Go live

Do not wait for the exchange licence.

The first dollar is a seat. The first tonne is an escrow ticket on a deal that already exists. The Stripe-shaped move is a widget on the miner’s site — not a card charge for 126 tonnes of graphite.

01 · Days 0–90

Seats and the desk

Seat + KYB

Incorporate. Escrow deed. Nominated bank letter. Charge for membership. Put existing bilateral deals onto tickets by hand. Ten producers, ten offtakers. The software you already have is the product.

02 · Days 60–150

The widget

Escrow on published lots

A snippet on the miner’s own site. Request escrow on this lot. Identity still happens on the house. Tonnes still settle SWIFT. This is the distribution play — not a card checkout.

03 · Days 120–240

The file

Docs + freight intro

DCSA events and assay webhooks write the pack. Freight is an introduction. No ships. Tape API starts to bill.

04 · Months 12–24

The venue

Full take-rate + FX

Matching density, conversion markup, licences. Do not wait for this to take the first dollar. Seats should already cover the burn.

Two rails. Never mixed.

Stripe is for seats. SWIFT is for tonnes.

Card / Stripe / invoice: KYB file ($12k). Annual seat ($45k–$120k). Tape API. Document fees. These are software charges to a company. Chargebacks are tolerable. This is the cash that covers compliance in days 0–90.
Escrow / SWIFT / LC: The lot. $1m–$50m. Dual-use, sanctions, eBL, dual control. Card networks will not underwrite this. A 2.9% Stripe fee on $10m is a $290k joke and a chargeback away from a hole. Tonnes never touch a widget’s pay button.

The analog to Stripe Checkout is not “pay now.” It is “request escrow on this lot,” then identity on the house, then funds at Citi.

What comes first

A desk, not a network effect.

1. Bank letter + deed. Without a correspondent that will hold client money, the rest is a brochure.
2. Twenty paying seats. Invoice is fine. Stripe is faster. This is the only revenue that does not need a licence to match orders.
3. White-glove tickets. Deals already happening on WhatsApp. You are the escrow clerk. Matching can wait.
4. Widget on five producer sites. Their traffic, your ticket. Identity still yours.
5. File automation. Carrier events close the pack. Then you have a repeatable tonne, not a heroic desk.

As seen on a producer site

producer.example / vein-c

Vein graphite 99.5

Producer storefront. Spec, photos, offtake chat — their site, not ours.

Escrow by criticalminerals.market

Live lot

VEIN-C 99.5

Crystalline vein graphite

Offer: 2,910 USD/t
Incoterm: FOB Colombo
Escrow: House escrow · Citi NY · CITIUS33. Release on Clean eBL + SGS assay + identity.

Identity is open. A request can be instructed. It cannot be funded. Members

Embed

One snippet. The producer keeps their URL, their brand, their SEO. The house keeps identity, escrow and the tape.

<script
  src="https://criticalminerals.market/embed.js"
  data-lot="VEIN-C"
  data-origin="producer-site"
  async
></script>

Preview widget. Production embed is signed per member, serves only admitted lots, and never takes card numbers for cargo. Seat and KYB billing can sit on Stripe or an invoice. Cargo cannot.