2. The RouterLink Ecosystem: Demand · Supply · Routing

RouterLink decomposes the AI ecosystem into three explicit roles that interact through protocol rules rather than organizational trust.

RouterLink Architecture Flow

Demand — Users and Developers

Users interact through a single unified gateway, abstracting away provider-specific APIs, authentication schemes, and billing systems. Users can express preferences such as:

• Cost sensitivity versus latency requirements

• Fallback behavior during outages

• Geographic or regulatory constraints

Users pay for usage in $WAI while retaining transparency into how requests are routed.

Supply — Service Providers

Service providers register AI capabilities with the protocol and publish pricing weights. Revenue is earned based on actual demand, measured through PoTU receipts, rather than fixed contracts.

This includes:

• Model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)

• Cloud infrastructure operators

• Specialized inference services

• Capacity holders with idle compute

Routing — Node Operators (Router + Validator)

Node operators are responsible for:

• Forwarding AI requests to appropriate services

• Observing execution outcomes

• Participating in performance validation through PoLP

Crucially, RouterLink couples routing and validation into a single role. Nodes that influence traffic are also accountable for observing and validating results.

Economic Alignment

Role	Contribution	Reward Mechanism
Users	Pay for AI inference	Access to multi-provider routing
Providers	Supply AI capacity	Revenue from verified usage
Nodes	Route & validate	Fees + performance bonuses
Delegators	Stake capital	Share of node rewards

All rewards are derived from protocol-generated proofs (PoTU/PoLP), not discretionary allocation.