BoAT MER Guide

BoAT MER Guide

BoAT MER is an Apache-2.0 C runtime for constrained devices. It gives a microcontroller its own identity, lets it sign what it measured, and lets it pay — or charge — for what it did, with the private key never leaving the chip.

Start here#

PART A $ ./build/quickstart OK — recovers correctly rejected On your laptop No hardware. Linux or macOS. 5 min PART B BLE buyer seller On two ESP32 boards Streaming payments over BLE. ~1 hour THEN On your own device Pick a profile, or port the PAL.
The Quick Start takes you from your laptop to two boards paying each other. Part A needs no hardware.
Quick Start →Build and run it in five minutes, then stream payments between two ESP32 boards.Core concepts →Device identity, signed data and payment authorization, and the layers they live in.Streaming payments over BLE →How a buyer pays for a service slice by slice, and what crosses the wire.Build profiles and porting →Compile only what the device needs, and bring BoAT MER to another MCU.Security and money safety →What the buyer engine refuses to sign, and how to integrate without building a signing oracle.Status and FAQ →What ships today, what is planned, and the questions people ask first.

What BoAT MER is — and is not#

It is a device-side runtime: key custody, signed attestations, and device-signed payment envelopes, produced on the machine and never leaving it as a private key.

It is not a settlement service, a wallet backend or a blockchain node. The device produces signed evidence; verifying and settling it happens off-device, through whatever service you point it at. The repository contains no server.

Note

Everything in this guide is in github.com/TLAY-IO/boat-mer — Apache-2.0, C99, current release line v1.0.x.