Streaming & Proof-of-Flow

Streaming meters value per second while a heartbeat confirms delivery — and freezes the instant delivery stops, so you are never charged for dead air.

The model

The payer approves a rate and a reserve cap. The meter accrues lazily: frozen accrued milliseconds plus the live flowing delta, capped at the reserve. Pause freezes the charge; resume continues it.

Proof-of-flow

A lightweight heartbeat proves the stream is being delivered. If the heartbeat goes stale, the meter auto-pauses and freezes accrual at the last good heartbeat — not at detection time — so no dead-air seconds are billed. When the heartbeat returns, it auto-resumes.

Settlement

On stop, the flowed whole seconds settle via the standard per-second toll — a real Gateway receipt. Unused reserve is simply never charged; nothing was escrowed to refund.