Fee collector
The fee collector is the on-chain contract that receives protocol fees and routes them back to the people and mechanisms that give $COWL its value.
The flow
- A private trade settles in the shielded pool and pays the protocol fee.
- That fee accrues in the fee collector, in the open, on-chain.
- On a regular cycle, the collector distributes what it has gathered according to the split below.
The collector holds fees, not user funds. It can never touch a shielded balance — it only ever receives fees that have already been charged.
The split
Collected protocol fees are divided two ways:
| Destination | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Buyback & burn | Buys $COWL on the market and burns it, removing supply |
| Treasury | Governed reserves for grants, audits, and development |
Why it works this way
Value tracks usage, not a fixed allocation. More private volume means more protocol fees, which means more $COWL bought off the market and permanently burned. The token gets stronger the more the network is actually used — there is no schedule to wait on.
Governance
The split and the distribution cycle are protocol parameters. $COWL holders can adjust them — shifting more toward the burn, or more toward the treasury — through governance.