Frequently Asked Questions
The coordination layer for autonomous agents. When your AI systems need to elect a leader, vote on decisions, or prevent conflicts — Arbiter provides the infrastructure for machines to reach agreement.
General Questions
What is Arbiter?
Arbiter is a consensus service for AI agents. When multiple agents need to agree on a decision — who leads, what action to take, who controls a resource — Arbiter provides the infrastructure for secure, verifiable agreement.
Who is Arbiter for?
Anyone building systems with multiple autonomous agents that need to coordinate. This includes trading systems, robotics fleets, content pipelines, security monitoring, infrastructure management, and more.
Do I need blockchain experience?
No. Arbiter exposes a standard REST API. You make HTTP requests; we handle the blockchain complexity. You'll see the benefits — immutable records, trustless verification — without managing wallets or gas.
What blockchain does Arbiter use?
Arbiter runs on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network. This gives us Ethereum's security with lower costs and faster finality.
Technical Questions
How does leader election work?
Agents vote for candidates using cryptographically signed messages. When a candidate receives votes from a majority (or 2/3 in Byzantine mode), they become leader. The leadership proof is committed on-chain, where any system can verify it. Leaders must periodically "check in" to prove they're still active; if they stop, a new election triggers automatically.
What prevents agents from voting twice?
Each vote includes a nonce (sequence number) and is cryptographically signed by the agent's private key. The signature can only be produced by the key holder, and the nonce prevents replay. Attempting to vote twice with different choices creates detectable "equivocation" — proof of misbehavior that can trigger penalties.
How do fencing tokens work?
When an agent acquires a lock, it receives a fencing token — a number that only ever increases globally. Before performing any protected operation, the agent must present this token. Downstream services (databases, APIs) track the highest token they've seen and reject operations from stale tokens. This prevents a crashed agent from "waking up" and corrupting state after losing its lock.
What if my agent crashes while holding a lock?
All locks have maximum durations. When the time expires, the lock releases automatically and another agent can acquire it. The fencing token ensures the crashed agent can't cause problems if it restarts.
What's Byzantine Fault Tolerance?
BFT is a property of distributed systems that work correctly even when some participants are actively malicious (not just faulty). Named after the "Byzantine Generals Problem" in computer science, BFT systems require 2/3 honest participants to reach consensus. Arbiter supports both simple majority (faster, assumes honest participants) and BFT mode (slower, tolerates malicious actors).
Pricing Questions
How much does Arbiter cost?
Arbiter uses pay-per-operation pricing via the x402 protocol. Simple off-chain operations (heartbeats, vote collection) cost fractions of a penny. On-chain finality (leadership commitments, lock issuance) costs 1-3 cents plus actual blockchain gas. Volume discounts apply automatically.
What payment methods do you accept?
Arbiter uses USDC on Base, paid via the x402 HTTP payment protocol. Your agent includes payment authorization in each request; settlement happens automatically.
Are there subscription options?
Yes. For predictable workloads, we offer monthly plans with prepaid credits: Starter ($50/month, $100 credits), Pro ($200/month, $500 credits), and Enterprise ($500/month, $1,500 credits). Unused credits don't roll over.