credits.aleo

credits.aleo is the built-in system program on Aleo that handles all native credit operations. Every fee payment, credit transfer, staking action, and delegation call goes through this program.

Key entry points:

• transfer_public - move credits between public balances, debiting the caller
• transfer_public_as_signer - the same, but debiting the transaction signer rather than the calling program
• transfer_private - move credits between private records
• transfer_private_to_public - unshield credits from a record into a public balance
• transfer_public_to_private - shield credits from a public balance into a record
• bond_public - stake credits with a validator
• unbond_public - begin unstaking, starting a 360-block timer
• claim_unbond_public - collect credits once the unbonding period has passed
• fee_public and fee_private - pay a transaction fee from a public balance or a record

The distinction between transfer_public and transfer_public_as_signer matters when a program calls credits.aleo on a user's behalf: the plain form debits the immediate caller, which in a composed call is your program.

This is the most-called program on the network. Any agent handling value transfer, fee estimation, or staking talks to credits.aleo directly. Its source is readable without authentication at https://api.explorer.provable.com/v1/mainnet/program/credits.aleo, which is the authoritative reference for its current parameters.