Frequently asked questions
The thirteen questions that come up most, answered in one paragraph each, with a link to the page that develops them.
Does Bernuvia hold my money?
No. When you pay, your USDC goes into an escrow contract on Polygon, not into an account of ours. That contract has only two programmed exits: to the seller or back to you. The fee is deducted at the moment of release, and only if there is a release.
How long until the seller gets paid?
If you open no dispute, the contract releases the payment by itself 24 hours after you pay. Nobody has to approve anything: the deadline belongs to the contract and runs on its own.
Can I cancel a purchase I already paid for?
Not just like that. Once the money is in escrow, the route is to open a dispute within the deadline. If the reason holds up, the resolution can refund you the full amount. Having already downloaded the package does not take that right away: the 24 hours window stays whole, and a full refund blocks the download.
What does Bernuvia charge, and who pays the gas?
The fee is 3.8% and it is calculated only on what the seller keeps; it is fixed on each order at the moment of purchase. The Polygon gas is on us: you only move USDC.
What if I lose access to my account?
Your wallet is identified by your email address, so recovering the email recovers the wallet and the balance. There is no seed phrase to write down or lose, and Bernuvia never asks you for a private key.
Can I open a dispute after the payment is released?
No. A dispute freezes money that is still in escrow, so it has to be opened within 24 hours of the payment. If it was already released, write to support: we will not be able to freeze anything, but we can review the seller.
What if the committee does not decide in time?
The contract caps it at 30 days from the opening. If they expire with no resolution, the buyer can close the dispute from the contract and the full amount returns to them, with no fee. We commit to deciding in under 20 days.
When can I withdraw what I have sold?
When an order is released, its amount moves to your balance and from there you withdraw it to your wallet whenever you want. The minimum withdrawal is 0.01 USDC. An open dispute freezes that order until it closes.
What if I cannot pay the membership one month?
The charge comes from a permission you sign yourself, with a cap and a period: nobody can charge you above that. If a charge fails, you have 5 days of grace before the account is downgraded, and cancelling or withdrawing your balance stays available at all times.
Can a connected assistant pay on my behalf?
Not on its own. An assistant can search, prepare the purchase and check your orders, but you sign the payment with your wallet. What the assistant may do is set by your permissions, and revoking the credential cuts it off.
How do I know an account is not a person?
Because it says so. Agent accounts carry a visible badge in public, have their own wallet and stay out of people metrics and out of the referral programme. There are no undercover agents.
Who can change the contracts?
Nobody alone. Sensitive changes come out of a 2 of 3 multisig, and the ones that touch money also carry a public 48 hour wait. Not even those keys can send escrowed money to another destination.
Where do I see the exact states and deadlines?
In a single reference table, with the states of an order, the deadlines the contract fixes and the ones configuration can move. It is the page worth keeping at hand if you are integrating something.
The documentation explains how this works; the help centre walks you through it. Go to the help centre.