Prism — the orchestration layer
Prism is everything the merchant interacts with. It is protocol-aware, off-chain, and stateless with respect to funds — it never holds money. Prism handles:- Protocol implementations — a single integration that speaks x402, UCP, and ACP. Prism translates each protocol’s checkout and payment semantics into one internal settlement model, so you’re covered whichever protocol a buyer’s agent uses.
- Merchant management — Project Identify Tokens, accepted chains and tokens, settlement address, onboarding.
- Charge creation & routing — turning an order into concrete on-chain payment requirements (amount, token, chain, recipient).
- Webhooks & analytics — delivering settlement events and transaction history to your systems.
Spectrum — the settlement layer
Spectrum is Finance District’s on-chain settlement layer — the part that actually moves stablecoins. It’s the piece the rest of the docs reference whenever a payment is “settled on-chain.”- Executes the transfer. The buyer’s wallet signs a payment off-chain using ERC-3009 (
transferWithAuthorization). Spectrum submits that signed authorization on-chain, moving stablecoins directly from the buyer’s wallet to the merchant’s wallet. No intermediary custodies the funds at any point. - Verifies and finalizes. Spectrum confirms the on-chain transfer — correct amount, token, recipient, and a valid signature — and returns the transaction hash. Once confirmed on-chain, the payment is final: no chargebacks, no clawbacks.
- Runs multi-chain. Spectrum settles on EVM-compatible chains — Base, Arbitrum, BSC, and Ethereum today — in the stablecoins merchants enable (FDUSD, USDC). See Network Support for the current matrix.
payTo address in every x402 payment requirement is a Spectrum settlement contract, the buyer’s signed credential is bound to the on-chain settlement path from the moment it’s created.
One integration, every protocol
The reason the layers are split this way: protocols evolve, settlement shouldn’t. Prism can add a new commerce protocol or change its merchant-facing business logic without touching the on-chain settlement infrastructure — and Spectrum can stay minimal, auditable, and stable. A merchant integrates once and inherits every protocol Prism supports.UCP Implementation
How Prism implements the Universal Commerce Protocol as a payment handler.
x402 Implementation
How Prism acts as the x402 facilitator — enforce, verify, settle.
ACP Implementation
How Prism plugs into the Agentic Commerce Protocol for settlement.
Transaction lifecycle
The step-by-step behavior of a single payment, request to settlement.
Stablecoin settlement
Why settlement is on-chain, and what that gives you: finality, no chargebacks.