The cryptography is not the upgrade. Merkle commitment, publicly anchored roots, inclusion and consistency proofs, and offline verification are on every plan — including the free one. An audit log you have to pay to verify isn't an audit log.
The whole proof, at hobby volume. No card, no trial clock.
Production volume, metered overages, and the controls a team needs.
Each sealed event is one unit. A background job reports it to billing, usually within seconds. A daily check corrects the billed count from the sealed log. Nothing else is metered: storage is shown to you as a live figure but never billed, since it only re-measures the events you have already paid for.
Overages are billed per unit rather than as a forced plan jump.