On Chain Billing

In Figment's On Chain Billing model, each party receives its accurate share on chain – without the need for any accounting, invoicing or off chain payment. This is achieved using Figment’s audited and battled-tested fee splitting smart contracts while the assets remain in the customer’s control.

The validator's fee recipient address is the wallet that receives execution layer rewards. For off chain billing, this is generally equal to the withdrawal address, unless specified otherwise.

For on chain billing, we set the validator's fee recipient to a fee splitting smart contract which rewards pass through (but are not held as a balance) and are split N ways. One fee splitter smart contract is deployed for each withdrawal address.

Activation and Setup

Figment deploys fee splitter contracts according to your business model:

two-way splitting: Figment + your organization; or
three-way splitting: Figment + your organization + your end customers

Each contract is audited, non-custodial, and maintains zero balance while acting as a pass-through mechanism. Each customer gets their own contract with no commingling

In the ETH API endpoints, you'll notice that for each validator, fee_recipient_address is set to the fee splitter contract, net_fee_payout_address is set to what the regular fee recipient would be (and is where the validator's net rewards are sent), and withdrawal_address remains the same.

Important notes:

For a new withdrawal address, a new fee splitter contract will be deployed once the validator(s) for that address are funded
The fee_recipient_address will change even after you've called Create Validators
Always update your database with the latest addresses from GET /validators after validator deposit
Monitor net_fee_payout_address for actual reward payouts

Example

Here is an example of a three party split, where

Fee splitter contract address is: 0xE9EB3EEFe4b71C4Ea991869C5B3AE6B3B7907f45
Net fee payout address is: 0xe3e2ab62ae98a5fc599ff2dee0d9ea1a93b797fb
Figment's address is: 0xeD488E6cc4B030eb5BfddE3227C3D5da2b9040E8
Party 3's address is: 0xa1e3b3a77cf01cda4c5c20f88705c7512ceee1af

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I activate On Chain Billing?
On Chain Billing is activated and managed by Figment's backend team. When you confirm that you want to use On Chain Billing as your billing method:

Figment deploys a unique fee splitter contract specifically for your organization, or for each each of your end customers
Your validators' fee_recipient_address is automatically updated to point to this contract after validator deposit
No action is required on your part - the process is handled automatically

2. What happens if I don't use On Chain Billing?
If you opt out of On Chain Billing, Figment will bill you based on the existing percentage fee agreed upon, invoiced monthly. However, this approach is generally not recommended due to potential operational mistakes/delays and it requires manual coordination between both parties.

3. Are there additional fees for On Chain Billing?
No, there are no additional fees for using the On Chain Billing feature. You only pay the standard service fees as per your agreement.

4. How do execution layer (EL) rewards work with On Chain Billing?

With On Chain Billing: Figment's service fee is automatically deducted from execution layer rewards through the fee splitter contract
Without On Chain Billing: You are responsible for transferring Figment's portion of total rewards manually as part of monthly billing

5. Can I see my fee splitter contract transactions?
Yes, the fee splitter contract transactions are transparent and can be viewed on Ethereum block explorers like Etherscan. You can search for your fee_recipient_address to see all reward distributions

6. What happens if my validator doesn't propose blocks?
If your validator is not selected to propose blocks, there are no execution layer rewards to split, so no fees are charged. You continue to earn 100% of consensus layer rewards from attestations and other validation duties