Fee Model

Inkd fees are dynamic and transparent. You pay exactly the resource cost plus a 20% protocol fee. Nothing is fixed — prices adjust automatically with Arweave storage rates.

How fees are calculated

Creating a project

Creating a project registers metadata on-chain. No Arweave upload is required (the readmeHash field is optional).

createProject fee = $0.10 USDC (minimum)

Pushing a version

Pushing a version uploads content to Arweave and records the hash on-chain. The fee is:

pushVersion fee = arweaveCost + 20% markup
               = arweaveCost × 1.20
 
minimum: $0.10 USDC

The Arweave cost depends on file size and current market rates. At current rates:

File size	Arweave cost	20% markup	Total
1 KB	~$0.0018	~$0.00036	~$0.0022
100 KB	~$0.18	~$0.036	~$0.22
1 MB	~$1.84	~$0.37	~$2.21

Use the estimate endpoint to get the exact fee for any file size:

curl "https://api.inkdprotocol.com/v1/projects/estimate?bytes=102400"

{
  "bytes":       102400,
  "arweaveCost": "184000",
  "markup":      "36800",
  "total":       "220800",
  "totalUsd":    "$0.22"
}

All USDC values use 6 decimals. total / 1e6 = USD amount.

Where fees go

Every payment is processed by InkdTreasury.settle():

You pay: total USDC
           │
           ▼
    InkdTreasury
           │
           ├── arweaveCost ──► arweaveWallet
           │                   (exact Arweave upload cost)
           │
           └── 20% markup
                  │
                  ├── 50% ──► InkdBuyback
                  │           (accumulates, then auto-buys $INKD at $50 threshold)
                  │
                  └── 50% ──► Treasury Safe (multisig)

You pay the Arweave cost — it's forwarded directly to cover storage
20% goes to the protocol — split between buyback and treasury
Nothing is hidden — all flows are on-chain and verifiable

Buyback mechanism

Half of the 20% protocol fee flows into InkdBuyback. When the accumulated USDC balance reaches $50, the contract automatically:

Calls Uniswap V3 to swap all USDC → $INKD
$INKD is held in the contract (controlled by the Buyback Safe multisig)

This creates continuous buy pressure on $INKD proportional to protocol usage.

Read operations are free

All read operations have no fee:

GET /v1/projects — list all projects
GET /v1/projects/:id — get project details
GET /v1/projects/:id/versions — list versions
GET /v1/projects/estimate — estimate push cost
GET /v1/upload/price — estimate upload cost
GET /v1/status — protocol status

USDC on Base

All fees are paid in USDC on Base Mainnet:

Token:    USD Coin (USDC)
Contract: 0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913
Chain:    Base Mainnet (8453)

Get USDC on Base via Coinbase or bridge from Ethereum at bridge.base.org.