FAQ — UGC Payouts

Fit & Use Case

UGC Payouts is built for UGC game platforms that pay creators for in-game content, mods, experiences, or revenue share. Most teams use UGC Payouts when they are paying dozens to thousands of creators and need payout infrastructure that scales without introducing compliance, security, or operational risk.

UGC Payouts is not designed for influencer marketing, brand deals, or one-off creator payments.

UGC Payouts is designed for:

•UGC sandbox games
•Creator-driven game platforms
•Mod and asset marketplaces
•Revenue-sharing game ecosystems

If creators earn real money based on activity or performance in your game, UGC Payouts is likely a fit.

Most teams start looking for payout infrastructure when:

•Creator monetization launches or grows faster than expected
•Manual payouts start consuming finance or operations time
•International creators join the ecosystem
•Finance or legal flags compliance risk
•Creator trust suffers due to delayed or unclear payouts

Creator payouts become infrastructure earlier than most teams expect.

How It Works

At a high level:

1.Your platform determines creator earnings (revenue share, engagement, or custom logic)
2.UGC Payouts orchestrates payout execution
3.Creators authorize payouts through secure account flows
4.Transactions are signed only within hardware-isolated secure enclaves
5.Funds are transferred directly to creator accounts

UGC Payouts handles the payout infrastructure so your team doesn't have to manage it manually.

No.

As long as you have the Creator's email address you can send them funds.

•Creators will sign up with the same email address to claim the funds.
•Funds are returned to you if not claimed by a time you determine.

The experience is designed to minimize friction while meeting payout, tax, and compliance requirements.

Payouts can be triggered based on:

•Revenue share
•Engagement or activity metrics
•Custom payout logic defined by your platform

UGC Payouts supports multiple monetization models and can evolve as your game grows.

UGC Payouts supports ACH, SEPA, Wire, PayPal. In over 200 countries.

Important distinctions:

•UGC Payouts does not custody funds
•Withdrawals operate within clearly defined trust boundaries
•Account security and transaction authorization remain isolated and protected

Stablecoins & Payments (USDC)

UGC Payouts uses USDC because it's a digital dollar that enables:

•Fast, global settlement without intermediary delays
•Predictable dollar-denominated payouts (no price volatility)
•Lower operational complexity for international payouts
•Transparent, auditable transaction records

For many UGC game platforms, USDC simplifies global payouts compared to wires or fragmented local banking systems.

No.

UGC Payouts uses USD-backed stablecoins (USDC) as a payment rail, not as a speculative crypto product.

USDC maintains a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar and is used to move value efficiently and transparently; it's a digital dollar.

UGC Payouts does not issue tokens, promote trading, or expose platforms or creators to market volatility.

No.

UGC Payouts abstracts the underlying payment rails so creators can receive payouts without needing crypto knowledge.

Creators interact with:

•Simple payout onboarding
•Clear earnings and payout records
•Fiat payout options where applicable

The underlying use of USDC is infrastructure; not a user-facing product.

Yes. UGC Payouts integrates with fiat off-ramps so creators can convert payouts to local currency, often without ever managing USDC directly.

Yes. Stablecoins are increasingly being adopted by banks, payment companies, and traditional financial institutions as payment rails, settlement tools, and infrastructure for moving value efficiently.

Examples:

•A majority of surveyed financial institutions are actively integrating stablecoins into their operations, including payments and treasury functions, signaling that banks and fintechs are treating stablecoins as business infrastructure, not speculative assets.
•Visa has launched a pilot where U.S. banks can settle transactions using USDC to speed transfers and improve resilience across banking settlement processes.
•Major banks such as Barclays, and groups including Goldman Sachs and UBS, have formed consortia to explore stablecoin issuance and settlement through regulated infrastructure.

Stablecoin usage is massive and tied to real-world payments activity:

•In 2024, the total transfer volume of stablecoins exceeded $27.6 trillion, more than the combined transaction volume of traditional payments networks like Visa and Mastercard.
•Some industry estimates show stablecoins facilitating over $35 trillion in total transfers in the past year.

This scale reflects stablecoins being used not just in niche markets but as a significant settlement and value transfer layer in global finance.

We're happy to talk through any questions you have on stablecoins. Below are more resources that others have found helpful:

Security, Custody & Trust

UGC Payouts is designed so it never controls creator funds or accounts.

Creator accounts follow a self-custodial architecture, where:

•Private account keys are generated and stored inside third-party, hardware-isolated secure enclaves
•Account Keys are encrypted, sharded, and distributed across isolated services
•Account Keys are only reconstructed inside secure hardware at the moment of an authenticated transaction
•The UGC Payouts backend cannot access full account keys and cannot sign transactions

This design significantly reduces platform risk and limits blast radius in worst-case scenarios.

No.

UGC Payouts uses a strict non-custodial model:

•It never holds, reconstructs, or controls creator private account keys
•There are no custodial backdoors
•All transaction signing occurs inside hardware-isolated secure enclaves after authenticated user approval

Global Tax, Reporting & KYC

Yes.

UGC Payouts includes built-in support for global tax workflows, required reporting, and creator identity verification as part of the payout infrastructure.

This includes:

•Tax information collection for creators (e.g. W-9, W-8 forms)
•1099 reporting support for U.S.-based creators
•International tax documentation workflows for non-U.S. creators
•KYC / identity verification required for payouts and compliance
•Recordkeeping and auditability for finance teams

These requirements are handled as part of the payout flow; not manual processes managed by your team.

By embedding tax collection, reporting, and KYC directly into payout infrastructure, UGC Payouts helps:

•Reduce compliance gaps
•Eliminate spreadsheet-based tracking
•Improve audit readiness
•Prevent payout delays caused by missing documentation

For many teams, this is one of the primary reasons to move off manual payout workflows.

Pricing & Alternatives

Pricing is typically based on payout volume and usage.

Most teams evaluate UGC Payouts against:

•Internal time spent managing payouts manually
•Engineering cost of building custom payout systems
•Compliance and operational risk as creator programs scale

Pricing is best discussed in the context of your specific setup.

•Stripe / PayPal provide payment primitives, not payout infrastructure for UGC ecosystems
•Xsolla combines payments with broader commerce tooling and platform fees
•UGC Payouts is focused specifically on creator payout infrastructure for UGC games, including automation, scale, security, and compliance

Many teams start with general payment tools and move to UGC Payouts as creator programs grow.

Getting Started

No.

Many teams start with:

•A subset of creators
•A specific region
•A single payout flow

This allows validation before expanding.

Onboarding is designed to be lightweight:

•Minimal engineering effort
•Clear payout setup
•Support during rollout

Most teams can get up and running quickly.

Yes. Most teams start with a conversation about their current payout setup, expected scale, and compliance concerns.