Open protocol · v0.2.0 draft
The open protocol for the last mile of value transfer
Money moves fine. What breaks is everything around the movement — knowing who someone is, where to send them, what they accept, what is owed, who is allowed to act, and whether it actually arrived. PATH standardises that, and nothing else.
01 — Architecture
Five pillars
Four start from the payer. One starts from the receiver — and that one is the part a buyer actually sees.
A reusable subject identifier, verified identifiers, and attestations that survive leaving the network that issued them.
Opaque, portable addresses, and the standing terms on which they receive. Nothing in an address belongs to an institution.
Signed payment requests and checkout sessions any conforming wallet can read, pay and hand back.
Bounded, revocable authorisation with counters a caller can see — for delegates, agents and recurring mandates.
One signed receipt format across every rail. Finality becomes a verifiable state instead of a promise.
Settlement receipts include a reserved route field. PATH Liquidity is out of scope for this version; the field stays empty.
Transverse layers
They cut across the pillars
PATH INTEROP carries the envelope. The pillar owns the object.
Interop
One URI, every channel.
QR codes, deeplinks and in-app handoffs carry the same grammar. The pillar owns the object.
Open →T2Finder
Who holds this, and what do they take?
Reachability in two steps: SONAR then RESOLVER, composed on the client.
Open →T3Compliance
What may be disclosed?
Counterparty data exchange, on a channel separate from the directory.
Open →T4Disputes
Who pays when it goes wrong?
Refunds, disputes, and the rulebook that decides liability.
Open →T5Base
What does an operator publish?
Discovery, fee disclosure, portability, error and webhook registries.
Open →02 — The split
The protocol is open. A directory is a club.
Anyone can implement it.
The formats are public, implementable without asking permission, and testable by a third party. Rails, custody, pricing, screens and ledgers stay with the operator.
The protocol specifies what crosses an organisational boundary. How an operator runs its rails, custody, pricing and product is outside it.
Being listed is a club.
Being reachable by strangers means exposing a resolvable pointer to your customer base. No institution does that without reciprocity, contract and audit.
Directories are run by networks, which admit members. An open format and a closed membership are different layers.
03 — Reachability
Two questions
A caller that already knows where to ask skips the first step. That path needs no network — which is why the open ring needs no permission.
04 — Boundary
What PATH is not
A bank, a wallet, a provider
It carries no money and holds no funds.
A token
Nothing needs to be issued or held to use the protocol.
A KYC vendor
Regulated issuers stay the regulated parties. PATH moves attestations, not documents.
A single global directory
Directories belong to networks. There can be many, and they interoperate.
A product
Portals, apps and payment surfaces belong to operators.
A routing engine — yet
Liquidity routing is reserved, not hidden.