Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCreceipt evidence
0x7e4e0629...27b188
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 hash0x7e4e062952ec6882499888d84afcde39978dc8e8a5d9b73ea8e307ef3027b188
previous hash0x43188648a6b87d46d92a168fc6d1139640bc78f1415110b9bd88c4f7b1f03e23
query id0xa08c35eb4a767440
source idcreator-citation-economics
creator wallet0x6666...6666
created at2026-08-24T07:46:11.027Z
payment resourcetollgate-pay-gate:0x5B0C7ff19e71185843269Bb4f15788c005Ce693c
query payment hash0xb6968c2150ceb530076f2ac87a12e347d2d12e4adc381a3438180b83484d4937
payer0x4164F5B52ecc6F847f03071A287b0B59954cbcEe
Arc tx0x63e21e67...01ccef
FeeRouter split135
FeeRouter createSplit0x1996f99d...829c20
FeeRouter pay0x63e21e67...01ccef
contributorssingle recipient
canonical URLhttps://example.com/citation-economics
content fetched at2026-08-24T07:46:11.027Z
source content hash0x4b42e482bbb974b5b503483e97b61d3d145370f639005fb04324527fbeec23bd
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 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 reusing the work. Sub-cent citation payments accumulate in a claimable FeeRouter balance that creators can withdraw with a single claim transaction, which avoids excessive per-citation gas costs. Each payout emits a tamper-evident receipt hash-chained into a ledger for auditability.
Open answer evidencereader paymentx402 settled
amount0.010000 USDC
payer0x9d2d...f6b2
payment hash0xb6968c21...4d4937
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.