# 09 Fee Economics Spec **Status:** Draft | **Version:** 0.1 | **Date:** April 2026 **References:** WHITEPAPER-CHAIN-AGNOSTIC.md (Sections 8, 9), ARCHITECTURE.md (FeeRouter.sol, RewardLedger.sol, PromotionSettlement.sol), 04-SMART-CONTRACTS-SPEC.md --- ## 1. Protocol Fee ATLAS charges a flat **2% fee on every ticket transaction**. The fee applies to: - Ticket purchases via the 402 payment flow (agent-initiated) - Ticket purchases via ATLAS Direct Ticketing (organizer-hosted) The following actions are free. No fee, no hidden cost, no rate limit surcharge: - Event listing and publishing - Search queries and discovery - Account creation (organizer, platform, agent) - SDK integration and API access On a $50 ticket, the protocol fee is $1.00. The organizer receives $49.00 before reward distributions. On a $25 ticket, the fee is $0.50. --- ## 2. Fee Distribution The 2% protocol fee splits into five allocations. `FeeRouter.sol` executes the split on-chain at settlement time. Percentages are stored in the contract and updatable via governance (see Section 8). | Allocation | Share | Effective Rate (of ticket price) | Purpose | |---|---|---|---| | Organizer rewards | 30% | 0.6% | USDC cashback to event organizers | | Attendee rewards | 20% | 0.4% | USDC cashback to ticket purchasers | | Referral rewards | 10% | 0.2% | Acquisition incentives for organizers, platforms, agents | | Protocol development | 25% | 0.5% | Engineering, infrastructure, security audits | | Reserve | 15% | 0.3% | Governance transition fund, contingencies | **Dollar example.** A $100 ticket generates a $2.00 protocol fee. That $2.00 splits as: $0.60 organizer rewards, $0.40 attendee rewards, $0.20 referral rewards, $0.50 protocol development, $0.30 reserve. --- ## 3. Organizer Reward Tiers Organizer cashback scales with monthly ticket volume. Higher volume unlocks a larger share of the 30% organizer allocation. | Monthly Tickets Sold | Cashback Rate (of protocol fee) | Effective Rate (of GMV) | |---|---|---| | 1 to 100 | 20% | 0.4% | | 101 to 500 | 25% | 0.5% | | 501 to 2,000 | 30% | 0.6% | | 2,000+ | 35% | 0.7% | **Payout mechanics:** - Payouts occur weekly in USDC to the organizer's configured wallet. - No minimum threshold. An organizer who sells one $10 ticket receives their reward. - No claim process. `RewardLedger.sol` accrues the reward automatically, and a relay service triggers `claimFor()` on the organizer's behalf. - No token conversion. Rewards arrive as USDC. **Dollar example.** An organizer sells 600 tickets at $30 each in a month ($18,000 GMV). They fall in the 501-to-2,000 tier (30% cashback rate). Protocol fee: $360. Organizer reward: $360 x 30% = $108. Effective cost to the organizer: 2% - 0.6% = 1.4% of GMV. --- ## 4. Attendee Rewards Attendees who purchase tickets through ATLAS-aware agents receive USDC cashback. **Standard rate:** 0.2% of the ticket price. On a $50 ticket, the attendee receives $0.10 in USDC. **First purchase bonus:** 1% of the ticket price, capped at $5. A new attendee buying a $200 ticket receives $2.00 standard + a $5.00 bonus = $7.00 total on their first transaction. **Referral bonus:** 0.5% of the ticket price when a referred friend makes their first purchase. If the friend buys a $40 ticket, the referrer receives $0.20. Attendee rewards are optional for agents to surface. Agents choose whether to display reward information during the purchase flow. Rewards accrue to a lightweight ATLAS wallet tied to the attendee's email. Accrued USDC can be applied toward future ticket purchases or withdrawn to an external wallet. --- ## 5. Referral Program All referral payouts are in USDC, sourced from the 10% referral allocation of the protocol fee. **Organizer referrals.** An organizer who refers another organizer to ATLAS earns 5% of the referred organizer's protocol fees for 12 months. If the referred organizer generates $10,000 in monthly GMV, the protocol fee is $200 and the referrer earns $10/month. **Platform referrals.** A platform that onboards organizers earns 10% of those organizers' protocol fees for 12 months. Platforms that bring supply-side liquidity receive double the organizer referral rate. **Agent referrals.** An agent implementation that drives ticket purchases earns 5% of those transactions' protocol fees perpetually. The agent retains the referral as long as it remains the transaction source. Agents register via the ATLAS registry and receive an `X-Atlas-Agent-Id` header for attribution tracking. --- ## 6. Promotion Revenue (Ad-Network) The ATLAS ad-network creates a second revenue stream. Promotion revenue is separate from the 2% transaction fee. It is additive. An organizer who promotes an event pays the 2% protocol fee plus the promotion bid. `PromotionSettlement.sol` executes the bid split on-chain when a promoted ticket sells. **Promotion split:** | Recipient | Share | Role | |---|---|---| | Referring agent | 60% | Surfaced the promoted event to the buyer | | Protocol treasury | 30% | Funds protocol operations | | Registry node | 10% | Served the discovery query | ### 6.1 Revenue Stream Comparison | Revenue Stream | Source | Frequency | Split | |---|---|---|---| | Transaction fee (2%) | Every ticket sale | Every transaction | 30% organizer, 20% attendee, 10% referral, 25% dev, 15% reserve | | Promotion bid (variable) | Promoted ticket sales only | Subset of transactions | 60% agent, 30% treasury, 10% node | **Dollar example.** A $25 ticket with a $2.00 promotion bid generates: $0.50 protocol fee (standard 2%) plus $2.00 promotion bid. The agent receives $1.20 from the bid. The protocol treasury receives $0.60. The registry node receives $0.20. ### 6.2 Projected Protocol Revenue Assumes 20% of events run promotions at an average bid of $1.50 per ticket sold. | Monthly GMV | Transaction Fee (2%) | Ad-Network Revenue | Combined | |---|---|---|---| | $100K | $2,000 | $600 | $2,600 | | $1M | $20,000 | $6,000 | $26,000 | | $10M | $200,000 | $60,000 | $260,000 | The ad-network adds approximately 30% to base protocol revenue once activated. --- ## 7. Fee Comparison vs Competitors All calculations use a $25 base ticket price. | Platform | Fee Structure | Organizer Net (on $25 ticket) | |---|---|---| | ATLAS (MPP, on-chain USDC) | 2% protocol fee | $24.49 (after cashback at Tier 1) | | ATLAS (MPP, card via SPT Stripe fiat rail) | 2% protocol + ~1.5% SPT (Stripe fiat rail) processing | $24.11 (after cashback at Tier 1) | | Eventbrite | 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket + 2.9% payment processing | ~$21.50 to $22.50 | | Ticketmaster | 20-30% service fees | ~$17.50 to $20.00 | ATLAS is an MPP-compliant service. MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) is the open payment standard co-authored by Stripe and Tempo. MPP supports two rails: direct on-chain USDC for crypto settlement, and Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs) for fiat settlement via Stripe. The card row above reflects the SPT fiat rail inside MPP. ATLAS organizers keep 97-98% of ticket revenue at baseline. With cashback rewards at higher tiers, the effective cost drops below 1.5%. Eventbrite organizers lose 10-14% to fees. Ticketmaster organizers lose 20-30%. --- ## 8. Governance and Fee Adjustments The 2% rate and allocation percentages are stored in `FeeRouter.sol` as governance-updatable parameters. **Stage 1 (launch):** Lemonade multi-sig controls fee parameters. **Stage 3 (federation):** 3-of-5 multi-sig with Lemonade, organizer representatives, and platform representatives. **Stage 4 (decentralization):** DAO governance via $LEMON token holders votes on fee changes. No fee change takes effect without a 7-day timelock. The contract emits events for every parameter update, creating a public audit trail. --- ## 9. Token Phases (Summary) Full specification in `23-TOKEN-PHASES-SPEC.md`. ATLAS launches without a custom token. Token phases activate at adoption milestones, not calendar dates. **Phase 0: USDC Only** (launch to $100K monthly GMV). All fees, rewards, and settlements in USDC. No custom token exists. **Phase 1: LMC Wrapper** (triggered at $100K monthly GMV). LMC (Lemonade Coin) wraps USDC at a 1:1 ratio. LMC holders receive priority listing placement, a 1.5x reward multiplier, and platform staking capability. LMC is always redeemable for USDC at par. **Phase 2: $LEMON Governance** (triggered at $1M monthly GMV). $LEMON is a governance token distributed to active protocol participants based on historical contribution. Holders vote on fee adjustments, reward allocation changes, registry federation policies, and grant disbursements from the reserve. **Phase 3: Dual-Token + Foundation** (triggered at $10M monthly GMV). LMC handles utility and staking (stable, USDC-backed). $LEMON handles governance and ecosystem growth (floating, market-determined). A non-profit ATLAS Foundation stewards the protocol, funded by the reserve allocation. --- ## 10. Contract Reference | Contract | Function | Deployment Stage | |---|---|---| | `FeeRouter.sol` | Receives USDC, splits to organizer + treasury + rewards + referral | Stage 1 (launch) | | `RewardLedger.sol` | Tracks reward accrual, enforces 14-day timelock, identity-boosted rates | Stage 3 (federation) | | `PromotionSettlement.sol` | Splits ad-network bids per 60/30/10 rule | Phase 1 ($500K GMV) | `RewardLedger.sol` supports identity-boosted rewards. Participants with a verified on-chain attestation (World ID, Self.xyz, Civic, or Polygon ID) receive a 1.5x multiplier on all reward accruals. The multiplier is governance-adjustable after Phase 2.