Funding model

Who actually pays the viewer, and where the money comes from. This is the question that breaks if you read Revenue streams before understanding it: BitView captures fees on a value flow it did not fund, and several of the cash flows in this product are easy to conflate.

This page exists to make one thing unambiguous:

Viewer rewards are not paid from the streamer's BitView subscription fee. The subscription fee pays BitView for platform access (analytics, branding, unlimited distributions, sponsorship marketplace access). Viewer rewards are paid from a separate distribution pool funded by the streamer, a brand sponsor, or — at the smallest scale — a capped BTV reward allocation. The two flows are independent and bill against different budgets.

Two flows, side by side

Flow A — streamer pays BitView (SaaS)         Flow B — streamer (or brand) pays viewers
                                              
   Streamer credit card                          Streamer / sponsor wallet
        │                                              │
        ▼  Stripe, monthly                             ▼  on-chain transfer, per event
   BitView P&L                                   distributor vault (PDA)
                                                       │
   Buys: analytics, branding,                          ▼  viewers claim
   unlimited events, marketplace                  viewer wallets
   seat, API write access, support               
                                              Buys: viewer attention,
                                              retention, on-chain proof
                                              of engagement

Flow A is billed in USD via Stripe and ranges from $0 (Free) to $499/mo (Plus). Flow B is denominated in BTV, streamer-token, or sponsor USDC and is sized by the streamer's reward strategy, not by what tier they bought.

What viewers actually receive depends on the streamer's billing tier:

• Free billing → only Native (BTV) distributions. Streamer funds with USDC or SOL; an in-wizard swap converts that to BTV before it lands in the vault. Viewers claim BTV.
• Pro / Plus billing → can pick Native (BTV) or Identity (streamer's own token) per event.
• Plus billing unlocks Sponsored events (brand-funded, settles in USDC by default).

There is no "Stable" tier that pays viewers in USDC directly anymore — Free-tier streamers funding with stablecoins still settle viewer rewards in BTV (the swap happens as part of the funding tx).

A streamer on Pro who runs zero distributions in a month still pays $99 to BitView. A streamer on Free who funds a $5,000 distribution pool by depositing USDC or SOL still pays only the $5 creation fee plus the cost of the rewards themselves — the rewards go to viewers as BTV, not to BitView.

Where the streamer's reward budget comes from

Before BitView is in the picture, the streamer already has revenue from their existing channels. They decide how much of it to recycle into viewer rewards as a community-investment line item.

Revenue source	Typical share recycled into BitView rewards
Twitch subscriptions (net of Twitch's 50%)	10–30%
Twitch bits / cheers	5–20%
Twitch / YouTube ad revenue	5–15%
Direct sponsorships (existing brand deals)	0–50% (case-by-case)
Donations	0–10%
Merch margin	0–10%
YouTube / Kick / other platform revenue	5–20%
Streamer's own crypto holdings / discretionary budget	variable

This is the reward budget. It is the streamer's number, not BitView's. The wizard described in the streamer flow accepts this number as input and turns it into a funded distributor vault.

Worked example — mid-tier streamer

A streamer with 500 Twitch subscribers nets roughly $2.50 per sub per month after Twitch's cut, plus bits, ads, and the occasional sponsorship:

Twitch sub revenue (500 × $2.50)              $1,250 / month
Bits + ads                                    $  400 / month
Direct sponsorship (averaged)                 $  500 / month
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Gross monthly streaming income                $2,150 / month

Reward recycle rate (streamer chooses)              20%
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Monthly reward budget for viewers             $  430 / month

At Pro tier ($99/mo to BitView), the streamer's total monthly outlay to run BitView is $99 + $430 = $529. The $430 goes to viewers; the $99 goes to BitView.

Worked example — small streamer, doc-aligned

The numbers used in Three-way wins and the streamer guide:

100 average viewers × 4 hours × $0.20 per viewer-hour =      $80 / stream
4 streams per week × $80                              =     $320 / week
Monthly                                               ≈   $1,400 / month

This $1,400 is the streamer's viewer-reward outlay, not their BitView bill. On Pro the BitView bill is $99/mo on top. The streamer keeps doing this only if the retention, sub uplift, sponsorship readiness, or identity-tier-token upside exceeds $1,499/mo in returned value.

How the reward budget deploys by tier

A common misread of the model: the $430/month budget in the worked example translates directly to "$430 of token outflow per month." For the Native tier, that's roughly true (modulo a 0.10% swap fee). For Identity tier, the budget deploys differently because the STREAM itself comes from the 85M distribution rewards pool (not from the streamer's wallet), and the streamer's cash budget instead pays for the value-backing of that STREAM.

Same $430 budget, different deployment by tier:

Tier	What the $430 buys	What flows to viewers (notional value)	Pool effect
Native — Free billing	$430 of USDC or SOL swapped to BTV (~$430 BTV after 0.10% BitView fee, $5 creation fee)	$430 of BTV	Swap touches BTV/USDC or BTV/SOL pool (no LP add)
Native — Pro / Plus billing	Same as above, no creation fee	$430 of BTV	Same
Identity — Match-funded (default, Pro / Plus only)	$430 of BTV added to STREAM/BTV pool LP, recoverable as the streamer's LP share. Streamer typically funds this by swapping USDC or SOL → BTV first.	$430 notional value of STREAM (drawn from the 85M distribution rewards pool)	STREAM/BTV pool deepens; pool LP earns 0.10% on subsequent swaps for the streamer
Identity — Pre-event buyback (Pro / Plus only)	$430 of BTV used to buy back STREAM from the open market, then distributed	$430 of STREAM (purchased, not from pool — so the 85M depletes slower)	Pool BTV up, pool STREAM down (visible buyback chart event)
Sponsored (Plus only)	$0 (brand pays). Streamer earns 5% co-share = +$X income	90% of brand budget in USDC	None on STREAM/BTV pool

The conservation-of-value principle holds across all tiers: $430 of viewer value out the door always corresponds to ~$430 of streamer-side capital injection (whether swapped BTV directly into the vault, or BTV match-funding into the STREAM pool). The difference is where the capital ends up after the event:

• Native: capital is spent (gone to viewers as BTV).
• Identity match-funded: capital is invested into LP (recoverable, earns swap fees).
• Identity pre-event buyback: capital is converted to STREAM that the streamer then redistributes.
• Sponsored: capital is brand's, not streamer's — streamer earns income.

This is why match-funded Identity is the lowest-net-cost long-term choice for a streamer with a healthy fan community: the BTV they inject as match-funding is recoverable and earns fees, while still maintaining the conservation-of-value guarantee viewers depend on. Detailed pool-impact math, including a per-event side-by-side of Pure-STREAM vs Match-funded, lives in Streamer-token economics §Per-event value injection.

The three funding paths

Every distribution event picks exactly one tier at creation. Each tier has a different funder and a different settlement currency. This is the only decision point that affects who pays the viewer.

Tier	Available to	Funded by	Settles in	Use case
Native	Free / Pro / Plus	Streamer's USDC or SOL (swapped to BTV in the wizard)	BTV (with optional claim-time swap to USDC or SOL)	Default. Drives BTV demand and platform swap fees. Only tier available on Free billing.
Identity	Pro / Plus	Streamer's own SPL token (STREAM, drawn from the 85M launchpad pool) — plus per-event BTV match-funding to back value	STREAM (with one-click swap path to BTV / USDC)	Streamers with a fan community willing to hold.
Sponsored	Plus	Brand sponsor's USDC via the marketplace	USDC or BTV at streamer's choice	Plus-tier streamers running brand campaigns.

Identity tier has two costs, not one. Drawing STREAM from the 85M rewards pool is the token cost; per-event the streamer also needs to inject real BTV value to back what viewers are earning, otherwise the STREAM/BTV pool drains as viewers cash out. The default path is to match-fund the pool by adding BTV equal to the value of distributed STREAM. The alternative (pre-event buyback) achieves the same conservation-of-value effect through a different mechanism. The full per-event funding paths and pool-impact math live in Streamer-token economics §Per-event value injection.

For each path, the table below shows the answer to "who paid the viewer their rewards?":

Path	Who pays viewer	What viewer receives	BitView's role
Streamer-funded Native (Free)	Streamer (USDC or SOL → BTV swap)	BTV	Captures $5 creation fee + 0.10% swap fee
Streamer-funded Native (Pro / Plus)	Same	BTV	Captures 0.10% swap fee, no creation fee
Streamer-funded Identity (Pro / Plus)	Streamer (STREAM from rewards pool + per-event BTV match-funding to back the value)	Streamer-token	Captures swap fees on STREAM/BTV cash-outs and on the match-funding swap
Brand-sponsored (Plus)	Brand	USDC (90% of brand budget)	Captures 5% marketplace fee + 5% paid to streamer
Onboarding incentive	BitView treasury	BTV (capped)	Pays from the 15% streamer-onboarding allocation

The "onboarding incentive" line is the only case where BitView funds viewer rewards directly, and it is deliberately capped: it exists to seed the first distribution for Tier-A concierge streamers and a small set of bootstrap events. Once the streamer is running, the funding shifts entirely to one of the four streamer/brand-funded paths.

The end-to-end money flow

Compressed, with every actor and every value transfer in order:

1.  Streamer earns money (Twitch subs, bits, ads, sponsors, etc.)
        │
        ▼
2.  Streamer allocates a monthly reward budget
        (e.g., 20% of revenue → $430 / month)
        │
        ▼
3.  Streamer creates a distribution event in the BitView wizard:
        - picks tier (Native / Identity / Sponsored)
          (Free billing → Native only)
        - sets total_token, periodicity, duration, max_per_viewer
        - pays creation fee ($5 on Free; $0 on Pro/Plus)
        │
        ▼
4.  Streamer funds the distributor vault on Solana:
        - Native:    streamer USDC or SOL → BTV via Jupiter
                     (BitView captures 0.10%) → vault.
                     For Free-billing streamers this is the only path;
                     Pro/Plus streamers can choose this or Identity.
        - Identity:  STREAM drawn from the launchpad distribution PDA
                     (the 85M rewards pool, NOT the streamer's 10M
                     vested reserve) → vault.
                     AND per-event: streamer adds equivalent BTV value
                     to the STREAM/BTV pool LP (match-funded default)
                     so the value viewers earn is backed. The BTV
                     itself comes from the streamer swapping USDC or
                     SOL via Jupiter at funding time.
                     See [Streamer-token economics §Per-event value
                     injection](streamer-token#per-event-value-injection--who-actually-creates-value)
                     for the alternative path (pre-event buyback).
        - Sponsored: brand USDC → marketplace escrow → 90% → vault,
                     5% → BitView, 5% → streamer
        │
        ▼
5.  Stream goes live. BitView bot tracks chat presence per linked viewer.
        - No tokens move on-chain during the stream.
        - Accrual ledger updates in MongoDB.
        │
        ▼
6.  Distribution ends. Operator finalizes:
        - Merkle tree built from accrual ledger
        - Merkle root published on-chain via set_enable_slot
        │
        ▼
7.  Viewers claim from the vault.
        - Each claim is a single on-chain transaction signed by the viewer.
        - Viewer pays ~$0.0005 in Solana network fees. No BitView fee on
          the claim itself.
        │
        ▼
8.  Optional — viewer swaps to USDC or SOL via the BitView router.
        - BitView captures 0.10% protocol fee on the swap.
        - This is the dominant BitView revenue line at scale.

The streamer's subscription bill is invisible to this entire flow. It exists in a parallel Stripe ledger and never touches the on-chain vault or the merkle distributor.

Tier-by-tier monthly economics for the streamer

Putting the SaaS bill and the reward outlay on the same row makes the total monthly cost obvious. Identity-tier rows are split because the streamer's cash outflow goes to BTV match-funding (recoverable as LP) rather than to direct reward spending.

Streamer profile	BitView SaaS	Viewer rewards (value to viewers)	Streamer cash outflow	Of which recoverable as LP	Net cost (after LP recovery)	Funded from
Hobbyist on Free, 1 distribution / mo (Native, BTV rewards)	$0 + $5 fee	$25–$100	$25–$100 USDC/SOL → BTV	$0	$30–$105	Discretionary budget
Small streamer on Free (Native, BTV rewards)	$0 + $5 × 3 = $15	$50–$200	$50–$200 USDC/SOL → BTV	$0	$65–$215	Twitch sub revenue
Mid streamer on Pro (Native, BTV rewards)	$99	$250–$1,500	$250–$1,500 USDC/SOL → BTV	$0	$349–$1,599	Twitch + bits + ads
Mid streamer on Pro (Identity match-funded)	$99	$250–$1,500 (notional STREAM)	$250–$1,500 BTV into pool LP	$250–$1,500	$99 + ~0 (if pool stable)	Twitch + bits + ads, deployed as BTV
Mid streamer on Pro (Identity pre-event buyback)	$99	$250–$1,500 (STREAM bought from open market)	$250–$1,500 BTV spent on buybacks	$0 (spent on STREAM)	$349–$1,599	Twitch + bits + ads, deployed as BTV
Top streamer on Plus, brand-funded	$499	$5,000–$50,000 (sponsor pays ≥ 90%)	$0 (brand pays)	$0	$499 minus ($500–$5,000) co-share income	Brand sponsorship budget

Two observations from this table:

• Identity match-funded is the lowest-net-cost long-term path for a streamer who can deploy capital into LP. The $250–$1,500/month in BTV match-funding is held as an LP position and earns 0.10% swap fees on every subsequent trade. Over a year it compounds into several thousand dollars of recovered value, not consumed reward.
• The Plus row is the inversion: at scale, brand sponsorships pay the streamer on net (the 5% co-share comes back as income on top of any recycled revenue), so the total outlay collapses to the subscription fee plus discretionary direct rewards.

What this means by streamer segment

• Small streamer: pays viewer rewards as community marketing, recycled from existing Twitch revenue. BitView subscription is optional and only useful past the third distribution per month.
• Medium streamer: pays viewer rewards from a blend of sub revenue, ad revenue, and sponsorships. Pro tier ($99/mo) pays for itself the day they need analytics, branding, or unlimited distributions.
• Large streamer: uses Plus tier ($499/mo) primarily as a seat in the sponsorship marketplace. Most viewer rewards are paid by brand sponsors, and the streamer earns 5% on top of any other revenue per campaign.

In all three cases, the streamer's SaaS bill to BitView is a fraction of the actual reward flow they orchestrate. BitView's revenue comes from layered small fees on top of that flow (Revenue streams), not from the rewards themselves.

What BitView never does with the reward pool

• Never custodies the streamer's reward funds. The vault is a PDA on the audited merkle distributor program. The streamer signs the funding transaction; BitView signs nothing about the pool's contents.
• Never takes a percentage of the pool itself. The $5 free-tier creation fee is fixed and paid separately from the pool. The 0.10% swap fee applies only to swap transactions a viewer or streamer chooses to make.
• Never redirects subscription revenue to viewer pools. Stripe subscription dollars stay in BitView's operating account and pay for ops, infra, audits, and headcount. They never feed back into a distributor vault.
• Never settles brand sponsorships in anything other than USDC on arrival. The marketplace 5%/5%/90% split happens at the escrow release moment, with the 90% portion landing in the distributor vault in USDC. Tier conversions (e.g., a brand wanting BTV-denominated rewards) happen as a separate explicit swap step.

Cross-references

• Streamer flow §Phase 3 — the exact wizard the streamer fills in
• Streamer-token economics — Identity-tier deep dive: mint, burn, vesting, per-event value injection, royalties, lifecycle
• Revenue streams — what BitView captures across all eight fee lines
• Tokenomics §Money flow accounting — every currency traced through every value event
• Three-way wins — what each side gets in return
• Treasury management policy — what happens to BitView's revenue once collected