How a Source-Buying Answer Agent Works
Agent Commerce Notes / 0.001300 USDCreceipt evidence
0xd64b2333...9891b6
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 hash0xd64b233353de8b4d65e0eee5191e082c21b8e6e48a5d982b3c7789bded9891b6
previous hash0x218e70281cdb4010abcd76ee45f01b5b3d5d367914b7a7c7184430948cee3556
query id0xf69327b2cce382a4
source idautonomous-source-buying
creator wallet0x9999...9999
created at2026-07-12T15:24:13.952Z
payment resourcetollgate-refund:unused-source
query payment hash0x2f5df48839bf67125171390386262257df27da4ad84fc72e719e838ee9a5f30e
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 at2026-07-12T15:24:13.952Z
source content hash0x5f9c9554e2eb3be8504ddb9a21466bd8dc8ceccb7d5d5db1548108b1665ec794
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 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%
Directly explains how Tollgate (the answer agent itself) works: appraises sources, allocates micro-budget, buys grounding, and records payments auditably. 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.