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Governed Settlement
The payment happens only on a signed yes.
What it does
Software now pays, refunds, subscribes, and settles. Governed Settlement puts the governed decision in front of the movement: no signed yes, no money moves.
The decision, the amount, and the destination are sealed into a receipt as the payment happens, and anyone you answer to can check that receipt.
The credential that authorizes it exists once, then vanishes. It is created at the moment of authorization, scoped to that exact payment, and used once.
When software pays software, the receipt is the trust.
What it covers
In practice
Move money
An agent requests a payment. It is held for the governed yes. The yes is signed, a credential is created, used once and gone, and the payment and its receipt are sealed together.
Why it matters
The payment and its proof are one act.
Money that carries its proof
The yes comes before the money.
Money moved by AI, governed at the moment it moves.
The approval, the payment, and the receipt are produced together, one sealed record per payment.
The vanishing credential
This reduces the exposure associated with long-lived authorization material.
The agent economy
Machines are transacting with no record either side would accept.
Two agents transacting have no handshake, no history, and no one in the room. Governed Settlement writes a content-free receipt for a machine payment, signed as it is written, so metering, billing, and settlement reconcile on proof instead of promises, without either side revealing its books.
Clean answers
What does my auditor see?
Invoice, payment, conduct: one verifiable thread. The payment is sealed to the work it paid for, so the bill defends itself.