Reading and the meter
How The Satoshi Vision charges inside an allowance without a prompt, shows the running total and a stop control on every paid article, and handles a used-up allowance and a failed payment.
With an allowance in place, Anna taps a headline and the article opens, with no sheet and no confirmation. That is the point of the allowance. It also leaves The Satoshi Vision owing her the two things a prompt would have given: a way to see what she has spent, and a way to stop it. Charging per use sets out that debt. This flow is how The Satoshi Vision pays it.
An article opened inside the allowance
Anna taps a paid headline and the article opens in full. Above the headline, a slim bar: "Paid 20 sats · 340 of 500 sats left today", and at its right end, Stop.
The bar sits on the article because that is where the spending happens. It names what this article cost and what is left, in satoshis, because the allowance was granted in satoshis and one unit per screen stops Anna comparing two currencies. The allowance, not Anna, is deciding each payment, which is the case Charging per use gives for satoshis. The bar does not animate, count down or change while she reads.
On the front page, headlines she has already bought lose their price and show "Read" instead.
Do
Show what the article just cost and what is left of today's allowance on the article itself, above the headline, every time the allowance pays for one.
Do
Mark articles the reader has already bought as read, without a price, so she never wonders whether opening one again will charge her.
Don't
Charge for an article the reader has already bought, whether she returns to it on the same day or a month later.
The meter, opened
Tapping the bar opens a sheet, "Today on The Satoshi Vision". It leads with the total, "About 8p spent today (160 sats)", then "340 sats left, starts again tomorrow", then today's articles by title, each with its price. At the bottom is Stop paying.
The total is rounded once, in local currency, rather than built from eight rounded pennies, as Pricing recommends. The list names articles, not payments, because the article is what Anna remembers buying.
Do
List what today's spending bought by article title, with the total first in local currency and the remaining allowance beneath it.
Stopping
Stop on the bar and Stop paying in the sheet do the same thing, with no confirmation. The bar changes at once to "Stopped. You spent 160 sats today.", with a quiet Start again link, and the prices return to the front page. From then on, every paid article asks Bitcoin SV Wallet for a one-time payment, as before the allowance.
Stopping here means The Satoshi Vision chooses not to use the allowance. The grant itself stays in Bitcoin SV Wallet until it ends or Anna removes it there. The stopped state says so in one line: "To remove the allowance entirely, open Bitcoin SV Wallet." That is honest about which side holds the permission, as Signing in asks for the same reason.
Do
Stop charging the moment the reader taps Stop, before any confirmation or animation, and say how much she spent today.
Do
Say on the stopped state that the allowance still exists in the wallet, and where to remove it.
When the allowance runs out
On the twenty-sixth article of a day, the allowance cannot cover the next 20 sats. The article opens to its free paragraphs, and the panel says: "You've used today's 500 sats. It starts again tomorrow." It offers three choices: Pay 20 sats for this one, which opens a one-time payment sheet in Bitcoin SV Wallet; Raise my daily limit, which opens a new allowance request; and Wait until tomorrow.
The errors table lists these three as the ways forward. The panel is plain grey, not red, because Anna has done nothing wrong: the limit worked.
Do
Explain a used-up allowance on the article the reader was trying to open, with the free paragraphs still showing, and offer a one-time payment for that article.
Don't
Raise the limit for the reader, or suggest a larger figure as the default. A new limit is a new request that she types or chooses.
A payment that fails
Sometimes a payment does not go through. The article stays at its free paragraphs, and the panel says which of three things happened, following the four-part model in Errors and failed payments:
- Nothing left the wallet. "This article didn't open. Nothing left your wallet for it." with Try again.
- The wallet is still trying. "Your wallet is still sending this payment. You don't need to pay again. The article will open when it arrives." No button, because a second tap could pay twice.
- The payment went through and the article did not load. "You paid for this article. Tap to load it again. You won't be charged twice." The article is Anna's from then on.
The Satoshi Vision fails towards not charging, as Charging per use recommends. If Bitcoin SV Wallet reports a payment as sent but The Satoshi Vision cannot confirm it has arrived, The Satoshi Vision opens the article anyway and settles the question later.
Don't
Show Try again on an article while the wallet reports its payment as still being sent.
Open questions
- Does a bar on every paid article reassure readers, or make them read less? The answer decides whether the total belongs on the article or one tap away.
- Should Stop in the app also ask Bitcoin SV Wallet to end the grant, so the two cannot disagree? It would take one more sheet, at the moment the reader wanted fewer.
- Is "starts again tomorrow" understood as midnight local time, and does it need to say so?
- When the allowance runs out late in the day, is a one-time payment or a wait the more common choice?
Related
- First visit and connecting: how the allowance was granted
- Receipts, refunds and leaving: what the spending looks like afterwards
- Charging per use
- Errors and failed payments
Written from: /guide/patterns/charging-per-use/, /guide/patterns/permissions-and-allowances/, /guide/patterns/errors-and-failed-payments/, /guide/patterns/amounts-and-units/.
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