Quotes and compensation

Quote paid work in dollars to the cent. Prefer EPOCHE as the contributor settlement asset, subject to usable liquidity and explicit conversion terms. Keep the quote unit, settlement asset, and operating reserve as separate choices. Paying contributors in EPOCHE does not require customers to acquire it to buy a review.

The quote must say what the recipient is promised. Tokens calculated using an agreed reference price provide different protection from a guaranteed dollar amount realizable after a swap. A funded USDC option may be offered where a buffer supports it. A recipient can explicitly accept token-price exposure, but the DAO must not hide that exposure behind a dollar quote.

Use bounded conversions for service expenses or protected recipient payouts. If the promised output cannot be obtained within the authorized cost, follow an agreed fallback or delay while preserving the entitlement. Fixed dollar promises need funds or executable liquidity to support them. Holding every reserve in EPOCHE would expose those promises to the same market decline that could accompany a verifier incident.

Select operating buffers and payout protection before accepting the promises they support. A premium for accepting token risk remains an optional pricing decision.

Payment is a linked state machine with its own obligations. Closing a release attempt or deleting its test deployment must not delete money already earned.

A raw push cannot create compensation. A push can trigger validation. If the validated merge matches an existing paid assignment, its confirmed acceptance event can allocate the promised conditional payment automatically. The event references the approved quote, accepted revision, contributor, and milestone so the payment rule has something specific to enforce.

A release failure involving someone else's contribution cannot silently forfeit every contributor's compensation. A payment cliff means a specified portion first becomes payable when its conditions and date are met. Record that schedule in the accepted quote.

Quote requirements

Every paid assignment states the work and its acceptance criteria, dollar quote, settlement asset, conversion event, approved pricing source, maximum token or swap spend, reservation method, milestone dates, and cancellation terms. It also states any holdback, repair duty, self-bounty exclusion, and dispute process.

If the recipient is promised a realizable dollar amount, reserve the assets or executable protection that supports it. If the recipient accepts a token quantity calculated from a reference price, say when that quantity becomes fixed and who bears later price changes. Do not promise unlimited token issuance to satisfy a fixed dollar quote in an illiquid market.

Price averaging is a possible conversion input. It needs manipulation and liquidity checks appropriate to the payout. A contributor lockup does not correct a payment calculated from a manipulated price. A funded fallback or recipient-approved amendment can resolve a failed conversion. An executor's cost ceiling cannot erase a due entitlement.

The quote also states whether its dollar amount is gross or net of the selected token tax, trading fees, and conversion costs. The token and settlement rows in the configuration register refer to the same end-to-end test. Optional customer payment in EPOCHE remains an Epoche pricing capability, and does not require every customer to acquire the token.

Holdbacks and repair

For substantial verifier work, the founding schedule holds the full accepted fee for thirty days from its observable-use milestone. Smaller work can use a smaller holdback or payment on acceptance. Adopt each category's required evidence and milestone before accepting a funded quote. These payment periods are separate from release challenge windows.

For illustration, a $1,000 assignment with a full conditional fee pays nothing merely because its code merges. Acceptance records the $1,000 conditional entitlement. If the terms start observation on production activation, that event starts its thirty-day period. Satisfying the period and required evidence makes the fee due under the agreed conversion terms. The example does not set a production price or token amount.

The DAO must reach a deploy, assess, or cancel decision by the assignment's deadline. If it never deploys accepted work, the agreed alternate milestone or cancellation rule determines payment. Observing repeated easy requests is insufficient when the terms require evidence about a different behavior.

Keep contributor-funded collateral separate from withheld compensation. A proposed 20% stake remains disabled unless adopted for a stated incentive problem. Define any deductions by evidence, attribution, applicable limits, and appeal. Reserve undisputed amounts while deciding a contested portion.

Select repair duties and the period excluding authors from rewards for their own defects separately. The v1 twelve-month repair term is not an automatic v2 default. If duties outlast held compensation, identify the remaining enforcement, such as later role eligibility or a separately funded repair assignment under the agreed terms. Paying the holdback does not silently end all duties.

Early self-disclosure should make repair and containment easier. A contributor cannot earn a new bounty merely by planting or rediscovering a defect in their own paid work. Do not make an honest self-report automatically more costly than concealment. State how self-disclosure affects any repair fee, holdback adjustment, or role consequence before accepting the assignment.

Settlement authority

The controller converts a due entitlement into one scoped payment job. The executor checks current recipient control, payment eligibility, destination, amount, asset, and conversion limits. It records the external transaction and verifies settlement. A job retry must reuse the entitlement identifier.

A financial dispute concerns a named amount or condition. Resolve it through the assigned authority and bounded challenge route. Keep a payment due if the transfer failed. Cancellation releases only amounts that the accepted terms permit the DAO to cancel.