Check before you pay.

Your agent found an API. The API asked for money. Nobody checked whether the service is real, whether the price is normal, or whether anyone has ever paid it and got something back.

GET paddock.finance/api/mcp/verify-before-pay?endpoint_url=api.example.com&expect_price_usdc=0.02

Verdict

don't pay

Price

asked 99.00, market is 0.02

Live

yes, settled 4 hours ago

Paid by

11 different wallets, 30 days

Circular

no pattern found

checked 2026-09-04 14:22 UTC · 0.25 USDC

Get a free key Copy llms.txt

10 checks a day, no card. Or pay per call and skip the account entirely.

Why this exists

Online advertising had this exact problem. Money moved automatically, the seller reported on itself, and nobody could check — until independent verification became a required line on every media plan.

Agent payments are at that point now. The only account of whether a payment went well comes from the seller. We're the check. We take no cut of the payment and we don't sell placement, so nobody can buy a better answer.

The same settlement record behind these answers runs our public market page, updated daily.

Three answers, and only three

We'd rather say we don't know

payChecks out against everything we can see.
don't paySomething is wrong, and we name it.
can't tellWe couldn't read enough to answer. Not a failing grade.

What agents are asking

Four ways this gets used

Choosing between providers

An agent has three endpoints that do the same job.

paddock.finance/api/mcp/verify-before-pay?endpoint_url=…&expect_price_usdc=0.05

pay · settled 12 minutes ago · price in range

Spend guardrail

A wallet or platform checks every payment its agents send.

paddock.finance/api/mcp/verify-before-pay?endpoint_url=…&expect_seller=0x158e…3d00

don't pay · the wallet asking for money isn't the one you agreed to pay

Something brand new

The endpoint has never been paid, by anyone.

paddock.finance/api/mcp/verify-before-pay?endpoint_url=…

can't tell · nothing settled here in 30 days

New, or dormant, and we can't tell which. We'd rather say so than guess.

Pricing risk

An underwriter working out what cover for agent payments should cost.

paddock.finance/api/mcp/verify-before-pay?endpoint_url=…&include=history

how often it settles · gaps between payments · how many distinct payers · 90 days

Anyone pricing this today is pricing blind, because there's no loss history for agent commerce yet. This is the closest thing that exists: what actually settled, from whom, dated.

How it works

Four steps, about a second

Your agent calls us before it authorizes payment
Plain HTTP. A free key, or pay per call and skip the account.
We ask the endpoint for its price, without paying
We trigger its payment request and read what it actually asks for — network, asset, wallet, amount. Live, at the moment you asked, not from a cached list.
We check that against what really settled
Against every settlement we've recorded: has it been paid, how recently, and by anyone other than its own owner. This is the part a seller can't report about itself.
You get one answer and the reason for it
Pay, don't pay, or can't tell — with the reason and the timestamp. Never a score you have to interpret, and never a ranking.