Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCreceipt evidence
0x7d521e7a...d060cd
paid to creator0.001200USDC
local proof
Indie Researcher
This receipt binds a source payment to the answer that used it. The previous hash links it into the append-only attribution ledger.
receipt hash0x7d521e7a1194e5aa9aadd706c349c7e71641ea1de23013a9f33b260301d060cd
previous hash0x000940b93ba2fa999c913a840505c2f9beb4264064dc88347be0026bc30a807b
query id0xb3a83efb7d55abc3
source idcreator-citation-economics
creator wallet0x6666...6666
created at2026-06-23T11:02:18.303Z
payment resource/api/sources/creator-citation-economics
query payment hashnot reader-paid
payerlocal proof
transactionpending settlement
FeeRouter splitnot FeeRouter-routed
FeeRouter createSplitnot FeeRouter-routed
FeeRouter paynot FeeRouter-routed
answer context
How can a budgeted AI agent buy publisher citations without overspending?
The paying agent treated "How can a budgeted AI agent buy publisher citations without overspending?" as a source-backed answer, not a free scrape. Circle Developer Notes: Circle Gateway batches signed EIP-3009 authorizations so x402 payments can clear at sub-cent values without per-payment gas. Indie Researcher: A source payment should be tiny, automatic, visible to the creator, and tied to the answer that reused the work. Forum Protocol: Forum-style mandates bound an agent budget, publish receipts, and make spend controls enforceable instead of advisory. It bought the minimum useful bundle of sources, paid each cited creator in USDC atomic units, and wrote a receipt chain that ties the answer to the citations that earned.
Open answer evidenceMatched citations in the source registry.