Abstract
A commercial network needs a settlement layer as flexible as the deals it hosts. This paper covers seller-defined metering, contribution-based attribution across composed datasets, two-sided netting, and committed-spend drawdown as a native billing primitive.
Meters, seller-defined
The platform does not assume one monetisation shape. Sellers meter by query, model-training run, API call, row of output or unit time, and mix licensing models — premium sovereign access, pay-per-model, platform fee plus revenue share, usage-based APIs, alternative-data licensing.
Attribution across sellers
When a composed dataset settles, each seller is paid by measured marginal contribution — the same coverage and overlap the buyer saw — not a flat split. Redundant overlap is removed from the buyer’s charge and from the payout arithmetic alike.
Two-sided netting
Because roles are per-deal, a participant is often a buyer in one relationship and a seller in another. Settlement statements net across both roles, producing a single payout or invoice per period.
Committed-spend drawdown
Buyers can consume deals against existing cloud committed spend. Drawdown is a first-class primitive: an unused commitment becomes data and models without a new procurement cycle, attributed 1:1 to the commit and reconciled against cloud billing.
Reconciliation
A reconciliation agent continuously matches meter readings against invoices and cloud billing, flagging discrepancies for review. The audit trail behind settlement is the same one behind governance — one evidentiary base for both.