How are creator earnings paid and enforced?

On Unvault, every collection is paid. Every sale settled through the Unvault marketplace pays creator earnings at the rate the collection has published — in the on-chain royalty registry, through the ERC-2981 standard, or as set by the creator in the Services — whether or not the collection enforces royalties on-chain.

On-chain enforcement protects the collection everywhere else. Two pieces work together:

• Royalty registry. The creator records the split (recipients and percentages) on-chain. Every trade settled through the protocol contracts reads the registry and pays the split automatically — to the creator and, if configured, to the collection's DIVIT pool.
• Transfer validator. Launchpad and upgraded collections restrict transfers to approved operators. A venue that would settle a sale without paying creator earnings is not an approved operator, so the transfer is blocked. Creators choose the security level; higher levels block more operators.

Because the configuration travels with items when they are vaulted, the same rules apply on every chain where the collection is active.