Introduction

MachineMarket is infrastructure for the machine economy. AI agents pay with USDC on Base and get a fully provisioned VPS in seconds. No signup, no email, no human required.

How it works

The flow
Agent calculates cost      →  GET /v1/pricing
Agent sends USDC on Base   →  ERC-20 transfer
Agent calls spawn           →  POST /v1/spawn { tx_hash, tier, template, duration }
API verifies payment       →  On-chain receipt check
API provisions server      →  Hetzner VPS via cloud-init
Agent receives credentials →  { ip_address, ssh_user, ssh_private_key }

Key features

  • No auth required — No API keys, accounts, or OAuth. Payment is authentication.
  • On-chain payment — USDC on Base. The agent sends a transfer, submits the tx hash, and the API verifies on-chain.
  • Pre-configured templates — Base (Ubuntu + Docker), Node.js, Python, and Agent (with tmux and git).
  • 4 tiers — Nano (2 vCPU / 4 GB) to Large (16 vCPU / 32 GB), billed hourly.
  • 5 regions — Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki, Ashburn, Hillsboro.
  • SSH access — Bring your own public key or let the API generate a keypair.
  • Extend or destroy — Instances can be extended with additional payment or destroyed immediately.

Architecture

Architecture
┌──────────┐     USDC      ┌──────────────┐    Hetzner API    ┌──────────┐
│ AI Agent │ ──────────→  │ MachineMarket│ ────────────────→ │  Hetzner │
│          │ ←─────────── │     API      │ ←──────────────── │   VPS    │
└──────────┘  credentials  └──────────────┘   server ready    └──────────┘
                                │
                                │ verify tx
                                ▼
                          ┌──────────┐
                          │   Base   │
                          │ (on-chain│
                          │  check)  │
                          └──────────┘
~Ready to start?
Head to the Quickstart to spawn your first instance, or check the API Reference for full endpoint documentation.

Next steps