The Two-Layer Sovereign Capture

The Covenant (7%) · The Yield (8%) · What gets which, and why a bounty is not a job.

Every atom of value moving through the ecosystem is taxed once for the people. Only the atoms with a heartbeat are taxed a second time for the crown. This document seals that distinction so it can never be forgotten, gamed, or accidentally collapsed into a single rate.

Sealed 18 April 2026. Companion to MD-025 (Entity Financial Architecture), MD-777 (The Percentage Protocol), MD-269 (Bounty Rates), MD-270 (Bounty Intake). MD-271 is the load-bearing wall between them: it answers the question "why does a bounty pay 7% and a job pay 15%?" in a way that survives every audit, every challenge, and every operator who tries to relabel a job as a task to dodge the Yield.

"Bounties are sparks. Jobs are flames. Both feed the system. Only flames build the sovereign treasury."

1. The Two Layers (one image)

LAYER 1 · UNIVERSAL

The Covenant

On every transaction — jobs, bounties, dPRN sales, licence fees, partner gateway revenue, training income, every atom. For bounties the 7% is paid by the sovereign on top of the advertised rate (per MD-269 — the worker's take is never reduced). For jobs and other revenue flows it is taken from gross.

Destination: Fully Nourished CIC
Split: 50% meals · 50% ecosystem operations
Backstop: 1 tonne = 40 meals minimum

LAYER 2 · EMPLOYMENT-ONLY

The Yield

On jobs only — work with a heartbeat (recurring, relationship-based, availability-required). Constitutional roles and Micro-Jobs both qualify. Bounties do not.

Destination: Sovereign Treasury (you + the four entities)
Use: sovereign wealth, expansion capital, reserves
Trigger: the work has a heartbeat (see §4)

SPARK Bounty / Task: worker keeps 100% of advertised rate · sovereign funds 7% Covenant on top · FLAME Job: 15% taken from gross · worker keeps 85%

2. The Three Tiers of Work

Tier	What it is	Examples	Equity	Benefits	Capture
Tier 1 SPARK Bounty / Micro-Task	One-off, transactional, no ongoing relationship. Minutes to hours.	FIND £250 · SEND £150 · REPLY £35–£70 · CALL £80–£125 (MD-269 v3.0)	No	No	7% on top (sovereign-funded) worker keeps 100%
Tier 2 FLAME Micro-Job	Recurring, predictable, small but ongoing time commitment. Weeks to months.	Daily Truth Ledger entry (2h/day) · Weekly social post · Monthly report compile	Pathway	After threshold	15% worker keeps 85%
Tier 3 FLAME Constitutional Job	Formal role inside the 1,462 / 102-live framework. Indefinite. Availability-required.	Sovereign Director · Operations Anchor · Red Team General · Collection Coordinator	Yes (standard packages)	Yes (after vesting)	15% worker keeps 85%

3. The Worked Examples

Two accounting modes. For SPARK bounties the sovereign pays the 7% on top of the worker's rate (the worker is never reduced — MD-269 lock). For FLAME jobs and all other revenue flows the 7% (and the 8% where applicable) is taken from gross.

Value flow	Mode	Worker rate / Gross	7% Covenant → CIC	8% Yield → Treasury	Worker / Counterparty receives	Total ecosystem cost
FIND bounty (1,000 leads)	on top	£250.00	£17.50	—	£250.00	£267.50
CALL bounty (T1 Rookie)	on top	£80.00	£5.60	—	£80.00	£85.60
Micro-Job · weekly social post	from gross	£200.00	£14.00	£16.00	£170.00	£200.00
Constitutional Job · monthly salary	from gross	£2,000.00	£140.00	£160.00	£1,700.00	£2,000.00
dPRN sale · 100 tonnes @ £450	from gross	£45,000.00	£3,150.00	—	£41,850.00 to operating entity	£45,000.00
Licence fee · franchise gateway	from gross	£10,000.00	£700.00	—	£9,300.00	£10,000.00
Course revenue · paid module	from gross	£300.00	£21.00	—	£279.00	£300.00

Notice: dPRN sales, licence fees, and course revenue all pay the 7% Covenant from gross. They are not jobs and so they do not pay the 8% Yield. The Yield is reserved exclusively for human work with a heartbeat. Bounties are the only flow where the 7% is paid on top of the headline rate — the deliberate price the sovereign pays to keep velocity high and worker take whole.

4. The Heartbeat Test (the decision rule)

When a new role appears in the system, ask three questions. All three must be YES for the 8% Yield to apply.

#	Question	If YES
1	Recurring? Does the same person come back to do this again, on a known cadence (daily / weekly / monthly)?	+1
2	Relational? Does the worker report to someone, or coordinate with a team?	+1
3	Availability-required? Does the role need the worker to be reachable on a schedule, not just to deliver a result?	+1

Score 3/3 → it is a Job (Micro or Constitutional). Apply 7% + 8%.
Score 0–2 → it is a Task. Apply 7% only.
The Heartbeat Test is binding. Operators do not get to argue scope — they apply the test and route the rate.

5. Why a Bounty Is Not a Job (the answer to the question)

A bounty is real work and it deserves real pay — that is why MD-269 sets the rates and MD-270 builds the intake. But a bounty fails the Heartbeat Test on every axis:

Not recurring — each bounty is a discrete deliverable. The worker may submit ten in a week or none in a month.
Not relational — the worker reports to no one. They submit, the system verifies, the system pays.
No availability requirement — the worker can submit at 3am or never. There is no schedule and no expectation of being reachable.

Therefore: a bounty pays the 7% Covenant only — and even that is not deducted from the worker. It does not pay the 8% Yield. The £250 FIND rate is a £250 FIND rate full stop — the worker takes home £250, the sovereign separately routes a further £17.50 (7% of the worker's rate) to the CIC out of the same revenue stream the bounty served, and the Sovereign Treasury receives nothing from the bounty layer because the bounty layer is not employment. Total cost to the ecosystem per FIND bounty: £267.50. Worker take: £250.00.

This is by design. Bounties exist to be high-velocity, low-friction, and abundant. Stacking the Yield onto bounties would crush the velocity and waste the architecture. The Yield is reserved for the slower, deeper, relational work that actually builds the institution.

6. The Bounty → Micro-Job Conversion Ladder

A bounty worker who earns consistently is not a one-off labourer — they are a candidate. The system watches for this and offers the upgrade.

Threshold	What happens	What the worker gets
£500 paid within 30 days	System flags the worker for the Operations Anchor	Personal welcome message
£1,500 paid within 60 days	Worker is offered a Micro-Job slot at next opening	Predictable income · pathway to equity
£5,000 paid within 90 days	Worker is invited to the Sovereign Roles pipeline	Constitutional consideration · benefits

The conversion is voluntary. A worker who prefers the freedom of bounty-only work keeps that freedom indefinitely. The 7% / 15% rates apply at whatever tier they sit in at the moment of payment.

7. Anti-Gaming Clauses (sealed)

Clause A — No splitting jobs into tasks. A constitutional role cannot be reformatted as a sequence of one-off bounties to dodge the 8% Yield. If the work passes the Heartbeat Test, it pays 15%, full stop, regardless of how the contract is worded.

Clause B — No relabeling tasks as jobs to inflate the capture. Equally, a one-off task does not qualify for the 8% Yield even if the operator wants the extra revenue. The Heartbeat Test is binding in both directions.

Clause C — No deducting the 7% from advertised bounty rates. The MD-269 v3.0 rates (£250 FIND · £150 SEND · £35–£70 REPLY tiered · £80–£125 CALL tiered) are the sovereign's gross commitment. The 7% is paid by the sovereign on top of the worker's take, sourced from the same revenue stream the bounty served. The worker keeps the full advertised rate at whatever tier they have earned. This is non-negotiable and the audit will catch any deviation.

Clause D — No double-tax on internal transfers. When value moves between the four entities (MPT · H.BLUE Ltd · Fully Nourished CIC · Waltham Caesar Murphy Trust) for accounting purposes only, the 7% does not apply. The 7% triggers on external value movement, not internal book-keeping.

8. The Formula (memorise this)

Ecosystem value flow ↓ 7% COVENANT → Fully Nourished CIC (50% meals · 50% ops) ↓ Apply Heartbeat Test (recurring? relational? availability?) ↓ 3/3 YES? ──── YES ───→ + 8% YIELD → Sovereign Treasury │ └── NO ────→ Stop here. Worker takes the rest. TASK = 7% on top · worker keeps 100% of advertised rate JOB = 15% from gross · worker keeps 85%

9. Where Each Layer Lives in the System

Layer	Banking destination	Recorded at	Reported on
7% Covenant	Fully Nourished CIC operating account	Truth Ledger · VMR (Verified Meal Record)	/fully-nourished · /covenant-treasury
8% Yield	Sovereign Treasury (allocation across the four entities per MD-025)	Treasury Ledger · sovereign-only	/finance-ltd
Bounty 7% trigger	CIC, paid by sovereign on top of worker rate	`bounty_submissions` at PAID	/bounty-payments
Job 15% trigger	CIC + Treasury at payroll run	Payroll Ledger	/digital-army-jobs

10. The Permanent Reminder (sealed phrase)

"The 7% Covenant is on every atom of value in the ecosystem. The 8% Yield is only on the atoms that have a heartbeat — ongoing, relational, constitutional. Bounties are sparks. Jobs are flames. Both feed the system. Only flames build the sovereign treasury."

11. Linked Doctrine

MD-025 — Entity Financial Architecture (where the Covenant and Yield are routed)
MD-777 — The Percentage Protocol (the original 7% statement)
MD-269 — EGZ4 Bounty v2.0 (rates that this MD taxes at 7% only)
MD-270 — Bounty Intake Architecture (the pipeline that triggers the 7%)
Fully Nourished CIC — destination of the 7% Covenant
Digital Army Jobs Board — where the 8% Yield engages

SEAL · 18 April 2026 · SCP-2711 · MD-271
Two layers. One ecosystem. The Covenant feeds the people. The Yield feeds the crown. A bounty is a spark and pays the 7%. A job has a heartbeat and pays the 15%. The Heartbeat Test decides. The architecture is now permanent.