Everything you need to understand, implement, and scale non-custodial recurring payments — from permit authorization to Keeper automation to compliance.
Traditional subscription billing routes payments through a third-party custodian — a processor that holds funds during settlement, charges a percentage, and introduces counterparty risk. Non-custodial billing eliminates the custodian entirely. Payments move directly from subscriber wallet to merchant wallet via on-chain smart contract execution. No intermediary. No settlement delay. No custody risk.
AuthOnce is a non-custodial USDC subscription billing protocol built exclusively on Base Network. The protocol fee is 0.5%, hardcoded and immutable in executePull(). Every transaction is verifiable on-chain. Everything is transparent by design.
Standard ERC-20 token authorization requires an on-chain approve() transaction — gas required, confirmation time required, ETH in wallet required before a subscriber has done anything. EIP-2612 replaces this with an off-chain signed message. Zero gas. Zero pre-funding. Cryptographically equivalent authorization.
The subscriber signs once at checkout. The AuthOnce Keeper stores the permit. On each billing cycle, the Keeper submits the permit alongside executePull() and USDC transfers atomically. The subscriber never signs again unless they explicitly cancel.
Chain selection for subscription billing is a systems engineering decision. The chain determines gas cost floor, USDC liquidity type (native vs. bridged), smart contract tooling compatibility, and execution reliability. Ethereum mainnet fails on cost. Non-EVM chains fail on EIP-2612 compatibility. Base Network satisfies all requirements: sub-cent gas, Circle-native USDC, full EVM compatibility, and a Coinbase-backed ecosystem that places a large population of USDC holders within reach.
Blockchains have no native retry logic. A failed pull payment on a standard protocol means immediate cancellation — involuntary churn from a timing issue, not subscriber intent. AuthOnce implements programmable grace periods (1–30 days, merchant-configured) as a first-class protocol primitive. Failed payments transition subscriptions to Grace state. Subscribers retain access. The Keeper retries. Most subscribers top up and continue without noticing any disruption.
Active → Grace (on failed pull) → Suspended (grace expired) → Cancelled (permit revoked). Every state transition is recorded on-chain. All states are auditable without third-party data access.
For WooCommerce and PrestaShop merchants, the AuthOnce plugin connects your existing checkout flow to the non-custodial billing protocol. Installation takes under two hours. No smart contract knowledge required. The five-step process: create merchant account, configure subscription plan (amount, cycle, grace period), install plugin, test on Base Sepolia, activate for live subscribers.
Every merchant also receives a vanity pay link at pay.authonce.io/yourhandle — a standalone payment page for direct billing outside your store.
AuthOnce is a software protocol. It does not hold, custody, or control subscriber or merchant funds at any point. CASP and VASP licensing applies to entities providing services over crypto assets on behalf of clients — not to entities providing open-source software infrastructure that enables parties to transact directly on-chain. AuthOnce has no fiat settlement relationship of any kind — a subscriber funding their wallet by card does so through an independent onramp partner (Circle, Coinbase Onramp), entirely upstream of and outside AuthOnce's protocol scope. Protocol contracts are BSL 1.1 licensed and publicly auditable.
AI agents operating through smart contract wallets cannot use standard ECDSA signature verification. AuthOnce implements ERC-1271 — the standard for smart contract signature validation — enabling Safe multisigs, ERC-4337 accounts, and purpose-built agent wallets to authorize subscriptions natively. An autonomous agent can subscribe, maintain, and revoke subscriptions without human intervention at the billing layer.
AuthOnce's 0.5% protocol fee is hardcoded in executePull(). It cannot be changed. At $100K MRR, this represents a $30,000 annual saving versus a 3% custodial billing rate. For DAOs and Web3 SaaS teams, the fee difference represents real treasury capital that can fund protocol development, contributor rewards, or community initiatives rather than payment processor margins.
AuthOnce is live on Base Sepolia. Mainnet Q3 2026. Start your integration now.