xPaywall

dashboard

Inspiration

I'm excited about the future of machine payments and their potential to change how digital services are monetized. However, new technologies are only adopted when they're easy to use, which inspired me to build xPaywall — a solution that makes Machine Payments Protocol integration simple for existing APIs.

What it does

xPaywall enables any existing API to accept MPP payments without changing application code. API owners can configure paid routes, pricing, and monitor payment activity through a dashboard.

How I built it

I built xPaywall as a microservice-based platform with a Go gateway, PostgreSQL backend, and web dashboard. The gateway acts as a reverse proxy, enabling Machine Payments Protocol and Tempo payments for existing APIs without code changes.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge was making the product simple and intuitive for non-technical users. Machine payments involve many moving parts, but my goal was to hide that complexity behind a straightforward setup process and a user-friendly interface.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I built a working MPP gateway that enables existing APIs to accept machine payments without modifying application code. Beyond integrating Tempo, I designed the platform to be extensible, allowing future support for additional MPP payment methods, including Stripe and Solana and others, as well as other payment protocols such as x402.

What I learned

Through building xPaywall, I gained hands-on experience with Machine Payments Protocol, Tempo payment channels, and machine-to-machine payment flows. I also learned how to design payment infrastructure that remains flexible while staying easy for developers to adopt.

What's next for xPaywall

My primary goal is to make machine payments as simple as possible for API providers. In the future, I plan to support many payment methods and protocols while hiding their complexity behind a unified interface. Developers should only need to connect a payment gateway and specify where they want to receive payments—the platform should handle everything else.