A.5 Economics & Enforcement

Escrow

Funds locked for a campaign to guarantee payouts, validator rewards, and dispute/arbitration costs.

Work Budget (WB)

Escrow line item reserved for contributor payouts upon finalized acceptance.

Verification Budget (VB)

Escrow line item reserved for validator base rewards for quorum reviews.

Audit Reserve (AR)

Escrow line item reserved for audit execution and auditor rewards, spent only when audits trigger.

Dispute / Arbitration Reserve (DR)

Optional escrow line item reserved for dispute handling and arbitration quorum costs, spent only if disputes are enabled and triggered.

Protocol Fee

A fee routed to the protocol treasury/security budget to fund maintenance, security, and ecosystem incentives.

Heldback Reward

A fraction of validator base rewards held until finality and released/forfeited based on alignment with finalized outcomes.

Stake (S)

Collateral locked by participants (contributors/validators; optionally requesters) that can be slashed for proven fraud, negligence, or abuse.

Slashing

A penalty that reduces stake (and potentially reputation) when fraud, collusion, or negligent validation is proven under protocol rules.

Reputation (R)

A non-transferable score reflecting historical quality and integrity. Reputation may influence task access, reward multipliers, validation weight, rate limits, and role eligibility.

Royalty Split

A committed distribution rule for dataset licensing/subscription revenue across contributors, validators/auditors, curators (if applicable), and the protocol treasury.