How a Source-Buying Answer Agent Works
Agent Commerce Notes / 0.001300 USDCreceipt evidence
0x7e595288...ddb444
creator amount0.001300USDC
refunded
Agent Commerce Notes
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 statusrefunded
settlement moderefunded
amount0.001300 USDC
receipt hash0x7e5952889e6a7acd8944298140cdd5703f3f4d46fc7ad81d5da90ce7d4ddb444
previous hash0xb6a7ec03f1a04e8483ac75cea827c526627d9e4a4d1e692724e7ef0c9931167c
query id0xa08c35eb4a767440
source idautonomous-source-buying
creator wallet0x9999...9999
created at2026-08-24T07:46:11.027Z
payment resourcetollgate-refund:unused-source
query payment hash0xb6968c2150ceb530076f2ac87a12e347d2d12e4adc381a3438180b83484d4937
payerlocal proof
Arc txpending settlement
FeeRouter splitnot FeeRouter-routed
FeeRouter createSplitnot FeeRouter-routed
FeeRouter paynot FeeRouter-routed
contributorssingle recipient
canonical URLhttps://example.com/source-buying-agent
content fetched at2026-08-24T07:46:11.027Z
source content hash0x0a12a460dc83d51a5ef23c87777dbd3906481ba250123200506933786590d0ee
source excerpt hash0x1f81e45f5264bef09aa6098b0c2d528101dd8c212ba42ce06d15feeb4b7e938e
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%
Directly explains how Tollgate (the answer agent itself) works: appraises sources, allocates budget, buys grounding, and records payments. Core to understanding the payment mechanism.Seed/demo content from Agent Commerce Notes. Title: How a Source-Buying Answer Agent Works. Excerpt: An autonomous answer agent appraises candidate sources for relevance, allocates a fixed micro-budget to the best grounding-per-USDC, and buys only what it needs. It drafts an answer grounded strictly in the purchased content, self-critiques to drop any claim a purchased source does not support, and can buy one more source during reflection. Every step is recorded and hashed into the answer, so the reasoning and the payments are auditable together. Tags: agents, rag, budget, citations, grounding. Canonical URL: https://example.com/source-buying-agent.