set up a wallet
kiosk-402 uses your crypto wallet as a login and a way to pay 50¢ at a time. You don't need an account; you don't need to give us your email. Pick a wallet, install it, switch it to Base Sepolia, and you're in.
kiosk-402 is currently running on Base Sepolia — the testnet. No real money changes hands. Anyone can claim free testnet USDC from faucet.circle.com (pick Base Sepolia, paste your address) and use it to actually purchase items here. When the platform graduates to Base mainnet, payments will use real USDC.
kiosk-402 settles on Base in real USDC. Every purchase moves actual money from your wallet, and every purchase is final — there is no chargeback and no refund button. Prices are shown before you sign.
Which networks kiosk-402 takes
Three are built in. Only some are switched on, and for different reasons:
| Base | On. The default, and the only one you can pay with from a browser today. Settling a purchase costs about a tenth of a cent, which is quoted into the price you sign for. |
|---|---|
| Solana | On for API clients. The server offers it and settles it, but this site's signer speaks EIP-712 only, so the browser flow still uses Base. Paying from a Solana wallet on the web needs a wallet connector we have not built yet. |
| Ethereum mainnet | Off, on purpose. It works, but you would pay the gas. Measured live, settling a 50¢ article costs about $0.014 when the network is quiet and $5.45 when it is busy. That is a fine trade for something expensive and an absurd one for an article, so it stays off rather than surprising anyone. |
Whatever the network, your wallet never needs its native token to buy here — kiosk-402 pays the network fee and prices it into what you sign.
1 — pick a wallet
On desktop: MetaMask (recommended)
If you're reading this on a laptop or desktop, install MetaMask as a browser extension. It works in Brave, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and any other Chromium-based browser. Free.
- Download: metamask.io/download
- Once installed, the kiosk's connect wallet button will offer browser extension — that's MetaMask. Click, approve, sign in.
- Brave users: MetaMask works alongside Brave's built-in wallet, but most flows assume MetaMask. If Brave Wallet hijacks the connect, open brave://settings/wallet and set Default Ethereum wallet to Extensions (no fallback).
Other good desktop extensions: Rabby (cleaner transaction review than MetaMask), Coinbase Wallet extension.
On mobile: Base Wallet (recommended)
If you're on a phone, or want to scan a QR from desktop to authorize from your phone, Base Wallet is the most kiosk-aligned choice. Made by Coinbase, designed around Base — the network kiosk-402 runs on. iOS + Android. Free.
- Download: coinbase.com/wallet
- On the kiosk site, click connect wallet → mobile wallet → scan the QR with Base Wallet's built-in scanner.
Other good mobile wallets: Rainbow, Trust Wallet, MetaMask Mobile, Phantom (EVM mode). All use the same QR flow.
Any wallet that speaks WalletConnect v2 works. The two flows kiosk supports are browser extension (desktop wallet installed in your browser) and mobile wallet via QR (anything else).
2 — switch to Base Sepolia
kiosk-402 currently runs on Base Sepolia, the test network. No real money — but the entire flow is real. To pay, your wallet has to be set to this network.
kiosk-402 runs on Base, Coinbase's Ethereum L2. To pay, your wallet has to be set to this network.
In Base Wallet / Coinbase Wallet
- Tap your account icon → Networks (or Settings → Networks).
- Enable testnet networks if asked.
- Pick Base Sepolia.
In MetaMask / Rabby (manual add)
If the network isn't pre-loaded, add it manually with these settings:
| Network name | Base Sepolia |
|---|---|
| RPC URL | https://sepolia.base.org |
| Chain ID | 84532 |
| Currency symbol | ETH |
| Block explorer | https://sepolia.basescan.org |
3 — fund it (testnet, free)
Two things you'll want on Base Sepolia:
- Sepolia ETH for any direct on-chain calls. The buyer flow is gasless on your side (the platform pays gas), so you can skip this. But it's nice to have a few cents of ETH.
Faucets: Coinbase faucet, Alchemy faucet. - Sepolia USDC to actually buy things on kiosk. The protocol settles every payment in USDC.
Faucet: Circle USDC faucet — pick Base Sepolia, paste your address, drip some USDC.
3 — fund it with USDC
You need USDC on Base. You do not need ETH: the platform pays the gas for every purchase, so your wallet only ever signs — it never spends gas.
Three common ways to get there:
- Buy directly in your wallet. Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask and Rabby all sell USDC on Base with a card or bank transfer. Simplest if you're starting from nothing.
- Withdraw from an exchange. On Coinbase, Kraken or Binance, withdraw USDC and pick Base as the network. Sending USDC over Ethereum mainnet instead costs far more in fees and lands on the wrong chain.
- Bridge what you already hold. If your USDC is on Ethereum or another L2, use Superbridge or the official Base bridge.
Check the network before you send. USDC sent to your address on a chain other than Base won't show up here, and recovering it ranges from fiddly to impossible.
4 — connect and pay
- Back on kiosk-402, click connect wallet.
- Choose browser extension or mobile wallet depending on what you installed.
- Your wallet asks you to sign a quick message — that's Sign-In-With-Ethereum. No gas, no spend, just proves you control the address.
- Click any article tile → unlock for $0.50 USDC → sign the EIP-712 authorization → done. The transaction hash appears as your receipt.
What kiosk does and doesn't see
- Sees: your wallet address (public), and which resources you've unlocked.
- Never sees: your password / private key / seed phrase. Those stay in your wallet app.
- Never asks for: an email or any personal info. The address is your account.
Once you're connected, your re-access to anything you've paid for stays alive for the resource's window (24h for articles and videos) — no re-paying within that period.