • Any unused tokens are instantly refunded to the user

  • A job receipt is generated with hashes of:

    • Input code

    • Output files

    • Logs

    • Provider address

💰 Pricing Model

Cloud Payments uses a dynamic GPU pricing engine, governed by DAO voting + market indexing.

Sample Rate Table:

GPU Model
Base Rate (OPEN/hr)
Discount (stakers)
Use Cases

RTX 3090

90 OPEN/hr

-10% (≥25k)

CV, NLP

RTX 4090

140 OPEN/hr

-15% (≥50k)

LLM Inference

A100

250 OPEN/hr

-20% (≥100k)

Large training jobs

Rates are adjusted weekly based on network demand, supply, and token utility flows.

🌍 Token Support

Cloud Payments supports:

Token
Chain
Notes

$OPEN

Ethereum, Base

Default + incentivized

$USDC

Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum

Stable alternative

$DAI

Ethereum, Base

Optional for DAO-friendly users

Fiat (USD)

Off-chain

Via partner ramp – Coming Soon

The system uses real-time oracles to convert non-native tokens into equivalent OPEN job credits during payment.

🔐 Security & Refund Mechanism

Feature
Description

🔒 Escrow Lock

Funds are locked at submission time, released after job verification

🔁 Auto-Refunds

Unused GPU time refunded instantly

🧾 Verifiable Jobs

Hash-matching of input/output proves task validity

⚠️ Slashing

Misbehaving GPU nodes can be penalized via staking mechanism

🧠 Auditable Trails

Every transaction is logged + queryable via job ID or address

🎁 Incentives for $OPEN Holders

Holding and staking $OPEN unlocks multiple benefits within Cloud Payments:

Tier
Staked Amount
Discount
Perks

Bronze

10k OPEN

5%

Early job queue

Silver

25k OPEN

10%

Priority execution

Gold

50k OPEN

15%

Access to premium GPUs

Platinum

100k OPEN

20%

DAO voting rights + max rewards

Additionally:

  • 12% of Cloud Payment revenue is distributed to stakers weekly

  • Active contributors can earn bonuses via DAO proposals

📦 Batch Payments & Teams (Coming Soon)

Enterprise and team-based workloads will support:

  • Multi-wallet shared accounts

  • Scheduled job billing

  • Invoice-style breakdowns for bulk processing

  • API-based integrations for SaaS teams

🛠 Developer Integration (Planned)

Cloud Payments will expose:

  • POST /wallet/deposit

  • POST /job/estimate

  • POST /job/pay

  • GET /job/{id}/receipt

  • GET /wallet/history

Webhooks will notify when:

  • Jobs complete

  • Refunds are processed

  • Thresholds are hit (e.g. low balance alerts)

🚀 Summary

Cloud Payments powers the economics of trustless GPU compute in OpenGPU. It turns raw hardware into a programmable, permissionless utility — priced in real-time, secured by code, and governed by users.

Whether you're a researcher training a model or a DePIN project coordinating global jobs, Cloud Payments ensures you only pay for what you compute, when you compute it — no more, no less.

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