Core Payment Sequences
The two primary interaction patterns for initiating payments in ACK-Pay.
ACK-Pay supports two primary interaction patterns for initiating payments, both centered around a standard Payment Request payload:
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Server-Initiated Sequence: A Server (or Service Provider) requires payment from a Client agent before granting access to a resource or completing an action. In this flow, the Server generates and sends the Payment Request to the Client, typically in response to an initial resource request. This is common for pay-per-use APIs or accessing paid content.
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Client-Initiated Sequence: A Client agent initiates a payment based on an external trigger or known obligation (e.g., paying an invoice, completing an e-commerce checkout, fulfilling a human end-user’s instructions). In this flow, the Client agent constructs the Payment Request itself, often by parsing external information (like an invoice or checkout summary) and potentially using a Payment Service to help formulate the request details before interacting with the Payment Service API for execution.
Both sequences leverage the same core Components and Roles (Client, Server, Payment Service, Receipt Service, Settlement Networks) and the ACK Receipt for verification.