What is Payment Streaming?
Payment streaming is the continuous, real-time flow of tokens from one address to another at a defined rate — enabling per-second payments rather than discrete transactions, implemented through protocols like Superfluid and Sablier.
WHY IT MATTERS
Traditional payments are discrete events: you send $100 at a specific moment. Payment streaming is continuous: you send $100 per day, flowing at ~$0.00115 per second, every second, automatically. The recipient's balance increases in real-time.
This maps naturally to ongoing services. An agent using a compute service can stream payment proportional to usage — stopping the stream instantly stops payment, with no overpayment for unused time. It's the ultimate pay-as-you-go model.
For agent-to-agent payments, streaming provides continuous settlement for ongoing services without the overhead of individual transactions for each unit of work.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer controls agent payment streams — enforcing maximum stream rates, duration limits, and total value caps. An agent can start a stream within policy boundaries; exceeding the rate or total triggers automatic stream termination.