Question 1

What is Kontext?

Accepted Answer

Kontext is the compliance evidence layer for programmable payments. It captures the full decision trail around every payment — intent, screening results, policy checks, approvals, and execution references — and produces audit-ready evidence packages for compliance, risk, fraud, and audit teams.

Question 2

Who is Kontext built for?

Accepted Answer

Payment infrastructure teams handling stablecoin transfers, API-driven payouts, or agent-initiated payments. Kontext serves compliance officers, risk managers, internal audit, and payments product teams who need to prove what happened before, during, and after every payment decision.

Question 3

What does 'verifiable decision context' mean?

Accepted Answer

Verifiable decision context means cryptographic proof that a payment was authorized, screened for sanctions, and logged before it happened. Kontext's patented digest chain links each action to the full history before it, creating tamper-evident evidence that compliance checks actually ran — not just a promise that they did.

Question 4

What languages and runtimes are supported?

Accepted Answer

The primary SDK is TypeScript-first with full type safety. It runs on Node.js 18+, Bun, and Deno. A Python client (kontext-sdk, Python 3.9+) is also available for Python-based payment systems. The core API is also accessible via REST for other environments.

Question 5

What blockchain chains are supported?

Accepted Answer

Kontext supports 8 chains: Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Arc, Avalanche, and Solana.

Question 6

What is the digest chain?

Accepted Answer

The digest chain is Kontext's patented append-only audit structure that cryptographically links each logged action to the full history before it. This creates a tamper-evident chain of records — if any entry is modified, the chain breaks, making unauthorized changes immediately detectable.

Question 7

How is audit data stored?

Accepted Answer

Audit data is encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.3), stored in cloud infrastructure following SOC 2-aligned practices. You retain full ownership and can export or delete data at any time.

Question 8

What are the performance characteristics?

Accepted Answer

The verify() call adds sub-5ms overhead for local rule evaluation. The SDK is under 100kb gzipped. Cloud-powered features add a network round-trip but are optimized for P95 latency under 50ms via edge deployment.

Question 9

What is on-chain anchoring?

Accepted Answer

On-chain anchoring writes your terminal digest (the SHA-256 hash at the end of your digest chain) to the KontextAnchor smart contract on Base. This creates an immutable, publicly verifiable proof that your audit trail existed at a specific block. Anyone with an RPC URL can verify the anchor — no Kontext account needed. Gas cost is roughly 45K gas per anchor, well under $0.01 on Base.

Question 10

What is A2A attestation?

Accepted Answer

A2A (agent-to-agent) attestation lets two agents exchange compliance proofs for the same transaction. The sender posts its terminal digest to the receiver's attestation endpoint (discovered via .well-known/kontext.json). The receiver responds with its own digest. Both sides now have cryptographic proof that the other ran compliance checks. Zero external dependencies — uses native fetch().

Question 11

Does on-chain anchoring cost gas?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but it's minimal. Each anchor transaction costs roughly 45K gas on Base, which at current gas prices is well under $0.01. Read-only verification (checking if a digest was anchored) costs nothing — it's a standard eth_call with no gas. The SDK's verifyAnchor() function works with zero dependencies, just a raw RPC URL.

Question 12

What is the Kontext CLI?

Accepted Answer

The Kontext CLI (@kontext-sdk/cli) provides commands for common compliance workflows: verify (full verification with digest chain), check (static compliance check), audit (export audit trails), and anchor (on-chain anchoring).

Question 13

Do micropayments need compliance?

Accepted Answer

Yes. OFAC screening applies to every transaction regardless of amount. The Travel Rule only requires data-sharing above $3,000, but OFAC sanctions screening, ongoing transaction monitoring, and audit trails are required on every transfer under the BSA. The GENIUS Act reinforces these requirements for stablecoin transactions. Autonomous agents running high-frequency micropayments create cumulative patterns that can trigger Suspicious Activity Reports regardless of individual amounts. Kontext's verify() + digest chain provides evidence for every payment in a single call.

Question 14

How do I integrate Kontext with USDC transfers?

Accepted Answer

Call ctx.verify() on your payment transactions. Each call runs OFAC screening, logs the decision context, and adds the evidence to the tamper-evident digest chain. One function call produces the full compliance record.

Question 15

Does Kontext work with the x402 protocol?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Call ctx.verify() directly on x402 payment details to produce the same compliance evidence trail.

Question 16

Can I use Kontext with Stripe?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Call ctx.verify() on agent-initiated payments before creating Stripe payment intents. The Kontext audit ID can be attached to Stripe metadata for full end-to-end traceability between your compliance logs and payment records.

Question 17

Does Kontext work with LangChain, CrewAI, or AutoGen?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Kontext is framework-agnostic. The Vercel AI SDK has a first-class wrapper (kontextWrapModel). For LangChain, CrewAI, and AutoGen, use ctx.verify() and ctx.log() directly in your agent's tool calls or callbacks.

Question 18

What is the GENIUS Act?

Accepted Answer

The GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) is U.S. legislation establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers and the ecosystems around them. It introduces requirements around reserves, transparency, and consumer protection that impact how stablecoin transactions are logged and audited.

Question 19

How does Kontext support GENIUS Act compliance efforts?

Accepted Answer

Kontext provides cryptographic proof that every payment was authorized, screened, and logged. The patented digest chain creates tamper-evident audit trails, OFAC screening runs on every transfer, and compliance certificates bundle the evidence your team needs. It powers your compliance efforts but does not make you compliant on its own.

Question 20

Is Kontext itself a certified compliance product?

Accepted Answer

Kontext is compliance infrastructure, not a regulated financial entity. Cloud infrastructure follows SOC 2-aligned practices for data handling. However, Kontext does not guarantee regulatory compliance and is not a substitute for legal counsel — it provides the technical building blocks your compliance program needs.

Question 21

What audit export formats are supported?

Accepted Answer

JSON and CSV exports are available. Exports can be filtered by date range, agent, action type, and flag status.

Question 22

Is Kontext a replacement for legal counsel?

Accepted Answer

No. Kontext is infrastructure tooling, not legal advice. It provides the technical capabilities — logging, detection, and reporting — that your legal and compliance teams need to build a compliance program. Always consult qualified legal counsel for regulatory requirements specific to your jurisdiction and use case.

Question 23

How is data encrypted?

Accepted Answer

All data in transit is encrypted with TLS 1.3. Data at rest is encrypted with AES-256. API keys are hashed and never stored in plaintext.

Question 24

Where is cloud data stored?

Accepted Answer

Audit data is stored in GCP cloud infrastructure following SOC 2-aligned practices. All data is encrypted at rest and in transit.

Question 25

How does Kontext handle PII?

Accepted Answer

Kontext logs action metadata, not user PII. The SDK is designed so that you control what data is passed in the metadata fields. We recommend against including raw PII in action logs — instead, use anonymized identifiers.

$ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Still have questions?

$ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

▸▾What is Kontext?

▸▾Who is Kontext built for?

▸▾What does 'verifiable decision context' mean?

▸▾What languages and runtimes are supported?

▸▾What blockchain chains are supported?

▸▾What is the digest chain?

▸▾How is audit data stored?

▸▾What are the performance characteristics?

▸▾What is on-chain anchoring?

▸▾What is A2A attestation?

▸▾Does on-chain anchoring cost gas?

▸▾What is the Kontext CLI?

▸▾Do micropayments need compliance?

▸▾How do I integrate Kontext with USDC transfers?

▸▾Does Kontext work with the x402 protocol?

▸▾Can I use Kontext with Stripe?

▸▾Does Kontext work with LangChain, CrewAI, or AutoGen?

▸▾What is the GENIUS Act?

▸▾How does Kontext support GENIUS Act compliance efforts?

▸▾Is Kontext itself a certified compliance product?

▸▾What audit export formats are supported?

▸▾Is Kontext a replacement for legal counsel?

▸▾How is data encrypted?

▸▾Where is cloud data stored?

▸▾How does Kontext handle PII?

Still have questions?