Echo Docs

Echo is the peer-to-peer layer for economic operations. People and organizations pay each other, request money, split bills, keep records and leave reviews, all in one place.

• Money: payments are made in USDC on Algorand MainNet and settle directly between wallets.
• Your wallet: you sign every payment in Pera Wallet. Echo never holds your keys or your funds.
• Network fees: Echo pays the Algorand network fee on your USDC payments, so you pay none. See Fees.
• Records: every completed payment is kept as a record you and the other person can both see.

1. Create an account with your email address and a password. You may be asked to confirm your email before you sign in.
2. Link your wallet. Go to Profile and connect Pera Wallet. To prove the wallet is yours, you approve a one-time 0 ALGO verification. Nothing is sent to the network, and Echo only saves the address once the proof checks out.
3. Opt in to USDC. If your wallet has not opted in to USDC yet, Echo asks you to approve that one-time step so you can receive payments.

One wallet is linked to one Echo account, and a wallet can only be linked to one account. To use a different wallet later, see Your wallet.

From the dashboard, open Pay and choose Send.

1. Choose who to pay. Search by their exact email address, or pick someone from your Network. They need to have linked a wallet.
2. Choose a purpose (for example Rent, Business payment or Gift), which is saved on the record.
3. Enter the amount in your currency. Echo shows the USDC amount it converts to. You can add an optional note.
4. Review the payment. You see who you are paying, the amount, and the Echo fee that will be applied.
5. Approve in Pera Wallet. After it confirms on the network, Echo creates the record and notifies the other person.

Ask someone to pay you, or send them a bill.

1. Choose who to ask, a purpose, the amount and an optional note.
2. Choose whether the request is open to negotiation. By default it is not, and the other person can only pay the amount or decline.
3. Send it. The other person gets a Signal.

What the other person can do

• Pay Now pays the request straight from the Signal.
• Negotiate (only if you allowed it) proposes a different amount.
• Decline turns the request down.

While a request is pending, you can cancel it. Once it is paid, it becomes a completed record.

When a request is open to negotiation, the person asked can propose another amount. You can accept it or counter with a new one, and this can go back and forth. When someone accepts, the agreed amount replaces the original, and Pay Now uses it. Negotiation is never on by default, and the requester decides for each request.

Split a bill between up to 4 other people. From the dashboard, open Pay and choose Split.

1. Pick the people from your Network or by email.
2. Choose a purpose and enter the total.
3. Set the shares. It starts as an equal split, and you can edit each person’s share. Switch on Include my share if you are part of the split. Your share is whatever is left after the others.
4. Review and send. Each person receives an ordinary payment request for their share.

• Amounts are worked out in whole cents. If a cent is left over, it goes to the first person on the list.
• Shares must add up to the total. If you leave yourself out, the others’ shares must equal it exactly.
• Each person pays (or negotiates or declines) on their own, exactly like any other request. One person declining does not affect the others.

The Echo fee is shown on the review screen before you sign, and again when you pay a request with Pay Now. For example, a 10 USDC payment carries a 0.005 USDC fee, and any payment under about 2 USDC carries the 0.001 USDC minimum. The rate can be adjusted by Echo, and the screens always show the current one.

Accounts with post-quantum protection

If your wallet account uses post-quantum protection (a rekeyed account), the payment and the Echo fee are sent together and your wallet covers the network fee at that moment. Echo then refunds the network fee to you, and the refund appears as its own record and Signal.

Signals are your notifications. They tell you when something needs your attention or has happened.

• Payment requests and negotiation proposals, with the buttons to act on them.
• Payments you received.
• New records.
• Reviews left for you.

• Unread signals are counted. Opening one marks it read, and Mark all as read clears the count.
• Delete removes a single signal. Clear All removes the ones that don’t need action. Requests waiting for your action stay.

Every completed payment becomes a record, visible to you and the other person. Open a record to see its type, purpose, amount (in USDC and in the currency you entered), note, date, status, the network fee Echo paid, and the transaction reference you can look up on the blockchain.

Actions such as joining or leaving the CENTS rewards also create receipts, which you find under Records.

Reviews

• After a payment completes, either side can leave a review: 1 to 5 stars and an optional comment.
• You can review a record once.
• The other person gets a Signal, and your review shows on their record. Their review of you shows on yours.

Your Network is the people you have paid or been paid by, most recent first, shown with their email next to their name. It is also the quick list you pick from when you send, request or split.

The DeFi page shows the CENTS and ECHO tokens, with a Token Details link on each card to the token’s own website, and the CENTS rewards board.

CENTS rewards

• Joining: enroll once with a payment of 1 CENTS (about $0.01). Your wallet must have opted in to CENTS and hold at least 1 CENTS.
• Earning: rewards are shared between enrolled wallets in proportion to the CENTS they hold. Your balance is recorded every day.
• Source: the monthly rewards are released from a locked vault, 5,000 CENTS a month, and paid straight to enrolled holders’ wallets.
• The board: shows how many wallets are enrolled and how much CENTS they hold in total.
• Leaving: you can un-enroll at any time. The 1 CENTS enrollment payment is not refunded, and you can enroll again later.

Joining and leaving each need your approval in Pera Wallet and create a receipt in Records.

Your linked wallet can only be changed through verification. Nothing in the app can change it silently.

1. In Profile, choose Change Wallet Address. Echo emails you a one-time link that works for an hour.
2. Open the link while signed in to the same account.
3. Connect your current wallet and approve the 0 ALGO verification.
4. Connect the new wallet and approve its 0 ALGO verification.

If the wallet you connect does not match the one linked to your account, Echo disconnects it and tells you to use Change Wallet Address.

On the sign-in page, choose Explore as guest to look around the dashboard and DeFi without an account. Guests can browse, but cannot send, request, split, enroll or see any records. Sign in at any time from the button at the top left.

You can enter amounts in USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, AUD, CHF, JPY, TRY, MXN, BRL or INR. Echo converts the amount to USDC at the current rate and shows you the USDC amount before you send. The payment itself always settles in USDC. Your preferred currency, set in Profile, is the one used by default.

• You sign everything. Every payment is approved in your own wallet. Echo never asks for your recovery phrase and never holds your keys.
• Checked on the blockchain. Echo reads each payment from Algorand and records it only if the sender, receiver and amount match.
• Your wallet address is protected. It can only be set or changed through the wallet verification steps.
• Exact-email search. People are found by their exact email address, and individuals’ names do not appear in search results. Organizations may appear by name.
• Private by default. A record, request or signal is visible only to the people involved in it.
• Fee checks in your browser. Before your wallet is asked to sign, Echo checks that the payment still goes to the address you chose, and that the fee goes to the CENTS reserve.