Every number in one place
What we charge, and what we don't promise
CoFunders earns from the fee on each pledge, the tips backers choose to give, the fee to open a campaign, the fee on money added by card, paid boosts and a holding cost on idle balances.
Key facts
- A pledge on the free plan pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and the paid plans aren't on sale.
- Whoever invited a backer receives 50% of the platform's percentage fee on each of that backer's pledges, split on chain.
- No plan, pass or invite brings the percentage fee on a pledge below 0.5%. An invite splits it, and the platform keeps at least half.
- The fees taken when you back aren't returned if the campaign misses its goal.
- Money on this platform isn't covered by any deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme.
- CoFunders doesn't check a creator's identity or vet projects.
What CoFunders takes
Every fee we charge, at the rate the smart contract applies. They're charged in USDC, the stablecoin campaigns settle in.
| What | Rate | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee on a pledge | 1.50% down to 0.50% | Taken from the pledge the moment you pay. The lower fees are for paid plans, which aren't on sale today, so everyone pays the top fee. |
| Flat fee per pledge | $0.99 | The same whatever the size. On a small pledge, it matters more than the percentage. |
| Creating a campaign | $5 down to $0.50 | Charged once, when the campaign goes on chain, and always paid to the treasury. |
| Boosting a campaign | 100% of what is paid | A creator can pay to sit higher in the storefront. One token buys one minute, the whole payment goes to the treasury, and a boosted card is labeled as one. |
| Adding money by card | 0.25% + $0.99 | Taken when the money moves from its deposit wallet to your own, a few minutes after you pay. The payment partner shows its own fee on its page. Sending stablecoin in from another wallet has no fee from us. |
| Holding cost on an idle balance | 0.01% a week | About 0.52% a year, on money sitting in a balance instead of pledged, and nothing at all at or under $10. |
| Minimum pledge | $10 | Set by the contract, not by the app. |
What the program pays out by itself
Money that leaves in the same transaction as the pledge behind it. Nobody approves these and nobody can hold them back: they're arithmetic in the contract, and they happen whether or not anyone at CoFunders is awake.
| What | Rate | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Share of the platform fee to whoever invited you | 50% of it | Split on chain the moment you pay, so it doesn't depend on us remembering. The platform always keeps the other half, never less. |
| Maximum a creator may offer someone who shares their campaign | 18.50% | A ceiling the contract enforces, paid straight to the sharer out of the same pledge. A campaign can't promise more than this. |
| Lowest platform fee the program will accept | 0.50% | No plan, pass or invite can take it lower. The program won't even compile with a fee below it, which is stronger than a policy. |
What CoFunders pays out by hand
Rewards we pay ourselves, not out of a pledge. These are promotional rewards at our discretion: a person reviews each one before it's sent, and a claim that doesn't check out is refused.
| What | Rate | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Continuing share of what an invitee generates | 10% | Paid on revenue we actually collect, for as long as they keep using the platform. |
| Repeating bonus per invitee | $20 every $50 | Counted per person from their lifetime revenue, with no ceiling. |
How the platform makes money
Every way the platform earns, and nothing else.
- The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.
- Tips. When you back, you can choose to give us part of your pledge as a tip. It's optional and starts at zero, it reaches the treasury in the same transaction as the pledge, and like every fee taken when you back, it isn't part of what comes back.
- The fee to create a campaign, charged once when it goes on chain.
- The fee on money added by card, 0.25% plus a flat $0.99, kept as it moves from its deposit wallet to your own.
- Campaign boosts. A creator pays to sit higher in the storefront, the whole payment goes to the treasury, and the boosted card is labeled so you know why it's there.
- A holding cost on balances left idle, so that holding money here isn't free.
- Paid plans buy a lower fee, not a different service. They aren't on sale today, so the platform earns nothing from them yet.
- We don't sell your data, we take no cut of a project's later revenue, and nobody pays us for a place in the feed except through a labeled boost.
Who can change the program
The protections above are only as good as the code that enforces them, and that code can be replaced. The program is upgradeable, and a single key we hold can replace it. The same key is the contract's admin, which can move the treasury address and set any wallet's fee, though never below the floor the program was compiled with. Who holds that key, and what the admin can and can't do, is all on the security page.
What can go wrong
None of this is unusual for crowdfunding, and all of it applies here.
- A creator can take the money and not deliver. Once a campaign reaches its goal, the money is the creator's, the platform can't pull it back, and building things is hard enough that some projects fail honestly.
- The fees taken when you back aren't returned if the campaign misses its goal. What comes back is the pledge that reached escrow after fees, not the amount you approved.
- Backing a project is not an investment. A pledge has no financial return, and the value of what you backed can't go up.
- Most early stage projects fail. That's true here, as everywhere else.
- Smart contracts can have bugs and can be exploited. Money lost that way is usually gone for good, and this contract has had no outside audit.
- The program is upgradeable and one key can replace it. That key is also the contract's admin.
- The admin can set any wallet's fee to any of the fees the program was compiled with, including back up to the free plan's. It can't go below the floor.
- Stablecoins are issued by companies, not by a central bank. If an issuer freezes an account or loses its peg, that's outside this platform and outside our control.
- Money on this platform isn't covered by any deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme.
- We don't check a creator's identity. There's no identity check anywhere in the product.
- We don't vet projects. CoFunders doesn't check that a project is what it claims to be, or that any promised reward will arrive.
- Transactions are recorded on a public blockchain. They're permanent, and we can't delete them, on request or otherwise.
Questions about money and risk
How does CoFunders make money?
From the fee on each pledge, the tips backers choose to give, the fee to open a campaign, the fee on money added by card, paid boosts and a holding cost on idle balances. Paid plans would add one more, and they are not on sale today.
Does CoFunders sell my data?
No. We don't sell your data, we take no cut of a project's later revenue, and nobody pays us for a place in the feed except through a labeled boost.
Is money on CoFunders covered by a deposit guarantee?
No. Money on this platform isn't covered by any deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme, and the stablecoin campaigns settle in is issued by a company, not by a central bank.
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