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Web Monetization flow

Web Monetization relies on Open Payments (OP) and OP-enabled accounts to coordinate payments.

The Web Monetization agent Code in a web browser, such as an extension, that discovers web monetized pages, exposes the Web Monetization API, and communicates with the Open Payments APIs first issues a series of API calls to the receiving account’s wallet address A URL that identifies an Open Payments account , then to the sending account’s wallet address, to obtain the necessary authorization and instructions for sending a payment.

Sequence diagram

sequenceDiagram
  autonumber
    box aliceblue WM provider
    participant OPS as Open Payments
sending account
    end
    participant WMA as WM agent
    participant page as Web page
    box aliceblue WM receiver
    participant OPR as Open Payments
receiving account
    participant AS as Auth server
    end
  note over AS,OPR: The auth server can be
located outside of the 
WM receiver's domain
  WMA->>page: Detects monetization  element,
extracts wallet address
  WMA->>OPR: Requests the public info for the wallet address
  OPR->>WMA: Returns info, including auth server URL
  WMA->>AS: Requests access rights
  AS->>WMA: Returns access token
  WMA->>OPR: Requests creation of an incoming payment resource
  OPR->>WMA: Responds with unique payment details for addressing the payment to the account
  WMA->>+OPS: Requests an outgoing payment be
created against the sending account
  note left of OPS: Connection persists until
request moves from 'pending'
state to 'sending' state
  OPS->>-WMA: Responds with details about the
'receive', 'send', and 'sent' amounts
  WMA->>WMA: Fires monetization event
  note over OPS,OPR: Payment processing and settlement occurs between the WM provider and WM receiver, outside of the WM flow

Web Monetization flow example

This section provides an example of the API calls that occur when a web monetized user visits a web monetized site.

There’s a few points to keep in mind as you review the example.

  • It’s up to the site visitor, not the web monetized site, to decide how often and how much to pay, as well as the currency in which to send a payment.
  • While Web Monetization and Open Payments work together to coordinate payments, neither moves money. Payment processing and settlement must occur between the sending and receiving accounts over a common payment rail.

Scenario

Alice adds the monetization <link> element to her website. Included within the <link> is her wallet address, https://wallet.example/alice, assigned to her by her Web Monetization receiver An entity that provides an Open Payments-enabled account into which payments can be received .

Bob signs up with a Web Monetization provider An entity that provides a funded Open Payments-enabled account from which payments can be sent who supplies him with a funded sending account. The sending account’s wallet address is https://anotherwallet.example/bob. After installing a Web Monetization agent in his browser and linking the Web Monetization agent to his Web Monetization provider, his Web Monetization agent now has permission to request payments be sent from his account.

1 - Check for Web Monetization

As Bob browses Alice’s site, his Web Monetization agent detects a monetization <link> element.

<link rel="monetization" href="https://wallet.example/alice" />

2 - Send request to wallet address (receiving account)

The Web Monetization agent issues a request to Alice’s wallet address to discover the Open Payments service endpoint.

Request

GET /alice HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Host: wallet.example

3 - Send grant request to Web Monetization receiver’s auth server

The Web Monetization agent issues a request to the Web Monetization receiver’s grant request endpoint (authorization server) to get an access token.

In this example, the Web Monetization agent requests access to create and read incoming payments (i.e., payments coming in to Alice’s Web Monetization receiver).

Request

POST /auth/ HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Host: wallet.example
Content-Length: 218


{
  "access_token":{
    "access":[
      {
        "type":"incoming-payment",
        "actions":[
          "create",
          "read"
        ],
        "identifier":"https://wallet.example/alice"
      }
    ]
  },
  "interact":{
    "finish":{
    "method":"redirect"
  }
},
"client":"https://anotherwallet.example/bob"
}

4 - Send incoming payment request to wallet address (receiving account)

The Web Monetization agent creates an incoming payment for the session (e.g., the open browser tab) by issuing an incoming payment request to Alice’s wallet address. The request uses details obtained from the previous API calls.

Request

POST /alice/incoming-payments HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: OS9M2PMHKUR64TB8N6BW7OZB8CDFONP219RP1LT0
Host: wallet.example

5 - Send outgoing payment request to wallet address (sending account)

The Web Monetization agent uses the details obtained thus far to create an outgoing payment request against Bob’s account (via his wallet address). Note that this is just a request to send a payment. The payment itself has not been sent and the request is in a pending state.

Request

POST /bob/outgoing-payment HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: {{ outgoingPaymentGrant.accessToken.value }}
Host: anotherwallet.example