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Overview

The refund service generates permanent, cryptographically-verifiable receipts when transactions are refunded. Merchants pay for receipt storage using x402.

Refund Process

When a merchant refunds a transaction:
  1. Refund executed on-chain
  2. Receipt generated with transaction details
  3. Merchant pays for permanent IPFS storage
  4. Receipt hash logged to Meridian database
  5. Receipt retrievable by transaction ID or IPFS hash

Receipt Contents

  • Original transaction hash
  • Refund transaction hash
  • Amount refunded
  • Currency and network
  • Merchant wallet address
  • Customer wallet address
  • Timestamp
  • Block explorer link

Example Receipt

{
  "transactionId": "pmt_abc123xyz",
  "originalTxHash": "0x1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef",
  "refundTxHash": "0xfedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321",
  "amount": "10.50",
  "currency": "USDC",
  "network": "base",
  "refundedTo": "0x742d35Cc6634C0532925a3b844Bc454e4438f44e",
  "refundedBy": "0x8626f6940E2eb28930eFb4CeF49B2d1F2C9C1199",
  "refundedAt": "2026-01-22T10:30:00.000Z",
  "explorerUrl": "https://basescan.org/tx/0xfedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321fedcba0987654321",
  "type": "meridian_refund_receipt",
  "version": "1.0"
}

Merchant-Paid Storage

Receipts use x402 protocol via Pinata on Base mainnet. Merchants pay ~$0.001 to permanently store refund proof. Why merchant-paid: Ensures receipts remain accessible indefinitely without platform dependency. Customers receive permanent proof of refund. Pricing: 0.10/GB/month×12months=0.10/GB/month × 12 months = 1.20/GB total Network: Base (x402 protocol requirement)

Networks

Refunds can be processed on all Meridian-supported networks: Mainnet: Base, Optimism, Polygon, Unichain Testnet: Base Sepolia, Optimism Sepolia Merchants need USDC on Base to pay for receipt storage via Pinata x402, regardless of which network the original transaction occurred on.