Vitalik-inspired AI payment system can send expired deposits to its treasury
The Ethereum Foundation announced zkAPI, a mainnet system for metered API payments, including prepaid AI inference. Users can withdraw through a cooperative server-approved close or initiate an escape withdrawal without server clearance. Escape withdrawals face a 24-hour challenge period: a proof that the spending state already authorized a request can cancel the payout and restore the note, without resolving billing disputes. Recovery depends on retaining valid wallet state, and the vault owner can pause new deposits and exits. Active notes expire after roughly 30 days; unclaimed deposits can then go to the treasury. The deployed vault uses ETH, so balances fluctuate in dollar value, while accepted service-price quotes are fixed for settlement. The implementation is experimental, unaudited, and relies on a single-party-generated setup; mainnet availability does not guarantee every recovery will work.
