The Compensation Slider

The Pudding

Most jobs pay you one way. Dollars. Direct deposit. Every two weeks. The employer decides the amount, the method, and the schedule. You negotiate salary — maybe — and then you take what you get in the form you are given.

Liana Banyan gives you a slider.

When you accept a contract on the platform — whether it is a one-time gig, a recurring project role, or a long-term position under a company’s Kingdom — you see the Compensation Slider. It is a simple interface element: a bar with a handle you drag left or right.

All the way to the left: 100% cash. You get paid in dollars. The platform processes the payment. You receive money in your bank account. Standard transaction. Standard taxes. Standard everything.

All the way to the right: 100% platform credit. You get paid entirely in Credits. No cash leaves the system. Your Credit balance increases by the full contract amount. Those Credits are yours to spend in the Marketplace, on subscriptions, on services from other members — anywhere on the platform. They are worth exactly what they were when you earned them, because the Ratchet ensures Credits never lose value. But they do not convert back to dollars. One-way valve. Irrevocable.

Anywhere in between: your choice. Seventy percent cash, thirty percent Credits. Fifty-fifty. Ninety percent Credits, ten percent cash. You pick the ratio. You adjust it per contract. You can slide differently on every project you take.

Why would anyone choose Credits over cash?

Three reasons.

First: Credits go further on the platform. Because the Cost+20% pricing floor prevents races to the bottom, and because the cooperative structure eliminates the middleman markup that exists on traditional platforms, the purchasing power of a Credit on Liana Banyan often exceeds the purchasing power of a dollar outside it. A member who earns 100 Credits for a tutoring session can use those Credits to hire a graphic designer, buy handmade goods, or subscribe to a meal plan — all priced at Cost+20% rather than market-rate-plus-platform-fee-plus-payment-processing. The Credits buy more because the system wastes less.

Second: Credits earn Marks. When you accept a higher proportion of Credits on a contract, you signal commitment to the cooperative economy. That commitment is recognized through Marks — the effort-differential currency that increases your governance weight. A member who consistently chooses a higher Credit ratio accumulates Marks faster, which means her voice carries more weight in cooperative decisions. She is not just working on the platform. She is building the platform. The Marks reflect that.

Third: Credits are tax-efficient in certain structures. Platform credits used for platform services may have different tax treatment than cash income in some jurisdictions. This is not tax advice — consult a professional — but the structural reality is that Credits spent on cooperative services are not the same as dollars deposited in a bank account. The economic character of the compensation changes when it stays inside a cooperative system.

Why would anyone choose cash?

Because rent is due in dollars. Because the grocery store does not accept Credits. Because the car payment comes out of a bank account. Cash is necessary. The slider does not pretend otherwise. A member who needs every dollar of their earnings in spendable cash can slide all the way to the left and receive 100% in dollars. No judgment. No penalty. No reduced access to platform features.

The slider is per-contract, not per-member. This matters. A freelance photographer might take 100% cash on a corporate headshot contract (she needs the rent money) and 100% Credits on a cooperative community mural project (she wants to build her platform presence and earn Marks). A web developer might take 70% cash on a commercial site build and 50/50 on a Guild collaboration. The slider adapts to the member’s financial reality on each individual engagement.

The slider also adapts over time. A new member with no Credit balance and plenty of bills might start at 90% cash. Six months later, with a growing Credit balance and a network of Guild services she values, she might shift to 60% cash. A year in, deeply embedded in the cooperative economy, she might settle at 40% cash. The slider does not force a trajectory. It reflects one. Members move toward Credits as the platform becomes more useful to them — not because the system pushes them, but because the math starts making sense.

The payer sees the slider too. When a company or member posts a contract, they set a budget in their preferred currency mix. If the payer offers 100% cash and the worker slides to 50% Credits, the platform handles the conversion. The payer sends dollars. The platform converts half to Credits in the worker’s account and routes the other half as cash. The payer does not need to hold Credits. The worker does not need to accept all cash. The slider mediates.

There is one constraint: the slider cannot be set after the contract is complete. You choose your ratio when you accept the contract. You cannot retroactively convert cash to Credits or Credits to cash. The choice is made upfront, before the work begins, so both parties know the terms. This prevents gaming — no one can do the work, see the market conditions, and then decide which currency they prefer after the fact.

The proof is in the pudding: a member accepts three contracts in the same week. Contract one is a rush job for an outside client — she slides to 100% cash because she has a car repair bill due Friday. Contract two is a collaborative design project with her Guild — she slides to 80% Credits because she wants to build her Marks and she knows she will spend the Credits on a photography subscription from another Guild member. Contract three is a small favor for a Tribe neighbor — she slides to 100% Credits because the work is light and the Credits will cover her Marketplace browsing for the month. Three contracts. Three different ratios. One slider. Her financial reality this week is nuanced, and the compensation system matches that nuance. No other platform lets her decide, per project, how she wants to be paid.

This is NOT Pudding

The Compensation Slider connects to the three-currency system (Credits, Marks, Joules), the one-way valve architecture (Pudding #98), the Ratchet (Pudding #160), and the Cost+20% pricing floor. The relationship between Credit ratio and Mark accumulation is part of the effort-differential currency model documented in “Self-Funding Economics.” The per-contract flexibility is a design response to research showing that cooperative members have heterogeneous financial needs that change over time — a single compensation model cannot serve a diverse membership.

Read the full paper on Cephas → [Self-Funding Economics]

Depth Layers

By the Numbers

• 1 slider per contract — choose your ratio every time
• 0% to 100% Credits — full range, your choice
• Cost+20% floor — Credits buy more because the system wastes less
• 83.3% of earned compensation stays with the member
• 3 currencies (Credits, Marks, Joules) — the slider affects all three
• $5/year membership — the slider is included for every member

The Spoonful

Every contract comes with a slider. Drag left for cash. Drag right for Credits. Stop anywhere in between. Your financial reality is nuanced — your compensation should be too. Three contracts, three ratios, one week. The slider does not judge. It matches.

Canonical numbers: 2,161 innovations | 195 Crown Jewels | $5/year | 83.3% creator keeps | Cost+20%