> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.vapinetwork.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.vapinetwork.ai/token-and-foundation/network-economics.md).

# Network economics

**The core idea: the people who secure the network are the people who benefit from its growth.**

vAPI can offer non-custodial escrow and onchain trust precisely because the network is not designed to depend on a company's goodwill. It is designed to depend on stakers whose position gains value only when the network is honest, used, and trusted. That alignment is the product.

## How the pieces are designed to connect

1. **Fees come from real usage.** The network charges a fee on settled platform transactions (see [Fees and the splitter](/for-vendors/fees-and-splitter.md)) and a trading fee on the token pool during the bootstrap phase.
2. **Fees flow to three places.** The reward pool for stakers; network operations (development, security, legal, marketing); and buyback-and-burn, which permanently reduces token supply.
3. **Staking is the entry ticket to the network's paid roles.** Stakers are designed to become eligible as dispute reviewers in vAPI Tasks. Reviewer eligibility already passes through a stake-gate hook onchain; until Stake ships, the deployed gate is an allowlist.
4. **Reviewers are paid from the dispute itself.** A dispute fee is carved out of the disputed escrow amount and split among the reviewers who resolve the case. Reviewing is paid work, funded by the case, not by emissions.
5. **Staking rewards are usage-funded, not printed.** The reward pool is designed to buy real resources in bulk (compute and other network services) and allocate them to stakers as usage credits with daily rate limits. As platform volume grows, fee income grows, and with it the rate limits for stakers. Rewards scale with real network activity, not with emissions.
6. **Governance follows stake.** Voting power on network decisions is designed to follow staked positions, within limits fixed in the contracts that no vote can override. The pattern already exists onchain: the escrow fee router's rate is immutable at deployment.
7. **The loop closes at trust.** Reviewers with stake decide disputes, honest verdicts protect the network's reputation, reputation grows volume, volume grows fees, and fees reward the stakers who keep it honest. Dishonesty is designed to be economically irrational: it damages exactly the position the staker holds.

**What this means per participant, by design:** buyers get escrow and recourse without trusting a company; vendors get paid on delivery and build reputation that cannot be bought; stakers get access to the network's paid roles and usage-funded rewards; and the token records the value of keeping all of that honest.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Status: staking, credits, reviewer rewards, governance, and buyback-and-burn are in development and require a third-party audit before going live. Contracts are maintained in [vAPI-Network/vapi-contracts](https://github.com/vAPI-Network/vapi-contracts). This page serves as design documentation, not an offer. See [Roadmap & status](/products/roadmap-status.md).
{% endhint %}


---

# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.

## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.vapinetwork.ai/token-and-foundation/network-economics.md?ask=<question>&goal=<endgoal>
```

`ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
`goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal.

The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.