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You sign a payment request and submit it to Atum’s Payment Gateway. Independent settlement operators deliver it, and Atum verifies the delivery. You don’t have to manage any of it.

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The five stages

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Stage by stage

1

Submit a payment request

Your app builds the payment request (source account, destination account, amount) and signs it on your machine. On EVM, Tempo and Tron, the signature is a Permit2 authorization for up to max_source_amount. Atum never sees your private key. See Prepare a payment.
2

Atum accepts it

The Payment Gateway checks the request and the signature, and returns a payment_id.
3

Settlement operators send price quotes

During the quote window, independent settlement operators send price quotes for the route you asked for. When the window closes, the gateway selects one that has not expired. With auto accept, it selects the first valid quote as soon as it arrives. If none is usable, the payment fails; see Deadline errors. You never contact settlement operators directly.
4

The settlement operator delivers

The selected operator deposits your funds in the settlement vault on the source chain. Your balance drops here, before the recipient is paid. The operator then pays the recipient on the destination chain, before the delivery deadline.
5

Atum confirms the delivery

Atum verifies the payout on the destination chain and waits until it is final. The payment is then completed. The settlement operator is paid from the vault after that. If the payment is not delivered, your funds are refunded instead. See Refunds.

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What /status shows at each stage

What each status means: Payment status.

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Who does what

You integrate only with the Payment Gateway. The roles in a payment are on Network participants, and who is responsible for what is on Who owns what.

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Next steps