What Is Contribution Decomposition?
Contribution Decomposition is the proposed analytical framework within PBS/MPS for examining how multiple documented contributions relate to a measurable outcome and how attributable economic participation could be evaluated.
What problem does Contribution Decomposition address?
Valuable outcomes are often collaborative.
A research discovery may reflect work performed by many people. An agricultural genetic asset may result from generations of breeding and selection. A creative work may build on numerous identifiable contributions. An artificial-intelligence system may incorporate information originating from many sources.
Recording that contributors participated is only the first problem. The harder question is how documented contributions relate to the resulting measurable outcome.
Contribution Decomposition is the part of PBS/MPS intended to examine that relationship.
Provenance, performance, and attribution are not the same thing
Who contributed?
Provenance concerns the documented history of the asset and the identifiable contributions associated with it.
What happened?
Performance concerns independently observable outcomes associated with the documented asset.
How are they related?
Contribution Decomposition examines the relationship between documented contributions and measurable outcomes.
How does Contribution Decomposition fit into PBS/MPS?
Establish Provenance
Begin with documented evidence describing the asset, contributors, and contribution history.
Observe Performance
Examine independently observable information describing relevant real-world outcomes.
Examine Attribution
Analyze how documented contributions relate to the observed outcome within the applicable domain.
Does Contribution Decomposition simply declare who deserves what?
No.
The proposed framework begins with evidence rather than an assumption that every participant contributed equally or that every documented contribution generated the same result.
Provenance establishes the historical record. Performance provides evidence about outcomes. Contribution Decomposition provides the analytical bridge between those two bodies of information.
The purpose is to make attribution capable of examination rather than leaving it entirely implicit.
Why does attribution become difficult in collaborative systems?
Contributions can differ in type, timing, scope, and relationship to a final outcome.
Some contributions may establish an original idea. Others may improve it, test it, implement it, document it, validate it, or contribute information that changes its eventual performance.
Contribution Decomposition is proposed as a framework for examining those differences without reducing the entire history of an asset to a single final owner or a simple record of participation.
Why is Contribution Decomposition relevant to AI?
Artificial-intelligence systems can incorporate knowledge, expertise, research, data, and creative material originating from many contributors.
PBS/MPS raises the policy question of whether systems can preserve meaningful relationships between documented human contributions and measurable downstream outcomes.
Contribution Decomposition is the analytical part of the framework intended to examine such relationships when attribution involves more than one contributor.
How does attribution relate to economic rights?
Analytical attribution and legally enforceable economic rights are separate questions.
Contribution Decomposition is proposed as a method for examining attributable contribution. It does not, by itself, create a property right, determine a securities classification, establish market price, or replace applicable contracts and law.
The larger PBS/MPS proposal explores how documented provenance, measurable performance, attribution, and lawful economic rights could operate together.
Was Contribution Decomposition part of the regulatory discussion?
ScarabCloud's September 2026 correspondence to Washington DFI identified “Contribution Decomposition & Royalty Flow” as the mathematical allocation component of the architecture submitted for review.
DFI subsequently explained that the broader PBS/MPS architecture extends beyond the laws administered by DFI and could raise legal issues including property rights and intellectual property.
DFI did not endorse or approve ScarabCloud's architecture or Contribution Decomposition methodology.
Is there a mathematical framework behind Contribution Decomposition?
Yes. ScarabCloud has developed a formal mathematical treatment supporting the Contribution Decomposition and Royalty Flow concept.
Meritocrat.org currently presents the public conceptual framework rather than reproducing the complete mathematical methodology on this page.
Why publish the concept without the complete formula?
Legislators, policymakers, researchers, and the public need to understand what problem the framework is intended to solve and how Contribution Decomposition relates to provenance and performance.
That public-policy purpose does not require publication of every implementation detail or mathematical parameter.
The public architecture therefore explains the function and logic of Contribution Decomposition while allowing detailed technical methodology to remain subject to separate review and publication decisions.
Related PBS/MPS resources
Technical and Regulatory Notice
Contribution Decomposition is a proposed analytical framework presented for research, technical, and public-policy discussion.
This page does not constitute legal, securities, investment, valuation, accounting, technical, or financial advice.
The framework does not itself establish legally enforceable ownership rights or guarantee economic attribution, compensation, market value, or investment performance.
No securities are offered or solicited through this page.