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openyield/docs/nomads/maps-pay.md
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cloudinit-bot d09c6132b1 docs(P02): complete nomads docs phase
P2 complete. 8 docs/nomads/ pages: index, reach, stash, bearers, maps-pay,
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no regression. All pages cross-reference docs/shared/.

---ci---
project: oy
phase: 2
milestone: v0.3
status: complete
tag_base: v0.2.x
phase_role: execution
requirements:
  covered: []
  partial: [REQ-027]
---/ci---
2026-08-17 22:14:53 +00:00

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Maps & Pay

Maps and Pay are the day-to-day Mesh Experience a Nomad uses on the mesh. Maps finds services; Pay settles them. Both run over the bearers and read the Mirror so a Nomad can find and pay for a service on a surveillance-resistant bearer without an internet connection to OY Chain.

Maps

Maps is the directory of services a Nomad can reach. A service is anything a Partner or a Stand exposes to the mesh: a Care service, a SIM, a Vault, a Mailbox (preview of v0.3 P5 — see Pacts for the Hub API). Maps is sorted by geographic proximity (REQ-007): a Nomad physically closer to a service or its operator is shown that service first. There is no paid ranking; the order is proximity, not promotion.

Pay

Pay is how a Nomad settles a service. A payment is a transfer of Bread from the Nomad's Stash to the service operator's Stash, signed by the Nomad's Reach. The fee covenant floors and caps the fee; inside a Guild, a Hand-Pass is free at the protocol level (REQ-017). Pay runs over any bearer, first-to-deliver-wins.

Authorize, don't hand over

For recurring services a Nomad does not re-sign every payment. Instead the Nomad opens a Window to the service: a scoped, time-limited, rate-limited, revocable capability that lets the service pull value from the Stash within bounds the Nomad set. The Window is audited; the Nomad can revoke it at any time. This is the self-service principle in practice: the Nomad delegates a capability, not custody.

Find, pay, verify

A Nomad's loop is:

  1. Find a service on Maps.
  2. Pay once, or authorize a Window for recurring use.
  3. Verify the service against the Watcher attestations on the Mirror (see Watchers & Mirror).

See Stash for where the Bread comes from, Window for the delegation primitive, and Standing for how a service operator's history is measured.