Creator Currency (CC) is a blockchain-based protocol that encodes creator royalties directly into the act of accessing a work — not as a fee that intermediaries can waive, but as the mechanism by which a digital copy comes into existence. Built on Ethereum Layer 2 infrastructure, it enables publishers, authors and artists to distribute watermarked, DRM-free digital editions of their work, with payments flowing automatically and immediately to every stakeholder according to terms co-signed and written into a smart contract.

NFTs (specifically ERC-2981) attempted to enforce royalties in the transfer layer — the moment a token is resold. But marketplaces made royalties optional under competitive pressure, and by 2023 resale royalties had effectively collapsed. Creator Currency takes a fundamentally different approach: royalties are encoded in the activation layer. A digital copy cannot come into existence without the smart contract executing and every party being paid. It's the difference between a toll that can be driven around and a bridge that is the only way across.

The user's experience is simple: follow a link from a retailer or scan a QR code, pay in ordinary currency, and receive a watermarked, DRM-free digital file. No crypto wallet is needed. No blockchain knowledge is required. The technology is entirely beneath the surface.

A Work Contract is a smart contract deployed when a work is published. It records the content hash (a cryptographic fingerprint of the work), edition information, royalty and distribution splits agreed by the author and publisher, and pricing rules. Every activation of that work — every time a reader pays for and receives a copy — is governed by the Work Contract. Once deployed, no single party can alter its terms.

No. Creators can elect to receive payments in USDC (a dollar-denominated stablecoin) or have their wallet make regular USD deposits. The native CC token is anchored to a floor of 1 USDC, so every activation generates at least $1 in creator royalties at launch. Creators who prefer predictable USD income never need to hold or think about crypto.

Yes. From the smart contracts to the reference activation interface, the entire protocol is open source and publicly auditable. Governance is designed to be managed by participants, not founders. No single party can change the terms unilaterally.

Creator Currency is currently in the proposal stage, with a white paper in preparation and conversations underway with independent publishers and retail partners. If you're a publisher, author, bookseller, or developer interested in the project, contact mail@creatorcurrency.org.