Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCreceipt evidence
0x42a2b313...fe2264
creator amount0.000934USDC
accrued -> claimable on-chain
Indie Researcher
This receipt binds a source payment to the answer that used it; FeeRouter-routed receipts accrue into creator-claimable balances. The previous hash links it into the append-only attribution ledger.
payment statusaccrued -> claimable on-chain
settlement modeforum-routed
amount0.000934 USDC
receipt hash0x42a2b31309187addbfa56b4e8e494bb3fc5b8d789fddc0b5e4da50fe39fe2264
previous hash0x10e4448ee7111f9677631370000d6e2a1a7763276c5e98932e04f725ae6e4133
query id0x985d71b75fd8d992
source idcreator-citation-economics
creator wallet0x6666...6666
created at2026-07-12T14:08:35.676Z
payment resourcetollgate-pay-gate:0x5B0C7ff19e71185843269Bb4f15788c005Ce693c
query payment hash0xf88683ae707ca395dcfd3f4f68a973d8e5b9a7e64acc7bc2f5228ad50e50eadc
payer0x4164F5B52ecc6F847f03071A287b0B59954cbcEe
Arc tx0x3db14dfd...c8229f
FeeRouter split135
FeeRouter createSplit0x1996f99d...829c20
FeeRouter pay0x3db14dfd...c8229f
contributorssingle recipient
canonical URLhttps://example.com/citation-economics
content fetched at2026-07-12T14:08:35.676Z
source content hash0x5f7437b6db1ab40490856cb642aa57811968f5ee693e82bb7e66ab028dd6317a
source excerpt hash0x4249ed2c94867d635e49d478e53dd2ab0123be241c1bdbb8d0f239ee9862fe12
ownership proofseed-demo
ownership signernot verified
answer context
How does Tollgate pay creators when an AI answer cites their work?
Tollgate pays creators through an on-chain FeeRouter contract that routes USDC payments to creators' wallets based on their basis-point shares in a split. —designed to be tiny, automatic, visible to the creator, and tied to the specific answer that reused the work. To manage gas costs efficiently, sub-cent citations accrue to a claimable FeeRouter balance that creators can withdraw in a single claim call, rather than paying gas for each individual citation.
Open answer evidencereader paymentx402 settled
amount0.010000 USDC
payer0x9d2d...f6b2
payment hash0xf88683ae...50eadc
creator payouts (reader-paid)0.002800 USDC
protocol retained (reader-paid)0.007200 USDC
budget utilization28.0%
Establishes the principle that citation payments should be automatic, visible, and tied to the answer. Directly answers the 'how' of creator compensation.Seed/demo content from Indie Researcher. Title: Citation Economics for AI Answers. Excerpt: A source payment should be tiny, automatic, visible to the creator, and tied to the answer that reused the work. Tags: citations, attribution, publishers, answers, economics. Canonical URL: https://example.com/citation-economics.