Citation Economics for AI Answers
Indie Researcher / 0.001200 USDCreceipt evidence
0x8198bc03...e3295e
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 hash0x8198bc0310fafcb8b4298d735f29d49b363c95c0fe21ff4379d69f41dee3295e
previous hash0x3df01e4a1aaa28caa8ec7efb6f0f8d630f0ca86602ef4eb79098fcf0369a96d1
query id0x5ffcbffc677f90ea
source idcreator-citation-economics
creator wallet0x6666...6666
created at2026-07-12T10:30:54.696Z
payment resourceforum-fee-router:0xeff9bc359e8f2a5eabce55af3f1bb24f98eabf59
query payment hash0xaff33f0532158ba1fe61926ae3c55cf0695b1ac1f96fd84beffe1c107bd97034
payer0x4164F5B52ecc6F847f03071A287b0B59954cbcEe
Arc tx0xbfa6925a...ffe397
FeeRouter split135
FeeRouter createSplit0x1996f99d...829c20
FeeRouter pay0xbfa6925a...ffe397
contributorssingle recipient
canonical URLhttps://example.com/citation-economics
content fetched at2026-07-12T10:30:54.696Z
source content hash0xda9ec57a9234f7a3fccb01848fec4b058289219c0248108457e97da4ce531fb6
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 hash0xaff33f05...d97034
creator payouts (reader-paid)0.002800 USDC
protocol retained (reader-paid)0.007200 USDC
budget utilization28.0%
Articulates the principle that citation payments should be automatic, visible, and tied to answers. Foundational to the payment philosophy.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.