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ADR-0099 — Token Economy v5 (pricing, packages, MSSP, crypto, PIX)

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-05-26
  • Deciders: André Luiz Gallon (project owner) + Claude consultation session 2026-05-26
  • Driver: Project owner request — design clean, low-friction, market-grade token economy covering all TAM segments (self-serve, EDU, MSSP, Defense-Unlimited, trials, promos)
  • Strategy memo: docs/strategy/token-economy-v5.md — full design with 15 locked decisions (D1–D15) + 19-week roadmap
  • Supersedes: ADR-0067 §"crypto activation gates (≥3 customer signals)" — overridden by D12 (crypto active from launch for Defense+)
  • Extends: ADR-0033 (UTXO note-based accounting — preserved unchanged), ADR-0056 (Stripe baseline), ADR-0068 (multi-currency rails)
  • Patent claim family: Continuation of claim #25 (UTXO note-not-balance licence accounting). v5 token economy is pricing model, NOT accounting model — claim #25 boundary preserved.

Context

The project ships UTXO-style licence accounting (ADR-0033) + a foundation of 4 tiers (free/pro/enterprise/defense) + Stripe integration + Stripe Identity KYC + multi-currency stub gates. What was MISSING for commercial launch:

  1. Single unit of consumption — current docs expose a 5-category cost matrix (smoke/standard/soak/capacity/defense) that customers must memorize before purchase. High friction.
  2. EDU pricing — no programmatic path for educational institutions despite large TAM.
  3. MSSP partner program — no resale/white-label model, blocking the indirect channel.
  4. Defense Unlimited — top tier currently caps at 10M TSU/month, blocking large federal/telco/defense contractors who require flat-fee predictability.
  5. Promo + referral system — no growth lever beyond pure self-serve organic.
  6. Crypto rails — ADR-0067 gated activation behind ≥3 customer signals; project owner decided to launch crypto as a Defense+ differentiator (D12).
  7. PIX (Brazil) — payment rail decision pending between Stripe-native and PagarMe.
  8. Customer dashboards — token balance + history + forecast UX not designed.
  9. Approval matrix — Defense Unlimited pricing band ($50k–$500k/year) lacks formal sales/CFO/CEO authority delegation.

A consultation session on 2026-05-26 resolved all 7 originally-open strategic questions and locked 8 architectural + 7 operational decisions.

Decision

Adopt Token Economy v5 as designed in the strategy memo. Specifically:

Architectural (D1–D8)

  • D1: Hybrid commercial model — subscription (monthly/annual) sets base TSU quota; add-on boost packs cover overages. UTXO accounting (ADR-0033) preserved.
  • D2: EDU = 80% off Pro/Enterprise with .edu verification via SheerID-equivalent.
  • D3: MSSP dedicated tier (Bronze/Silver/Gold/Elite) with white-label + 30–40% revenue share.
  • D4: Defense-Unlimited = hard-unlimited flat fee annual contract ($50k–$500k/year, no ceiling).
  • D5: TSU (TLS Stress Unit) — single unified unit of consumption. Deterministic formula TSU = duration_seconds × persona_count × dut_count × intensity_multiplier. Replaces the 5-category cost matrix.
  • D6: Auto-refill opt-in (not default). Default = alerts at 80% / 95% / depleted.
  • D7: Refund windows preserved — 7 days self-serve / 14 days EU / 30 days Enterprise+ (already shipped in pkg/octopus/customer-app/src/lib/billing/constants.ts).
  • D8: UTXO model preserved — no change to accounting; only pricing model evolves.

Operational (D9–D15)

  • D9: Naming = TSU (TLS Stress Unit). Not "TCU"/"credits". Specific, defensible, patentable.
  • D10: MSSP Stripe = Connect Express. Lowest-friction self-serve onboarding; we collect from end-customers, settle to MSSP's Express account monthly via Stripe Transfers.
  • D11: Brazil PIX via Stripe (not PagarMe). Single integration. NF-e.io retained for tax document emission.
  • D12: Crypto (USDC/USDT) ACTIVE from launch for Defense+ via Coinbase Commerce. OFAC screening mandatory. Overrides ADR-0067 demand-signal gate.
  • D13: Annual prepay discount = 15%. Industry standard. Headroom for 20–25% in Enterprise+ negotiations.
  • D14: MSSP = zero entry fee + quarterly TSU commitment:
  • Bronze: 1M TSU/Q (~$999), 30% wholesale discount, 25 sub-customers, no entry fee.
  • Silver: 10M TSU/Q (~$4.999), 35% discount, 100 sub-customers, no entry fee.
  • Gold: 100M TSU/Q (~$29.999), 40% discount, unlimited sub-customers, no entry fee.
  • Elite: ≥1B TSU/Q negotiated, up to 45% discount, co-marketing + dedicated CSM.
  • Auto-promote/demote based on sustained volume across 2 consecutive quarters.
  • D15: Defense Unlimited approval matrix:
  • Sales authority: up to $200k/year.
  • CFO required: >$200k/year.
  • CEO sign-off: >$500k/year.

Consequences

Pros

  • Single TSU unit eliminates the 5-category memorization burden.
  • Pre-flight quote (TSU cost shown before "Run test") removes pricing-surprise friction.
  • EDU pricing unlocks academic TAM (universities, research labs, CS departments).
  • MSSP zero-entry-fee removes signup friction globally; commitment is the real gate.
  • Defense Unlimited unlocks federal/telco/defense-contractor TAM where token-ceiling is unacceptable.
  • Crypto for Defense+ from day-1 is a competitive differentiator vs Stripe-only competitors.
  • Brazilian PIX via Stripe consolidates payment integrations to one vendor.
  • Patent claim #25 boundary preserved — pricing model is configurable per ADR-0033 §"Reversibility: high for the pricing".
  • Receivables predictability improves (subscription base) without losing usage-based upside (boost packs).

Cons

  • 19-week implementation horizon (vs 18 originally) — 1-week increase from absorbing crypto + PIX activation in Wave-A.
  • Auto-promote/demote MSSP logic adds quarterly job complexity (mitigated by simple sustained-volume rule).
  • Defense Unlimited "hard-unlimited" creates margin risk if a single customer abuses (mitigated by contract fair-use clause and OOBI revocation broadcast capability per pkg/oobi/licenseart/broadcast/).
  • Crypto OFAC screening adds compliance burden (mitigated by Coinbase Commerce built-in screening + our existing ComplyAdvantage hooks for Defense KYC Tier 3).

Reversibility

  • Pricing model: high — prices, discounts, boost-pack catalog all configurable in customer-app/src/lib/pricing/ (Wave-A4).
  • TSU formula: medium — once customers internalize the formula in their own capacity planning, changing constants becomes a customer-comms event. Versioning: TSU formula v1 frozen at launch; major changes ship as v2 with grandfathering.
  • MSSP minimums: high — Bronze/Silver/Gold thresholds adjustable per contract addendum.
  • D7 (crypto activation): high — Coinbase Commerce can be disabled per env-var if compliance/AML concerns escalate.

Implementation roadmap

See strategy memo §9 for full 6-wave breakdown. Top-level:

Wave Duration Scope
A — Foundation 5 weeks Postgres UTXO ledger, TSU engine, pricing constants, dashboard MVP, crypto rails (A7), PIX BR (A8)
B — Packages 3 weeks Free Trial 30d, Demo POC, boost packs, EDU verification, refunds polish
C — MSSP 4 weeks Partner signup, dashboard, white-label, Stripe Connect Express (C4), auto-promote/demote
D — Defense+Promos 3 weeks Defense Unlimited tier, promo codes, referral, OSS program
E — Polish+Forecast 2 weeks Forecasting engine, alerts, auto-refill, anomaly detection
F — i18n + GTM 2 weeks Multi-currency, VAT, multi-language pricing, sales playbook (D15)

Total: 19 weeks. MVP cut: A + B + E1–E3 → ~10 weeks for self-serve + EDU + forecasting + crypto for Defense+ + PIX BR.

  • docs/strategy/token-economy-v5.md — strategy memo (this ADR's source-of-truth)
  • ADR-0033 — UTXO token vault + LICENSE.Art envelope (accounting model — preserved)
  • ADR-0056 — Stripe Subscriptions baseline (preserved)
  • ADR-0067 — Channel Marketplace (extended by D3+D14 MSSP program; §crypto-gates OVERRIDDEN by D12)
  • ADR-0068 — Multi-currency / crypto / BNPL payments (extended by D11 PIX + D12 crypto activation)
  • pkg/octopus/docs/11-tokenization/tokenization.md — Tokenization technical doc (REPLACED §"Token allocation per tier")
  • pkg/octopus/customer-app/src/lib/db/schema.ts — customer_accounts.tier enum (will gain tier_variant in Wave-A1)
  • pkg/octopus/customer-app/src/lib/stripe.ts — Stripe SDK integration point
  • pkg/octopus/customer-app/src/lib/billing/constants.ts — refund window constants (preserved per D7)

Last verified against strategy memo: 2026-05-26 (decisions D1–D15 all locked in consultation session).