Inspiration
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for OwnTerms
Inspiration
Autonomous agents are creating campaigns, datasets, and media, but they lack a safe permission and payment rail for creator-owned work. Creators need compensation, while enterprises need auditable commercial clearance.
What it does
OwnTerms turns digital works into machine-licensable rights instruments. Creators define permission policies and prices. An agent describes intended use in natural language. Google Gemini is quarantined to extracting factual parameters only, while deterministic code evaluates policies and selects compatible license tiers. Successful settlement produces a machine-readable, tamper-evident Rights Receipt with a canonical SHA-256 digest.
The recorded demo is explicit about provenance: it uses deterministic FIXTURE checkout data for reproducible judging and never presents it as live PayPal revenue. The separate sandbox path implements the official PayPal JavaScript SDK and Smart Buttons, server-created Orders v2, buyer approval, capture, and provider read-back verification.
How we built it
- Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS
- PayPal Orders v2 REST integration plus @paypal/paypal-js Smart Buttons
- APIMatic PayPal Context Plugin patterns
- Google Gemini structured intent extraction with truthful fallback labeling
- Deterministic integer-math policy matching
- SQLite WAL persistence with atomic settlement and unique order/capture constraints
- AG Grid Community creator ledger and Rights Coverage Matrix
- Canonical JSON serialization and SHA-256 receipt verification
Challenges we overcame
The main security challenge was preventing an LLM from controlling price or permissions. OwnTerms enforces a strict boundary: AI extracts facts; deterministic code grants rights and sets prices. We also implemented idempotent settlement, fail-closed provider verification, provenance-separated analytics, and tamper detection that fails when a single receipt value changes.
Accomplishments
- 37 unit and integration tests pass
- 3 Playwright journeys pass across desktop, laptop, and mobile viewports
- Original project-owned demo media with documented provenance
- Public, reproducible source code and a 2:07 captioned demo
- Clear separation of LIVE_SANDBOX, FIXTURE, and SEEDED financial records
What we learned
Agentic commerce needs more than a payment button. It needs machine-readable rights, deterministic enforcement, verifiable settlement evidence, and honest provenance at every boundary.
What's next
Next steps include completing a live PayPal Sandbox transaction, adding creator onboarding and policy authoring, and expanding receipts into interoperable licensing APIs for agent platforms.
OwnTerms is a prototype and does not constitute legal advice or copyright registration.
Built With
- next.js
