Help · Payments

The 20% Network Fee

Users pay each node's price plus 20% (olcRTC traffic pays the network's olcRTC price from 20 November 2026). When an operator claims, the escrow contract sends 80% of the claimed amount to the operator and keeps 20% as the platform fee.

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example
Direct route, node price 0.010 TON/GB, per GB:
  User pays:  0.0120 TON
  Operator:   0.0096 TON (80%)
  Platform:   0.0024 TON (20%)

The price a user sees on the marketplace is the node's own price plus a 20% network fee, applied once. The total is locked into the route when the user adds it (a later price drop lowers it once the lower price has stood for 3 hours), and every GB of that route is charged at it. olcRTC traffic aside: from 20 November 2026 it is charged at the network's olcRTC price.

Where the split happens

Charges are recorded as traffic flows. An operator is paid when they claim: ProofKit's coordinator signs a batch claim, the operator's wallet sends it to the escrow contract, and the contract takes each user's amount from their deposit, sends 80% of the total to the operator's wallet and books 20% as platform fees. The 80/20 split is part of the contract's code (fee = total / 5), so changing it would mean replacing the contract.

So an operator receives 0.96 × their node price per GB and the platform 20% of what the user paid, on a direct route and on a 2-hop route alike: on a 2-hop route each node is credited 80% of its own part of the charge. For olcRTC traffic, from 20 November 2026, the exit receives 80% of the olcRTC price instead. See Revenue split.

What the platform can take out

  • The contract's owner can withdraw collected fees only, at most 100 TON in 24 hours.
  • Replacing the contract's code needs a 48-hour wait, visible on-chain before it takes effect.
  • A user's deposit leaves the contract only through an operator claim signed by the coordinator, a withdrawal to the user's own wallet co-signed by the coordinator, or, once the contract has been paused for 30 days, the user's own emergency withdrawal.

Who pays the gas

Each party pays for their own transactions: users for deposits and withdrawals, operators for claims. See Getting paid for what a claim costs.