How Royalty works
Our business model, token rules and payout policy, in plain English.
What Royalty is
Royalty is a digital publishing platform. Creators publish posts, and other members spend in-app tokens to interact with those posts. Posts are digital items inside the platform: they can be listed, transferred to another member, and they earn tokens for whoever currently holds them.
Royalty sells one thing to its members: Royalty tokens (Royalty Credits), a prepaid in-app digital good used to access platform features. Users purchase tokens only from Royalty. Royalty is the merchant of record for every purchase and is the only party that accepts payments on the platform. There is no person-to-person payment, remittance, tipping, or money transfer product on Royalty.
Tokens
What are tokens?
Tokens are a prepaid, non-transferable licence to use paid features on Royalty. They are bought directly from Royalty by card, in fixed packs or a custom amount. Tokens are not currency, not stored value redeemable with third parties, not a deposit account, and they carry no interest.
Who accepts payments on Royalty?
Only Royalty accepts payments. Users buy tokens directly from Royalty through Stripe checkout. No creator or other member can receive payments directly from users on the platform.
Can I send tokens to another user?
No. There is no send, transfer, gift, tip-to-user, or withdraw-to-another-member function. Tokens only move when a member uses a platform feature, and every movement is a transaction with the platform, priced by the platform.
Do tokens expire?
Tokens do not expire while an account remains in good standing.
Publishing, bonus and purchased tokens
What are publishing tokens?
Every deposit is split 90% tokens and 10% publishing tokens. Publishing tokens are not purchased and cannot be cashed out.
What can I spend publishing tokens on?
Publishing tokens can only be used to publish posts. They are spent before any purchased tokens. You cannot use publishing tokens to like, repost, comment, share, bid, or buy posts.
What are purchased tokens?
Purchased tokens are Royalty tokens you buy from Royalty by card through Stripe checkout. They are added to your main balance and can be used for every platform feature: posting, liking, reposting, commenting, sharing, and buying posts on the marketplace.
Can I withdraw publishing tokens or unused deposits?
Publishing tokens are never cashable. Everything else — unused deposits and earnings alike — cashes out at 100% of its token value, with no fee and no minimum.
Why are publishing tokens separate from my main balance?
Separating them keeps the ledger clear: publishing tokens have a single permitted use (publishing), while your main balance holds real value you purchased or earned and can spend anywhere on the platform.
What are bonus tokens?
Bonus tokens are promotional tokens Royalty may grant during a promotion. Unlike publishing tokens, they can be spent on anything — posting, likes, reposts, comments, shares and marketplace purchases. They are not purchased and are not cashable. Royalty does not offer bonus tokens at this time.
Do publishing tokens expire?
Publishing tokens do not expire while your account remains active. However, if your account has no activity — no login, post, engagement, deposit, or withdrawal — for 18 consecutive months, your remaining publishing-token balance may be forfeited. Your purchased and earned balances are not affected.
Feature access is priced in tokens and is set by Royalty, not negotiated between members:
- Publishing a post — 1 token
- Liking a post — 1 token
- Reposting — 5 tokens
- Commenting — 10 tokens
- Sharing — 25 tokens
Spending tokens is a purchase of platform functionality. Members cannot set arbitrary amounts, cannot direct a payment to a specific person, and cannot choose a recipient.
Post ownership and earnings
Who pays creators on Royalty?
Only Royalty pays creators. Users pay Royalty for platform features. Royalty then allocates creator earnings to the account that holds a post, based on Royalty's creator earnings programme. No user pays another user directly.
Why does someone else receive tokens when I like a post?
They don't receive a payment from you. You pay Royalty for the interaction. Royalty then allocates a platform earnings allocation to the account that holds that post, as a reward under our creator earnings programme. The allocation is determined by Royalty's published rules, not by the payer.
How does buying a post work?
A holder can list a post at a fixed price or open it to offers. If a listing is completed, Royalty debits the buyer's token balance, reassigns the post in the platform ledger, and allocates the full sale amount to the seller's earnings balance. Royalty operates and settles the marketplace; buyer and seller never transact directly and never exchange payment details.
Is a post an investment or a security?
No. A post is a licence to platform features and future earnings allocations inside Royalty. It is not a share, token, security, or claim on the company, and Royalty makes no representation that any post will earn or appreciate.
Earnings and payouts
How do I get paid?
Earnings accrue in your Royalty account. There is no minimum, so you can request a payout at any time. Royalty reviews the request and pays you directly, from Royalty to you, as platform earnings — the same way any marketplace pays out its creators.
Can I withdraw tokens I bought?
Yes, at 100% with no fee. Deposits are sold in $5 increments and 10% of each deposit arrives as publishing tokens, which covers processing and keeps Royalty from being used to cycle money. Only those publishing tokens are non-cashable.
Refunds
Unused tokens may be refunded to the original card at Royalty's discretion, subject to review. If a purchase is refunded or reversed, the corresponding tokens are removed from the account balance.
Non-transferable tokens: permitted and prohibited uses
What can I use tokens for?
You can spend tokens only on Royalty platform features: publishing posts, liking, reposting, commenting, sharing, and buying posts listed on the marketplace. Each feature is priced by Royalty and the token is consumed when you use it.
What can I NOT do with tokens?
You cannot send, transfer, gift, tip, or withdraw tokens to another member or to a third party. You cannot trade tokens outside the platform, sell them for cash, or use them as collateral. You cannot direct a token payment to a specific person — you can only spend tokens on the fixed-price features Royalty provides.
Why does this matter?
Royalty is a digital-goods marketplace, not a money transmitter or peer-to-peer payment service. Keeping tokens non-transferable and closing the loop inside the platform means every movement of value is tied to a platform feature transaction with Royalty as the merchant of record.
What happens if someone tries to use Royalty to move money?
Accounts used primarily to move funds rather than to publish and engage are suspended. Any remaining tokens may be refunded to the original payment method and the account holder may be permanently banned.
Is Royalty a money transmitter?
No. Royalty sells prepaid digital tokens for use on its own platform. Members do not transmit money to each other; they buy tokens from Royalty and spend them on Royalty features. Earnings are paid out by Royalty directly to verified creators, not transferred between members.
Rules we enforce
- No transfers of tokens or balances between members.
- Earnings and unused deposits cash out at 100% — no fee, no minimum. Publishing tokens never cash out.
- All feature prices are set by Royalty and are the same for every member.
- Payouts go only to the verified account holder, never to a third party.
- Accounts used to move funds rather than to publish and engage are suspended and refunded.
- No sexually explicit or other prohibited content; all uploads pass automated review.
Together these rules mean Royalty is a digital-goods marketplace, not a peer-to-peer money transmission or payment service.