Questions, answered straight.

The short version of how Stede works, what it costs, who holds your money, and exactly where it stands today.

No token. No custody. No fee for the no.

Three things people ask first, so we'll lead with them: there is no Stede token, your money never leaves a vault you control, and being refused never costs you anything. The rest is below.

What is Stede? +
A stablecoin you can give rules. You wrap USDC into a Stede dollar, set rules like a daily cap or a cool-off, and the rules are enforced on-chain every time you send. The dollar itself refuses transfers that break your rules.
Is my money safe / who holds it? +
Stede is non-custodial. Your funds stay in a vault you control. Stede never takes custody. You can unwrap back to plain USDC 1:1 at any time.
What are the rules? +
Six in v1: daily cap, block list, cool-off, slow send (a hold on first send to a new handle), night mode (block sends during set hours), and friend gate (large sends need a trusted handle to co-approve). Turn on only the ones you want.
What does it cost? +
Sending is free. Refusals are free. Setting rules is free. That won't change; you should never pay to be protected from your own mistake. Stede may later charge a small fee for premium handles, and any protocol fees go to the treasury, never to taxing your transfers.
Is there a Stede token? +
No. There is no token and there never will be. Stede is a protocol, not a token play.
What happens if I hit a rule? +
The transfer simply doesn't go through. No reversal request, no support ticket, no "are you sure." It fails before it lands, and costs nothing.
Can I turn rules off? +
Yes. Any rule you set, you can disable.
What stablecoins does it support? +
USDC at launch. AUDD (Australian dollar stablecoin) is planned as a fast follow.
Is it live? +
Live on devnet, with all 9 programs deployed and tested. Mainnet launch is coming. Waitlist is open.
Has it been audited? +
Not yet. Stede is pre-mainnet and the code is unaudited. A security review is a planned milestone. The protocol is open source, so anyone can inspect it today.
How is this different from Solana's Subscriptions & Allowances? +
That program lets someone pull money from you within a cap you approve (subscriptions, payroll, agent budgets). Stede is the opposite direction: rules you set on your own outgoing money to protect yourself, like blocking your own 2am sends or holding a first transfer to a stranger. Where delegated spend makes sense, Stede composes the native primitive rather than rebuilding it.
What's it built on? +
Solana. Token-2022 transfer hooks enforce the rules at the token level, so they apply to every transfer, not just ones made through the app. Nine Anchor programs, open source.
Can I build on it? +
Yes. There's a TypeScript SDK and the full protocol is open source. See the developers page.