Credit & Economy Policy.

This Credit & Economy Policy explains how CEO Arcade credits, credit classes, Operational Costs, approved actions, revenue conversion, reserves, and cashout eligibility work. It is incorporated into the CEO Arcade Terms of Service and Operator Agreement.

The CEO Arcade economy is an internal operating ledger. Credits are used to operate, improve, and maintain platform-managed SaaS cabinets. Some credits are operating fuel. Some credits are generated from real business revenue and may become cash after settlement, reserves, KYC, tax, and cashout requirements. The distinction between those credit classes is intentional and required for safety, fraud prevention, accounting, and legal compliance.

1. Core Principle

Credits are not all the same.

CEO Arcade separates credits into different classes because each class has a different source, purpose, and legal treatment. Monthly Credits, Purchased Credits, and Promo Credits are operating fuel. Earned Credits are your share of eligible cabinet revenue after fees, Operational Costs, reserves, and other deductions. Only eligible settled Earned Credits may become cash.

Credits are not legal tender, bank deposits, stored value, cryptocurrency, securities, investment contracts, transferable instruments, or general-purpose payment instruments. Credits cannot be transferred, resold, traded, pledged, collateralized, assigned, or used outside CEO Arcade except through platform-approved earned-credit cashout processes.

2. Credit Classes

CEO Arcade may maintain the following credit classes.

Credit class	Source	Spendable?	Withdrawable?	Typical expiration or hold
Monthly Credits	Monthly subscription, Operator Plan, or recurring credit grant	Yes	No	May expire or roll over up to plan cap
Purchased Credits	Credit packs or top-up purchases	Yes	No	Long expiry, subject to refund policy
Promo Credits	Coupons, support credits, launch grants, bonuses, or goodwill credits	Yes	No	Usually expires or is limited
Earned Credits	Cabinet revenue after fees, Operational Costs, reserves, and deductions	Yes	Yes, if eligible	No ordinary expiry, but subject to holds
Pending Earned Credits	Revenue not yet settled or cleared	Limited or no	No	Converts after settlement if eligible
Reserved Credits	Credits held for approved quotes, missions, Operational Costs, hard costs, or work	No	No	Released or settled when action closes
Locked Credits	Credits held for refunds, chargebacks, disputes, fraud, tax, infrastructure, or risk exposure	No	No	Released after applicable hold or risk window

CEO Arcade may add, rename, remove, or modify credit classes as the platform evolves. Mission Control will display current balances and, where available, whether credits are spendable, reserved, locked, pending, or withdrawable.

3. Credit Value and Internal Pricing

Unless CEO Arcade states otherwise, credits are generally displayed using a platform-value convention of:

10 credits  = approximately $1 of platform value
100 credits = approximately $10 of platform value
500 credits = approximately $50 of platform value

This display convention does not make credits cash, legal tender, stored value, or a guaranteed redemption right. It is an internal pricing unit used for Mission Control quotes, Operational Cost deductions, feature work, domains, branding, infrastructure, and other platform actions.

Credit prices for actions may include margins, provider costs, risk buffers, QA assumptions, AI execution costs, human review, infrastructure costs, third-party fees, and other platform costs.

4. Operational Costs

Operational Costs are recurring, monthly, usage-based, or cabinet-specific costs required to keep a cabinet and its supporting systems available, hosted, monitored, maintained, or usable.

Operational Costs may include:

1. hosting;
2. compute;
3. database usage;
4. storage;
5. bandwidth;
6. domains;
7. DNS;
8. SSL;
9. email;
10. observability;
11. monitoring;
12. support tooling;
13. App Factory work;
14. PermaShip work;
15. QA Agent work;
16. CI/CD;
17. AI execution;
18. deployment;
19. infrastructure;
20. third-party services;
21. customer-support tooling; and
22. other costs attributable to the cabinet.

Operational Costs may vary from month to month based on usage, infrastructure tier, domains, services, customer activity, traffic, database usage, email usage, storage, support volume, approved feature work, third-party services, AI usage, QA usage, and other operational factors.

Mission Control will make you aware of upcoming Operational Costs when available. These may appear as estimates, scheduled deductions, usage-based projections, scale-pack charges, hard-cost notices, or recurring service costs. Estimates may change if usage, provider pricing, cabinet configuration, or approved services change.

5. Payment of Operational Costs

Operational Costs may be deducted from eligible credits. If you have a monthly subscription or Operator Plan that grants credits, those credits may be used to pay eligible Operational Costs according to the rules shown in Mission Control and this policy.

Operational Costs may also be paid from other eligible credit classes, including Purchased Credits or Earned Credits, depending on treasury settings, credit-class restrictions, and risk controls.

CEO Arcade may apply Operational Cost deductions automatically when:

1. the cost was previously disclosed in Mission Control;
2. the cost is part of your selected plan or cabinet configuration;
3. the cost is attributable to cabinet usage;
4. the cost is tied to an approved service or mission;
5. the cost is a recurring cost for a service you enabled;
6. the cost is needed to keep the cabinet available, secure, monitored, or operational; or
7. the Terms of Service or Operator Agreement permits the deduction.

If eligible credits are insufficient, CEO Arcade may:

1. deduct from another eligible credit class;
2. charge your saved payment method;
3. prompt you to buy credits;
4. prompt you to downgrade or disable services;
5. pause nonessential services;
6. put the cabinet into grace;
7. suspend the cabinet;
8. freeze credit spending or cashout;
9. reclaim the cabinet after the reclaim window; or
10. take other actions allowed by the Terms of Service.

6. Spend Order

Unless you select a different eligible treasury setting, the default spend order is generally:

1. Promo Credits
2. Monthly Credits
3. Purchased Credits
4. Earned Credits

This default uses promotional and monthly operating fuel first and helps preserve Earned Credits for reinvestment or cashout.

Mission Control may allow you to choose a different preference, such as:

Auto-Reinvest

Earned Credits may be used automatically after Promo, Monthly, and Purchased Credits are exhausted. This is best for operators who want revenue to fund growth, infrastructure, features, and upgrades.

Preserve Earned Credits

Earned Credits are not used automatically except for required deductions, reserves, risk controls, or explicit approvals. This is best for operators who want to preserve revenue for cashout.

CEO Arcade may override spend-order preferences where required for refunds, chargebacks, fraud controls, legal compliance, Operational Cost exposure, reserves, or account-good-standing requirements.

7. Credit Quotes, Reservations, and Settlement

Many Mission Control actions follow this lifecycle:

Quote → Approve → Reserve → Execute → Verify → Settle

Quote

An advisor, department, App Factory, PermaShip, or platform system estimates the cost. A quote may include:

1. credit cost;
2. confidence level;
3. expected business impact;
4. implementation risk;
5. recurring Operational Cost impact;
6. hard-cost exposure;
7. included QA or CI retries;
8. whether human review is required;
9. whether additional approval may be needed; and
10. whether the action may affect infrastructure, customers, payments, or compliance.

Approve

You approve, decline, or modify the action. Approval authorizes CEO Arcade to reserve credits and begin work or provision services.

Reserve

Credits move into a reserved state. Reserved Credits are not spendable or withdrawable while reserved.

Execute

CEO Arcade, App Factory, PermaShip, QA Agent, platform services, or third-party providers execute the approved action.

Verify

CEO Arcade may use local checks, CI, QA Agent, PermaShip, deployment checks, health checks, advisor review, or human review to verify completion.

Settle

If the action comes in under budget, unused reserved credits may return to the original credit source. If the action uses the full quote, reserved credits settle. If the action exceeds the approved amount, work may pause for additional approval. If the action fails or is cancelled, unused reserved credits may be released, support credits may be granted, or another remedy may be applied.

8. Hard Costs and Credit Restrictions

Some actions create immediate external costs. These are Hard Costs.

Hard Costs may include:

1. domain registrations;
2. domain renewals;
3. DNS or custom-hostname costs;
4. paid ads;
5. external APIs;
6. partner services;
7. infrastructure upgrades;
8. email services;
9. premium third-party tools;
10. human QA;
11. legal, compliance, or filing services; and
12. other irreversible or external provider costs.

CEO Arcade may restrict which credit classes can pay for Hard Costs. For example:

Action	Monthly Credits	Purchased Credits	Earned Credits	Cash or Card
Internal AI advice	Usually included	Not needed	Not needed	Not needed
Copy, branding, or feature work	Usually allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Sometimes
Bug fix caused by platform fault	Free or credited	Free or credited	Free or credited	Not needed
Domain registration	Only if plan includes allowance	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
Paid ads or partner services	Usually not allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
Operational Costs	Allowed where eligible	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
Scale packs or infrastructure upgrades	Limited or allowed with approval	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
Cashout	Not allowed	Not allowed	Eligible only	Not applicable

Mission Control will show the applicable credit requirements when you approve a Hard Cost. Once a Hard Cost is incurred, it is generally non-refundable.

9. Monthly Credits

Monthly Credits may be granted through a subscription, Operator Plan, or recurring plan. They are operating fuel and cannot be withdrawn as cash.

Monthly Credits may be usable for:

1. Operational Costs;
2. branding actions;
3. copy changes;
4. feature work;
5. QA or app-improvement actions;
6. infrastructure actions if allowed by plan;
7. advisor-recommended missions;
8. other approved platform actions; and
9. certain hard-cost allowances if expressly included in the plan.

Monthly Credits may expire, reset, or roll over only up to a plan cap. For example, a plan may allow unused Monthly Credits to roll over up to a stated maximum. If your subscription ends, your cabinet is suspended, or your account is closed, unused Monthly Credits may expire or be forfeited.

Monthly Credits are not cash and are not refundable unless required by law or expressly stated by CEO Arcade.

10. Purchased Credits

Purchased Credits are credits bought through credit packs or top-ups. They are spendable inside CEO Arcade but are not withdrawable as cash.

Purchased Credits may be used for:

1. approved missions;
2. features;
3. branding;
4. domain purchases;
5. Operational Costs;
6. infrastructure upgrades;
7. QA;
8. App Factory work;
9. PermaShip work;
10. third-party services if allowed; and
11. other actions shown in Mission Control.

Unused Purchased Credits may be refundable only according to the Refund Policy. Once Purchased Credits are spent, reserved, settled, used for Operational Costs, or tied to a Hard Cost, they are generally non-refundable.

Purchased Credits cannot be cashed out, transferred, resold, or converted into Earned Credits.

11. Promo Credits and Support Credits

Promo Credits may include launch grants, bonus credits, coupons, goodwill credits, support credits, or other credits granted by CEO Arcade.

Promo Credits are generally:

1. spendable only inside CEO Arcade;
2. non-withdrawable;
3. non-refundable;
4. non-transferable;
5. subject to expiration;
6. subject to plan and action restrictions; and
7. revocable in cases of fraud, abuse, error, cancellation, suspension, or policy violation.

Support credits may be granted to resolve a support issue, but support credits do not create a right to cashout or cash refund unless CEO Arcade expressly states otherwise in writing.

12. Earned Credits

Earned Credits are created from eligible cabinet revenue after applicable deductions. Deductions may include:

1. payment processor fees;
2. sales tax, VAT, remittance obligations, or pass-through amounts;
3. refunds;
4. chargebacks;
5. dispute fees;
6. reserves;
7. Platform Fees;
8. Operational Costs;
9. infrastructure COGS;
10. scale packs;
11. hard costs;
12. third-party service costs;
13. fraud or risk holds;
14. taxes or withholding if applicable; and
15. other deductions shown in Mission Control or required by law.

Earned Credits may be used for reinvestment into the cabinet or may become cashout-eligible after settlement, reserve, KYC, tax, account-good-standing, and payment processor requirements are met.

Earned Credits are not guaranteed. Customer revenue may be reversed, reduced, held, reserved, offset, or delayed due to refunds, disputes, chargebacks, fraud, taxes, Operational Costs, customer obligations, or processor requirements.

13. Pending Earned Credits

New customer revenue may first appear as Pending Earned Credits. Pending Earned Credits are not withdrawable and may have limited spendability until settlement, clearing, risk checks, and reserve calculations are complete.

Pending Earned Credits may be reduced by:

1. refunds;
2. failed payments;
3. disputes;
4. chargebacks;
5. payment processor reversals;
6. tax or remittance obligations;
7. Operational Costs;
8. Platform Fees;
9. fraud controls; and
10. reserve holds.

Only after settlement and risk review may Pending Earned Credits become available Earned Credits.

14. Reserved Credits

Credits may be reserved when:

1. you approve a quote;
2. you approve a mission;
3. you approve a domain purchase;
4. you enable a service;
5. an Operational Cost is scheduled;
6. an infrastructure charge is pending;
7. work is underway;
8. a recurring charge is about to settle; or
9. CEO Arcade needs to hold credits for risk, billing, or execution reasons.

Reserved Credits are not available for spending or cashout while reserved. Once the underlying action completes, fails, is cancelled, or settles, the Reserved Credits may be settled, partially settled, released, converted, or locked depending on the outcome.

15. Locked Credits and Reserves

Credits may be locked or reserved against:

1. refunds;
2. chargebacks;
3. disputes;
4. fraud risk;
5. tax or compliance exposure;
6. infrastructure exposure;
7. Operational Cost exposure;
8. customer refund policy risk;
9. payment processor holds;
10. marketplace transfer risk;
11. buyout or transfer obligations; and
12. negative balances.

Locked Credits are not spendable or withdrawable. They may be released after the applicable hold period or used to offset losses, refunds, disputes, chargebacks, Operational Costs, negative balances, or other obligations.

Reserve percentages and hold periods may vary based on business type, customer refund policies, chargeback history, category risk, volume, country, payment method, account age, and platform risk controls.

16. Revenue Waterfall

A typical revenue waterfall may look like this:

Gross customer revenue
- payment processor fees
- taxes, VAT, and pass-through amounts
- refunds, chargebacks, and dispute fees
= net receipts

Net receipts
- CEO Arcade / PermaShip Platform Fee
- Operational Costs and infrastructure COGS
- approved hard costs or service costs
- reserves and holdbacks
= operator earned balance

Operator earned balance
→ Pending Earned Credits
→ Available Earned Credits after settlement
→ Reinvest or cash out if eligible

Illustrative example:

Line item	Amount
Gross cabinet revenue	$1,000
Payment processing and pass-throughs	−$80
Net receipts	$920
Platform Fee at 30%	−$276
Operational Costs and infrastructure COGS	−$50
Reserve holdback	−$50
Operator earned balance	$594
Earned Credits	5,940 credits

This example is illustrative only. Actual amounts depend on the cabinet, plan, processor fees, refunds, taxes, Operational Costs, risk holds, platform fees, and usage.

17. Cashout Summary

Only eligible settled Earned Credits may be withdrawn as cash. Monthly Credits, Purchased Credits, Promo Credits, Pending Earned Credits, Reserved Credits, and Locked Credits cannot be withdrawn.

Cashout may require:

1. Stripe Connect onboarding;
2. KYC;
3. tax forms;
4. sanctions screening;
5. bank-account verification;
6. settlement completion;
7. reserve hold completion;
8. account-good-standing status;
9. no unpaid Operational Costs;
10. no negative business balance;
11. no unresolved disputes above platform thresholds;
12. minimum withdrawal amount; and
13. compliance with payment processor rules and applicable law.

Cashout availability may vary by jurisdiction, business type, account status, payment method, risk, and processor requirements.

18. Refunds, Chargebacks, and Negative Balances

Refunds, chargebacks, disputes, dispute fees, failed payments, and negative balances may be recovered from:

1. Pending Earned Credits;
2. Reserved Earned Credits;
3. Available Earned Credits;
4. future cabinet revenue;
5. account balances;
6. eligible credits if permitted by law and policy;
7. saved payment methods; or
8. other lawful offsets.

Monthly Credits and ordinary Purchased Credits are generally not treated as cash-equivalent reserves for customer refunds, but CEO Arcade may restrict, freeze, reverse, or reclaim credits in cases of fraud, abuse, error, chargeback, or policy violation.

19. Subscription Renewal and Credits

Subscription renewal may be charged to your saved payment method or paid from eligible credits if CEO Arcade supports that method for your plan.

If a monthly subscription grants credits, those credits may be used for eligible Operational Costs according to Mission Control disclosures and this policy. CEO Arcade may restrict circular or abusive use of credits if needed to prevent fraud, payment failure, negative-margin exploitation, or nonpayment.

If subscription renewal fails, or if Operational Costs cannot be paid from eligible credits or a valid payment method, the cabinet may enter grace, suspension, or reclaim.

20. Domains and Domain Allowances

Domain registration is a Hard Cost. Mission Control may recommend domains, check availability, show credit cost, reserve credits, register the domain, configure DNS, and connect the domain to the cabinet.

Domain purchases generally require Purchased Credits, Earned Credits, cash, card, or a specific domain allowance. Ordinary Monthly Credits may not pay for domain registrations unless the plan or offer expressly includes a domain allowance.

Once registered, a domain is generally non-refundable. Domains purchased through CEO Arcade are platform-managed by default and may be platform-owned until a buyout or approved transfer occurs.

Domain renewals may be treated as Operational Costs, Hard Costs, or separate renewal charges depending on the plan and domain status. Mission Control may show upcoming domain renewals and required credits when available.

21. Infrastructure and Scale Packs

If a cabinet grows in traffic, usage, customer count, database size, bandwidth, email volume, or compute demand, CEO Arcade may recommend or require infrastructure upgrades.

Infrastructure upgrades may be presented as:

1. one-time credit actions;
2. recurring Operational Costs;
3. scale packs;
4. COGS deductions from revenue;
5. card charges;
6. service downgrades; or
7. required upgrades to keep the cabinet stable.

Mission Control may explain why an upgrade is recommended or required. If you decline a required upgrade, CEO Arcade may rate-limit, degrade, pause, or suspend the cabinet to protect platform reliability, customer experience, and cost exposure.

22. Abuse, Fraud, and Credit Integrity

CEO Arcade may freeze, reverse, lock, reclaim, or adjust credits if it suspects:

1. fraud;
2. fake revenue;
3. self-dealing;
4. artificial transactions;
5. money laundering;
6. credit arbitrage;
7. chargeback abuse;
8. stolen payment methods;
9. fake customer activity;
10. marketplace manipulation;
11. referral abuse;
12. domain abuse;
13. policy violations; or
14. accounting or platform errors.

CEO Arcade may require additional verification, KYC, tax information, business information, or documentation before allowing credit spend, cashout, transfers, buyout, or continued cabinet operation.

23. No Transfers or Resale of Credits

Credits cannot be transferred between operator accounts, sold, traded, pledged, collateralized, assigned, or resold. Credits are not a secondary-market instrument.

CEO Arcade may later offer platform-approved cabinet transfers, marketplace transactions, or buyout flows. Those flows may transfer operating rights or assets, but they do not make credits generally transferable unless CEO Arcade expressly permits it in a written policy or transaction agreement.

24. Errors and Adjustments

CEO Arcade may correct ledger errors, pricing errors, duplicate charges, mistaken grants, failed deductions, over-deductions, under-deductions, provider-cost errors, or other platform mistakes.

Corrections may include:

1. releasing credits;
2. reserving credits;
3. locking credits;
4. reversing credits;
5. charging a payment method;
6. refunding a payment;
7. granting support credits;
8. adjusting Operational Costs;
9. correcting earned balances;
10. updating cashout eligibility; or
11. applying another appropriate adjustment.

Mission Control may show adjustments when available, but CEO Arcade may also make backend corrections necessary for accounting, security, risk, or legal compliance.

25. Policy Changes

CEO Arcade may update this Credit & Economy Policy from time to time. Updated versions may be posted on the CEO Arcade website, displayed in Mission Control, or otherwise made available.

Changes may affect credit classes, spend order, eligible uses, expiration, rollover, Operational Cost deductions, hard-cost rules, cashout eligibility, reserve rules, and other economy mechanics.

Continued use of CEO Arcade after a policy update takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

26. Contact

For support questions, contact hello@permaship.ai.
For legal questions, contact legal@permaship.ai.