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Getting Started for Merchants

Accept recurring crypto payments, keep 99% of every payment, and reach subscribers globally — no banks, no chargebacks, no personal data collection required.

Why Subscrypts?

Subscrypts Stripe Patreon PayPal
Fee per payment 1% 2.9% + $0.30 5–12% 2.9% + $0.30
Settlement Instant (on-chain) 2–7 business days Monthly 1–3 business days
Chargebacks Not possible Common Rare Common
Personal data collected None Name, email, card Name, email, card Name, email, card
Global availability Anyone with a wallet Bank account required Bank account required Bank account required
Compliance MiCAR-aligned (EU) PCI-DSS PCI-DSS PCI-DSS

Two Ways to Get Started

Path A: Monetize a Discord Community

Best for: community creators, educators, gaming servers, content creators.

  1. Add the bot — Visit discord.onsubscrypts.com and add the Subscrypts Discord Bot to your server
  2. Run initial setup — In #subscrypts-admin, click Apply Baseline to create required roles and channels
  3. Create a subscription plan — Click Create Subscription in the admin guide (the bot pre-fills your guild ID)
  4. Map plan to roles — Click Map Plan to Role to connect your plan to a premium Discord role
  5. You're live — Members can now link their wallets and subscribe. The bot grants/revokes roles automatically.

For the full walkthrough, see the Discord Bot Admin Setup Guide.

Path B: Use the dApp for Any Service

Best for: SaaS platforms, content sites, streaming services, API billing.

  1. Connect your wallet at app.subscrypts.com
  2. Create a subscription plan — Set the price, billing frequency, and currency (SUBS or USD-denominated)
  3. Share the plan link — Subscribers can browse and subscribe directly on the dApp
  4. Monitor revenue — Track subscribers and payments from your merchant dashboard

For details, see the dApp Merchant Guide.

How Revenue Works

When a subscriber pays, the smart contract:

  1. Burns the payment amount (in SUBS) from the subscriber's wallet
  2. Mints 99% to your merchant wallet (instant — same transaction)
  3. Mints 1% to the protocol treasury
Example: $10/month plan (≈ 500 SUBS)
├── Subscriber pays:   500 SUBS
├── You receive:       495 SUBS (99%)
└── Protocol treasury:   5 SUBS (1%)
  • Payments are instant — funds arrive in the same transaction
  • Payments are non-custodial — the protocol never holds your funds
  • All transactions are verifiable on Arbiscan

Pricing Your Plans

You have two pricing options:

Option How It Works Best For
SUBS-denominated Fixed SUBS amount per billing cycle (e.g., 500 SUBS/month) Crypto-native audiences
USD-denominated Fixed dollar amount; contract calculates equivalent SUBS at payment time via Uniswap V3 mid-price oracle Stable, predictable pricing

Recommend USD-denominated plans for predictable revenue

With USD-denominated plans, your subscribers always pay the equivalent of (e.g.) $10, regardless of SUBS price fluctuations. The smart contract handles the conversion automatically.

What You'll Need

Requirement Details
Ethereum wallet MetaMask recommended. This wallet receives your revenue and owns your plans.
ETH on Arbitrum Tiny amount for gas fees (~$0.01 to create a plan)
Arbitrum One network All Subscrypts operations run on Arbitrum One (Chain ID 42161)

Merchant Quickstart Checklist

  • [ ] Install MetaMask (or compatible wallet)
  • [ ] Add Arbitrum One network to your wallet
  • [ ] Fund wallet with a small amount of ETH for gas
  • [ ] Choose your path: Discord Bot or dApp
  • [ ] Create your first subscription plan
  • [ ] Share the plan link with your audience
  • [ ] (Discord only) Map your plan to premium roles

Accepting USDC Payments

Your subscribers don't need to hold SUBS to subscribe. If they have USDC, the smart contract:

  1. Pulls USDC from their wallet via Permit2 (gasless approval)
  2. Swaps USDC to SUBS on Uniswap V3 in the same transaction
  3. Completes the subscription payment using the SUBS received

The subscriber pays the equivalent amount in USDC; you receive SUBS. All in one atomic transaction.

Off-Ramping Revenue

The SUBS you earn can be:

  • Swapped to USDC via the dApp's built-in swap page or any Uniswap interface on Arbitrum
  • Bridged to Ethereum mainnet and then to a centralized exchange for fiat withdrawal
  • Held as SUBS for use within the ecosystem

Compliance Considerations

Subscrypts is designed with regulatory compliance in mind:

  • The platform's whitepaper is aligned with the EU MiCAR regulation
  • The SUBS token is classified as a utility token — not a security, e-money token, or asset-referenced token
  • The protocol does not collect or store personal data
  • Merchants may still have independent obligations to comply with local regulations (KYC/AML, tax reporting) depending on their jurisdiction

For full compliance details, see Compliance.