> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.oynk.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Oynk works

> A holistic view of Oynk's coordination, execution, settlement, and visibility layers.

Oynk is designed as a coordination layer, not a single liquidity marketplace, bank, or wallet. It gives payment applications one lifecycle while allowing different qualified providers and rails to perform route-specific work.

## The five layers

<Steps>
  <Step title="Experience layer">A payment application, checkout, terminal, or operations user initiates and observes work.</Step>
  <Step title="Control plane">Oynk authenticates the actor, validates exact amounts and destinations, evaluates policy, requests quotes, assigns providers, and owns lifecycle state.</Step>
  <Step title="Provider network">Qualified providers commit liquidity, collect origin funds, exchange value, or execute destination payouts under corridor and capacity constraints.</Step>
  <Step title="Settlement layer">In the target architecture, Stellar assets and Soroban contracts create an auditable, reference-driven boundary for funding, commitments, claims, refunds, and disputes.</Step>
  <Step title="Visibility plane">Indexers normalize chain events into PostgreSQL; APIs and dashboards expose operational movement, synchronization health, and reconciliation context.</Step>
</Steps>

## Separation of responsibilities

| Layer               | Authoritative for                                           | Must not infer                                             |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| Payment application | Customer intent and user experience                         | Provider eligibility or chain finality                     |
| Oynk control plane  | Policy, quote acceptance, assignment, lifecycle, references | Fiat delivery without evidence                             |
| Provider            | Its committed execution leg and evidence                    | Whole-payment completion                                   |
| Soroban contract    | On-chain state and authorized transitions                   | Off-chain identity or fiat facts not supplied under policy |
| Indexer             | What supported chain data shows                             | Authorization, ownership, or business completion           |
| Dashboard           | Readable operational reporting                              | Legal settlement finality                                  |

This separation prevents a common failure mode: treating a token transfer as proof of a complete cross-border payment.