Reference
Fees
Where the protocol fee applies, where it does not, and who bears gas.
The protocol fee is collected on-chain by the same one-shot transfer that moves the funds. This page fixes the mechanics — when the fee is taken and when it is not. For the rates themselves, see the pricing page; rate figures are not duplicated here.
When the fee applies
| Outcome | Fee collected on-chain? | Resulting finality_outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Sweep (merchant approve) | Yes — collected in the same transaction that sweeps the balance to the merchant's approved destination. | paid |
| Refund (merchant reject) | Yes — collected in the same transaction that refunds the balance to the merchant-supplied destination. | refunded |
| Sanctions hold | No — no transfer is relayed, no fee is taken. If a refund is later made under manual operational review, the full deposited amount is returned with no fee deducted. | — |
Mechanics
| Property | Statement |
|---|---|
| Collection point | On-chain, at settlement and at a merchant-reject refund, within the same transaction as the transfer. There is no separate invoice and no off-chain collection step. |
| Basis | The fee is deducted from the deposited balance; the destination receives the deposited balance net of the protocol fee. |
| Refund parity | The fee applies to a merchant-directed refund just as it does to a sweep — it compensates the infrastructure used to process the payment, not the outcome. |
| Sanctions path | Fee-zero. Funds are held at the deposit_address; no transfer and therefore no fee occurs until and unless a refund is made under operational review, and that refund returns the full amount. |
Gas
| Property | Statement |
|---|---|
| Who pays | Tekmerion relays every sweep and refund and bears the gas cost. |
| Customer | The customer pays only the network gas for their own deposit transfer to the deposit_address. |
Rates
| Property | Statement |
|---|---|
| Where published | Fee rates are published on the pricing page. |
| Stability | A rate is fixed for the version of the on-chain infrastructure a payment is processed under; a rate change is a protocol-level event a merchant adopts by signing a new authorization. |
The on-chain settlement records the exact protocol fee collected, in base units, in the signed Proof-of-Payment. Reconcile the fee actually taken against that artifact, not against a status read.