FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Satelink, honestly answered from the current production state.

General

What is Satelink?

A DePIN RPC gateway on Polygon PoS. Developers and autonomous machines pay $0.00003 per blockchain RPC call in USDT; node operators earn 50% of routed revenue; settlement is on-chain and verifiable.

Is this real or a testnet simulation?

Real. Live on Polygon mainnet with real USDT deposits to a verified vault contract (0x577D…aCEF). The network is early — the live metrics on the status page are the honest picture, and we publish measured numbers rather than marketing claims.

How is Satelink different from Infura or Alchemy?

Three structural differences: revenue is shared with the people running the infrastructure (50% to node operators), billing is a flat on-chain metered rate instead of plan tiers, and onboarding works for machines (HTTP 402 + ERC-20 payment) — not just humans with credit cards.

For developers

What chains are supported?

Polygon PoS (137), Ethereum (1), Arbitrum (42161), Base (8453), and Polygon Amoy testnet (80002). Per-provider health is public at /rpc/health.

Can I use this in production?

Uptime and latency are measured and published live — we don't sell an SLA yet. Recommended pattern at this stage: Satelink primary with a fallback RPC configured, which is good multi-provider hygiene anyway.

Do I need to trust Satelink with funds?

Deposits go to a verified on-chain vault via a plain ERC-20 transfer from your own wallet. We never hold your keys. Your credit balance and every deposit are independently verifiable on Polygonscan.

What happens when I run out of credits?

Calls return HTTP 402 with exact remediation instructions in the body. Nothing is silently dropped.

For node operators

How much can I earn?

50% of the revenue your node serves: 1M routed calls/month = $30 gross = $15 to you. Earnings scale with real customer demand — there are no token emissions or artificial APY. Early network honesty: demand is still small; see the live request counter on the status page before you size hardware.

Do I need to stake?

No. No staking, no lock-up, and no slashing — going offline just means you stop earning while offline.

How do I get paid?

Earnings accrue per epoch in USDT and become claimable through on-chain settlement. Settlement broadcasting is currently in final verification (dry-run mode) — accrual and accounting run now; automated broadcasts enable once the safety gates clear. See Revenue Model.

Economics

Where does the USDT come from?

Entirely from customers paying for API usage. The split is 50% node operators / 30% platform / 20% distribution pool for top-performing nodes.

Can the split change?

The split is enforced in the settlement contracts; changing it requires deploying new contracts — it cannot drift quietly.