Generation scope
A PoP is produced only when value was delivered to the merchant — and why a refund or failure is not.
A PoP proves that a payment was delivered to the merchant. It follows that a PoP is generated for exactly the outcomes in which value moved to the merchant on-chain, and for no others. A PoP is produced only for finality_outcome of paid or duplicate_payment. It is not produced for refunded or failed.
Outcomes that produce a PoP
finality_outcome | Why a PoP exists |
|---|---|
paid | The deposit was swept to the merchant's approved destination; the protocol fee was collected on-chain. A payment between the two parties completed — there is a payment to prove. |
duplicate_payment | A second finalized, matched payment settled on-chain for an intent that was already settled. The on-chain payment is real and provable, so it carries a full PoP — even though it is not an additional settlement of the intent. |
A duplicate_payment PoP records a genuine on-chain settlement; it is simply marked as the case that lost deterministic winner selection. The intent's settlement is unaffected. See Statuses and projections.
Outcomes that do not produce a PoP
finality_outcome | Why there is no PoP |
|---|---|
refunded | The merchant returned a reject decision with a refund destination; the deposit was returned to the customer. No payment to the merchant completed, so there is no payment to prove. |
failed | The case reached a terminal failure with no settlement and no merchant-directed refund. No funds moved, so there is nothing to prove. |
For these outcomes the payment still finalizes and is still reported — through the canonical finality_outcome and the payment_finalized notification — but no signed proof artifact is generated. The absence of a PoP is itself meaningful: a PoP exists if and only if value was delivered to the merchant.
The principle
The presence of a PoP is a load-bearing signal, not a convenience. Reconcile merchant-directed payment delivery by the existence of a verified PoP, not by a status read or a received notification. A refund and a failure are real, reported outcomes — they are simply not proofs of payment, because no payment to the merchant occurred.