Credit sharing
Most compute-credit systems are locked to one account. A few let you share, gift, or pool — those are the precedents for what infr ships. Stables (USDC, Lightning) are P2P by default.
| System ↑ | Category | Team pool | Gift | P2P transfer | Unit | How |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic API credits | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | Anthropic credits ($) | Workspaces share usage; admins invite members. No transfer of credits across orgs. |
| Coinbase / USDC | stablecoin | — | ✓ | ✓ | USDC | Any wallet sends to any wallet, on-chain. Send by email via Coinbase Pay. No infrastructure needed beyond a recipient address. |
| Dub.co referral payouts | referral | — | — | ✓ | USD | Affiliate revenue paid out to wallet or Stripe-Connected account. The referrer can be anyone — this is how infr's 1% kickback works. |
| fal credits | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | fal credits | Team accounts share one pool. No P2P gifting; you'd top up someone's account by paying their card on file. |
| infr (planned) | compute-credit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | USD-denominated infr credit | Built-in: signed-in user can /transfer credits to another wallet or email. Team accounts share one balance. |
| Lightning Network | stablecoin | — | ✓ | ✓ | BTC (sats) | Send to any lightning address (e.g. alice@walletofsatoshi.com). Sub-cent micropayments, ~2s settlement. |
| Modal | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | Modal credits ($) | Workspaces share credit; admin invites members. |
| OpenAI API credits | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | OpenAI credits ($) | Organization billing — invite members, all share the same credit pool. No way to gift credits to a personal account or move them between orgs. |
| OpenRouter credits | compute-credit | — | ✓ | ✓ | OpenRouter credits ($) | One of the few API providers with built-in credit transfer between accounts. Useful precedent for what we want. |
| PayPal | fiat | — | ✓ | ✓ | USD | Send by email. Gift cards available. No team-pool product. |
| Replicate | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | Replicate credits ($) | Organizations share billing; members tracked individually. No gifting. |
| RunPod | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | RunPod credits ($) | Team accounts share pod allocations and credits. |
| Stripe Gift Cards (Issuing) | fiat | ✓ | ✓ | — | USD (or any currency) | Create gift card via Issuing API. Codes can be redeemed by anyone with the URL. Cannot transfer balance between Stripe customers directly. |
| Together AI | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | Together credits ($) | Org-level billing. No transfers between orgs. |
| Vercel AI Gateway | compute-credit | ✓ | — | — | Gateway credits ($) | Vercel team-level billing applies to all members of the team. |
| Wise (formerly TransferWise) | fiat | ✓ | — | ✓ | multi-currency | Send to anyone with an email or phone. Business accounts share balance across team members. |
What infr will ship
- P2P transfer. Signed-in user → another wallet / email. Credits move atomically through the ledger.
- Team pool. Org accounts share one balance — same pattern as Vercel, OpenAI, Anthropic.
- Gift codes. Issue a redemption code worth $X; recipient redeems it to their account.
- Direct stable → credit. Send USDC on Base to infr's treasury address with your userId in the memo → credited instantly.
- Onramp → credit. Coinbase / MoonPay / Stripe Crypto Onramp settle USDC to the treasury and credit your account in one hop (no manual swap).
Why most compute-credit systems don't let you share
- Compute spend is heavily abused for crypto-mining, scraping, jailbreak farms — anything that lets credits move between accounts gets exploited fast.
- Tax/AML accounting becomes harder when "balance" crosses tax IDs.
- Most providers settle for team-pool only: shared usage, single billing entity.
- infr can ship P2P + gift codes because credits redeem strictly for routed inference (a service, not stored monetary value) — same legal posture as Steam Wallet, App Store credit.