Economics

Numbers in this page are measured from the live demo against 0G Galileo testnet. Mainnet pricing follows the same gas economics; multiply by your live gas price for absolute numbers in fiat.

Per-operation gas (measured)

Operation Gas used Source
Registry.check() settlement ~49,000 live receipts, 4 ADDRESS check txs
Publish ADDRESS antibody ~248,000 live receipts, 2 publisher txs
Publish SEMANTIC antibody ~282,000 live receipts, includes seed-blob upload
Withdraw stake (post-72h) ~62,000 live receipts
Deposit USDC (with allowance) ~74,000 live receipts
Deposit USDC (first-time approve) ~120,000 first deposit only

At 4 gwei (typical Galileo testnet) and 0G ~$0.54 (current spot):

Operation Cost in USDC
Registry.check() settlement ~$0.0001
Publish ADDRESS antibody ~$0.0005
Publish SEMANTIC antibody ~$0.0006
Withdraw stake ~$0.00013
Deposit USDC ~$0.00016

Protocol fee

0.002 USDC flat per settled check(). Goes through the Registry, not directly to the publisher.

The fee economics:

Per check, 0.002 USDC debited from agent prepaid balance:
  match found    -> 80% to publisher (0.0016), 20% to treasury (0.0004)
  no match found -> 100% to treasury (0.002)

Treasury

Accumulated from non-match checks (100% of the fee) and the treasury share of matched checks (20%).

Treasury balance is publicly readable:

const balance = await registry.treasuryBalance();
console.log(formatUsdc(balance));

The treasury pays for:

  • 0G Compute charges, every TEE inference paid in OG to the inference provider.
  • Indexer hosting, Postgres + Fly machines + Moralis API key for token pricing.
  • Public feed delivery, RSS / JSON / webhook infra.
  • Audit costs, contract audits and key rotations.
  • Bounties and grants for high-value antibody publications.

Publisher rewards

A publisher who consistently mints accurate antibodies turns the 1 USDC stake into a perpetuity:

  • 1 USDC stake locked 72h.
  • Each match earns 0.0016 USDC (80% of the 0.002 fee).
  • Stake unlocks for withdrawal after 72h, or on first match (whichever comes later in the implementation).

Break-even math: a publisher recovers the 1 USDC stake after 625 matches (1 USDC / 0.0016 USDC per match). After that every match is pure profit.

The live demo has 14 publishers as of writing. Top publisher (0x4789dd...bc28) has 43 published antibodies, 386 successful blocks, and earns approximately $0.62 in cumulative rewards. Modest in absolute terms; meaningful in unit economics terms (the 14 publishers' combined stake is 14 USDC; their combined return on the stake exceeds the stake itself).

What you pay total

Worst-case per agent action that triggers a novel-threat round-trip and an auto-publish:

Component Cost in USDC
Cache hit $0
Protocol fee (per settled check) $0.002
Settlement gas ~$0.0001
TEE compute (novel only) +$0.00015
Publish gas (auto-mint only) ~$0.0005
1 USDC stake locked 72h (refundable) refundable
Total worst case ~$0.00285

Cache-hit checks (99% of agent traffic) cost the $0.002 fee plus settlement gas, total ~$0.0021.

What you earn (publisher)

Source Per match Cumulative
Match rewards (80% of the protocol fee) $0.0016 unbounded as long as antibody stays ACTIVE
Sweep bounty (releasing expired stakes) ~$0.0001 small, opportunistic

Both rewards land in your prepaid USDC balance. Withdraw via immunity.withdraw(amount).

What gets slashed

A publisher's 1 USDC stake is slashed if a challenge against the antibody succeeds. Today challenges are governance-driven: a challenger files an on-chain claim, the protocol team adjudicates, the loser forfeits stake.

Slash destinations:

  • v1: 100% to the treasury.
  • v2: split between treasury and the successful challenger (planned 50/50).

Why the model works

The economics are calibrated to make spam unprofitable and accuracy compounding:

  • Spam publish costs 1 USDC every time. A spam publisher mints 1 USDC of stake, gets challenged, loses the stake. There is no path to recovery without earning matches.
  • Accuracy compounds. A real, well-targeted antibody (Tornado Cash, a Lazarus wallet, a known drainer kit) gets matched dozens of times per day across the network. Cumulative match rewards exceed the stake within a week.
  • Treasury accumulates by default. Every check (matched or not) pays into the treasury directly or via the 20% split. The treasury funds the network's off-chain costs (TEE compute, indexer infra) so the protocol does not need external grants to operate.

Where to look

See also