10. Mandates

What is a mandate?

A mandate is a capped permission you sign on-chain. It lets one merchant collect USDC from your wallet, up to a set amount per month, for a set number of months. You stay in control: you can pause or revoke it at any time, and the merchant can never collect more than the cap.

• The menu entry is Mandates ("Caps, merchants, pause or cancel").
• Mandates are paid in USDC.
• Platform note: on iOS, Mandates are coming soon. On the extension, you can create a mandate, revoke one by ID, or Stop all.

"I pay" and "I get paid" (direction icons)

At the top of Mandates, switch between I pay and I get paid.

The detail sheet also says You pay or You get paid.

Tabs, search and filters

• Tabs:
  • Requests: waiting for your review
  • Active
  • Paused
  • History: revoked and expired items
• Badges and pills: tab badges show the exact count up to 99, then 99+. Status pills are Review, Active, Paused, Revoked and Expired. New requests that are under 10 minutes old get a New pill.
• Rows: each row reads like "1 USDC / month · 3 months", followed by the merchant name and a short ID, for example "Acme Coffee · #1fa7…47d9".
• Search: "Search merchant, address or ID".
• Filter and sort:
  • Sort by Newest, Oldest, Amount: high to low, or Amount: low to high
  • Any time or Custom dates
  • Minimum and maximum Amount per month
  • Rows per page
  • Group by merchant
  • Then tap Show results. Clear filters resets everything.
• Live updates: with Live updates on, new items appear as "↑ N new · tap to show".

Empty states:

Review and approve a merchant's request

A merchant usually sends you a link (t.me/PortaWallet_bot?startapp=mr_…) or shows a QR code. Opening it takes you straight to Review request.

If the request doesn't open automatically, open it yourself:

1. Go to Mandates, tap ⋯ (More actions), then Paste request link or ID ("Open a merchant's request").
2. Paste the link or the request ID into Request link or ID.
3. Tap Review request.

The review shows:

• Amount (X USDC / month)
• Duration
• On-chain cap (X USDC per month)
• Payee

"Terms are set by the request and can't be changed."

Your choices:

• Approve: "Then Confirm with your wallet". You'll sign on the Confirm screen.
• Reject: "Nothing is signed".

On Confirm:

• For a request that came from a link, enter your wallet password. You'll be asked: "Enter your wallet password to confirm this request."
• After you confirm, you'll see "Submitted. Statuses update once the network confirms." The merchant is notified when the mandate is approved on-chain.

If a request won't open:

• Can't open · expired or already used. Requests expire 24 hours after the merchant creates them. Ask for a new link.
• Can't open · request not found
• Can't open · sign in again
• Too many tries · wait a minute
• Can't open right now · try again

Create a mandate yourself

Go to ⋯ → New mandate and choose Recurring pay (one merchant, a cap and an expiry). Trading bot is marked Coming later.

• Period: Hourly, Daily or Monthly. The amount label changes to match (Amount / hour, Amount / day or Amount / month (USDC)). See Open questions.
• Amount / month (USDC): a number greater than 0, up to 10,000, with no more than 6 decimals.
• Months: 1–12. The error is "Months must be 1 to 12".
• Payee: a 0x address. It can't be the zero address or the USDC token address.
• The summary ends with "on-chain cap = one month". Tap Continue, then sign on Confirm.

Validation messages:

• "Amount must be greater than 0"
• "Amount too large"
• "Amount must be a plain number with at most 6 decimals"
• "Payee is required"
• "Payee must be 0x + 40 hex"
• "Payee cannot be zero"
• "Payee cannot be the cap token"

Before you can confirm:

• If your wallet doesn't have mandates switched on yet, you'll see Enable mandates. Tap it first, because Confirm stays disabled until you do ("Enable mandates first.").
• If you're asked to switch network first, switch to the network the mandate is on.

Pause or revoke a mandate

Open a mandate from I pay, then tap Pause or revoke.

• Pause: the merchant can't charge you while the mandate is paused. It moves to the Paused tab.
• Revoke: permanently ends the mandate. "Revoking stops future pulls right away." It moves to History.
• Proof: View approval on Etherscan ↗ (Android: View on explorer ↗) opens the on-chain record.

Stop all mandates at once

Go to ⋯ → Stop all… ("Pause every mandate on this wallet at once"). This pauses every mandate on the wallet in one on-chain transaction. "No merchant can charge you until you resume." The network fee is shown before you sign.

• To confirm, press and hold Stop all. If you prefer, type STOP instead.
• If there's nothing to pause, the menu says "Nothing to stop right now".
• To stop just one merchant, open it and choose Pause or revoke instead.

Approve or pause several at once

• Approve in bulk: on I pay › Requests, select up to 5 requests and tap Approve N · sign once. "One signature approves all N. Each merchant can pull at most its own cap per month."
• Pause in bulk: on I pay › Active, select up to 20 mandates and tap Pause N · sign once.

Collect (when you get paid)

If you're the payee on an incoming mandate, you can collect what's due.

• Android: the incoming mandate detail (You get paid) shows Collect amount · Due now, or Next pull in Nd. When nothing is due, the button is disabled and gives a reason:
  • "Nothing is due yet"
  • "Paused. Nothing is due until this resumes."
  • "Nothing is due. This term has ended."
• Platform note: in the Telegram and web apps, collect from the Incoming mandate screen using Fulfill → Collect. The list's detail sheet doesn't have a Collect button yet.
• Limits: you can collect up to the remaining amount ("Amount (USDC)" is capped to what's left).
• Payee address: the payee must be a regular wallet address (EOA). Contract payees can't collect yet.
• Who controls the mandate: only the payer can pause or revoke it.

Usage-based (metered) mandates

Some merchants bill by usage. On review, you'll see "Usage-based billing · Porta settles to this payee." The Confirm screen then shows:

• Billing: Usage-based · you pay only for what you use
• Monthly cap: the most you can be charged per month, and for how many months
• Settles: when your usage reaches a threshold, or every 24 h
• Credit limit: the most unsettled usage allowed. After that, usage pauses until it settles.
• Collected by: Porta billing 0x…· verified

PortaWallet checks that the billing address in the request matches Porta's own settlement address. If it doesn't, you'll see:

This request's billing address doesn't match Porta's. Don't approve it — ask the merchant for a new link.

Other messages:

• "Usage billing isn't available on this network right now. Try again later."
• "This request uses a token Porta can't bill. Ask the merchant for a new link."
• "Couldn't verify the billing address. Check your connection and try again."