Services · inference-marketplace

Routstr

A decentralized AI-inference marketplace where a Cashu token is the API key — pay per request in private Bitcoin ecash, no login, no KYC.

What it is

Routstr is a decentralized, permissionless AI-inference protocol and marketplace: a payment-gated reverse proxy in front of OpenAI-compatible LLM APIs where a Cashu token acts as the API key. Providers are discovered over Nostr, payment settles in private Bitcoin/Cashu micropayments, and there is no login, no account, and no credit card. It is the clearest deployed instance of an agent buying a service on the Bitcoin stack — and was named to HRF’s Top 15 Freedom Tech Projects of 2025.

This is the thesis running in production: an autonomous agent pays for its own inference, permissionlessly, at machine tempo.

When to use it

• Giving an agent permissionless, accountless access to frontier-model inference.
• Privacy-preserving LLM access where bearer-token payment beats a tracked API key.
• Demonstrating or building on the “agent buys a service” pattern end-to-end.

Dependencies & payment

Dependencies: a Cashu wallet holding a funded token (the token is the API key), an OpenAI-compatible client or SDK to point at the endpoint, and trust in the chosen mint; provider discovery additionally uses Nostr. Payment: the credential is ordinary Cashu ecash denominated in Bitcoin satoshis — not a Routstr-issued token and not a claim on tokenized compute; it is bearer cash that happens to be spent on inference. The proxy meters each request in sats (input and output tokens priced separately, plus a per-request fee), deducts from the token’s balance in real time, and returns any change as a fresh Cashu token. Funded over Lightning, with BOLT12 invoices also supported. No account, no card.

Quick start

Point an OpenAI-compatible client at a Routstr endpoint and supply a Cashu token as the API key; top up the token to add inference balance. See docs.routstr.com for the overview and the protocol repos (routstr-core, rips — the Routstr Improvement Protocols, otrta-client) under github.com/Routstr. Check the repos for current release state — the protocol is under active development.

Gotchas

• The Cashu token is the API key (bearer model) — anyone who obtains it can spend the remaining balance. Guard it like cash.
• Inference providers are independent and pseudonymous; quality, uptime, and honesty vary by provider — there is no central SLA.
• Privacy depends on the chosen mint and provider; standard Cashu mint-trust caveats apply. See Cashu.