ServiceNet

ServiceNet is a decentralized marketplace for AI and API services that solves the fundamental gas cost problem preventing blockchain-based micropayments from being viable. Currently, making API calls through blockchain smart contracts is prohibitively expensive, as each call costs gas fees, making the model impractical for real-world usage. Our platform leverages Yellow Network's state channel technology to enable true pay-per-use API monetization where consumers only pay for actual usage ($0.001 per call) while providers earn recurring revenue without dealing with subscriptions, payment processors, or chargebacks.

The core innovation is eliminating per-call gas costs through off-chain state tracking. When a consumer wants to use a service, they open a session with a single on-chain transaction depositing USDC into escrow (for example, $10). Yellow Network then creates an off-chain payment channel between the consumer and provider, tracking every API call and updating balances in real-time without touching the blockchain. A consumer can make 100, 1000, or even 10,000 API calls with zero additional gas fees, all state updates happen off chain through cryptographically signed messages. When the session closes, one final on-chain transaction settles everything: the provider receives payment for actual usage, and the consumer gets refunded any unused credits. This reduces total gas costs and transactions by 96-99% compared to traditional on-chain approaches.

ServiceNet provides complete infrastructure for both sides of the marketplace. Providers can register services using ENS names (like weather.api.eth), set transparent per-call pricing, and integrate payments in literally five lines of code using our SDK. The SDK handles authentication through wallet signatures, automatically meters API usage, and manages Yellow Network state channel updates. Consumers get a web interface to discover services, manage active sessions with real-time balance tracking, and close sessions to receive refunds. This architecture enables entirely new business models: AI inference APIs charging per LLM call, real-time data feeds charging per update, IoT networks with device-level micropayments, and search APIs charging per query, all economically viable for the first time on blockchain.

• Frontend: Next.js 14, TypeScript, TailwindCSS, Wagmi, Viem

• Smart contracts: Solidity, Foundry, OpenZeppelin. Deployed on Ethereum Sepolia testnet

• Backend: Node.js, Express, TypeScript, Viem

• ENS: simplified service registration and discovery

• Yellow Network for state channels: We built a YellowManager class that wraps their Nitrolite SDK for state channel management. The key innovation was treating each API call as a state update rather than a trade. When a consumer calls an API endpoint, we update the channel state to transfer $0.001 from consumer allocation to provider allocation, all off chain with zero gas. We implemented a "test mode" that simulates Yellow Network's behavior locally (tracking state in memory) because the sandbox was experiencing intermittent connectivity during development.