Creator Payouts

Status: Admitted as platform direction

The economy core that payouts build on — the R-ECON-* contracts and the revenue-policy and creator-economy definitions — is settled. The payout pipeline itself (how settlements run on a cadence, how withdrawals appear in the UI) is agreed direction, and the user-facing payout surface is not a public app API.

What "Payouts" Means

A creator who builds a world earns from the revenue sources active in that world, settled under a share plan. Payouts are the pipeline from those earnings to money the creator actually withdraws — revenue accrues as append-only events, a share plan settles them, and the creator withdraws the result.

This page explains the pieces. It does not promise dates.

Authority Surface

Concern	Authority
Realm economy contract (append-only, separate from narrative)	R-ECON-001..R-ECON-004
World creator economy bridge	realm/world-creator-economy.md
Creator revenue policy (share plans, settlement)	realm/creator-revenue-policy.md
Desktop wallet projection	Desktop kernel (admitted)

The economy is canonical at Realm. Desktop projects it; share plans and revenue policies attach at the bridge.

Append-Only Revenue Events

Every revenue event is typed and appended:

Event kind	Purpose
Purchase	Buyer purchases admitted ownable assets
Settlement	Periodic settlement per share plan
Withdrawal	Creator withdraws settled funds
Correction	Supersedes a prior event under admitted correction flow

Append-only is the audit foundation. Every revenue event has provenance, timestamp, and typed shape. Settlement events reference the admitted revenue-source events they settle.

Share Plans

A share plan declares how revenue is split among creators and platform. Plans are explicit; revenue does not flow without an admitted plan. The plan governs:

• Which creators receive shares
• The split percentages
• Settlement cadence
• Withdrawal eligibility

Hidden side splits, retroactive plan changes that mutate prior settlements, or platform-skim outside the declared plan are forbidden.

Boundary Per R-ECON-*

Rule	Constraint
R-ECON-001	Creator economy + access economics remain auditable, explicit, separate from narrative runtime
R-ECON-002	AI compute route cost is NOT modeled as Realm core truth or hidden world mutation
R-ECON-003	Revenue and settlement use explicit event types and share plans with append-only accounting
R-ECON-004	Apps cannot hide economic state changes inside narrative history or memory commits

The boundary keeps "money flow" from getting tangled with "story flow." A purchase is a typed economy event. A character buying something in-narrative is a story event. They are not the same row.

Reader Scenario: Revenue Becomes A Settlement

An admitted revenue source is attributed to a creator's world.

1. Source attribution. Realm records the typed origin and its economic lineage.
2. Revenue accrues. Admitted revenue events accumulate under the active share plan.
3. Settlement cadence fires. A typed Settlement event references the revenue events it settles and records each share.
4. Settled funds become available. A creator may withdraw settled funds through the admitted Withdrawal flow.
5. Withdrawal event. Append-only, with provenance attached.

The chain is auditable end-to-end from source attribution through settlement and withdrawal.

Reader Scenario: A Correction

A revenue source was attributed to the wrong world.

1. Original attribution. Stays as-is in the append-only record.
2. Correction event. A typed correction supersedes the original attribution and records the corrected origin and reason.
3. Settlement re-derivation. The next settlement cycle reads the corrected attribution.
4. Audit chain. Reviewers see both records; nothing is silently overwritten.

Reader Scenario: A Forbidden Substitution

A maintainer asks: can settlement be embedded inline as a memory commit to skip Realm economy?

1. Reject. Per R-ECON-004, apps cannot hide economic state changes inside narrative history or memory commits.
2. Re-route. Settlement is a Realm economy event; no other surface may stand in for it.
3. Audit posture preserved. The auditable separate stream is what makes payouts trustworthy.

What Creator Payouts Do Not Do

• Promise specific payout dates.
• Promise specific share-plan terms.
• Promise specific withdrawal cadence.
• Allow revenue to flow without admitted share plans.
• Let AI compute cost become Realm truth.
• Let economy events hide inside narrative history or memory.

The "what is admitted" surface is the contract. The "what ships when" question is operational, not contractual.

Boundary Summary

Concern	Owner
Realm economy event stream	Realm (R-ECON-*)
Share plans + settlement rules	creator-revenue-policy.md
World creator bridge	world-creator-economy.md
Wallet UI projection	Desktop kernel (admitted)

Source Basis

• .nimi/spec/sdks/realm-consumer.authority.yaml