Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCreceipt evidence
0x60370511...7ee4be
creator amount0.000700USDC
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
amount0.000700 USDC
receipt hash0x60370511520f380939f1975988336e40907056bbfc78e5fd369e968fa97ee4be
previous hash0x9d38e981271117273d00bf351e6af620677c4e17e7f28afb93338d470a543e2e
query id0xf69327b2cce382a4
source idcreator-citation-economics
creator wallet0x6666...6666
created at2026-07-12T15:24:13.952Z
payment resourcetollgate-pay-gate:0x5B0C7ff19e71185843269Bb4f15788c005Ce693c
query payment hash0x2f5df48839bf67125171390386262257df27da4ad84fc72e719e838ee9a5f30e
payer0x4164F5B52ecc6F847f03071A287b0B59954cbcEe
Arc tx0x45169aec...2da316
FeeRouter split135
FeeRouter createSplit0x1996f99d...829c20
FeeRouter pay0x45169aec...2da316
contributorssingle recipient
canonical URLhttps://example.com/citation-economics
content fetched at2026-07-12T15:24:13.952Z
source content hash0x72b49dd84c9c83cd89fc5eaa091fa4eb6633ad79bdf54cd8da9868ac259b3f58
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 creator wallets based on basis-point shares. When an AI answer cites a creator's work, a source payment is triggered that is tiny, automatic, visible to the creator, and tied to the specific answer that reused the work. Sub-cent citation payments accumulate in a claimable FeeRouter balance that creators can withdraw with a single claim call, which avoids excessive per-citation gas costs. Each payout emits an evidence receipt that is hash-chained into a tamper-evident ledger for transparency and auditability.
Open answer evidencereader paymentx402 settled
amount0.010000 USDC
payer0x9d2d...f6b2
payment hash0x2f5df488...a5f30e
creator payouts (reader-paid)0.002800 USDC
protocol retained (reader-paid)0.007200 USDC
budget utilization28.0%
Articulates the payment principle: tiny, automatic, visible, tied to the answer. Directly answers what 'pay creators when cited' means in practice.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.