MBOs

The offer itself

MBO stands for Merchant Brand Offer. It’s the individual item, service, or experience that a merchant makes available through their Stream. An MBO is not just a product listing — it’s an entitlement. When a buyer claims one, they’ve initiated a real exchange: Drops evaporated, value committed to be delivered.

Every offer in a Stream is an MBO. The term exists to be precise: the thing being exchanged has a merchant behind it (not SWIM), a brand identity (not a generic SKU), and a concrete offer of value (not a promise or a subscription tier). MBO means exactly that, no more.

An MBO is an offer, not a token. It doesn’t get minted, burned, or stacked. It gets created, listed, claimed, and fulfilled. The distinction matters: the MBO is the hat, the consultation, the download. The Drops are the settlement layer that moves when a buyer claims it.

The MBO lifecycle

An MBO moves through four states:

1. Created — the merchant builds the offer in their merchant portal. Title, description, images, Drop price, offer type. It’s not visible to buyers yet.
2. Listed — the merchant publishes the offer to their Stream. It becomes publicly visible and claimable by buyers with sufficient Drops.
3. Claimed — a buyer evaporates the required number of Drops. The MBO is now reserved for that buyer. The merchant receives a fulfillment notification.
4. Fulfilled — the merchant delivers the value. For digital offers, this can be automatic. For physical products and services, the merchant marks fulfillment complete when delivery is confirmed.

Drops are evaporated at the moment of claim — not at delivery. If an MBO cannot be fulfilled after a buyer has claimed it (the merchant cancels, the item becomes unavailable, a service cannot be delivered), Drops are returned to the buyer and the exchange is unwound. Once fulfillment is confirmed — automatic for digital offers, merchant-confirmed for physical products and services — the exchange is final. SWIM does not reverse Drops after confirmed fulfillment.

Types of MBOs

Merchants can create four types of MBOs:

• Physical product — a tangible item that gets shipped. Requires an address and fulfillment tracking.
• Digital download — a file delivered automatically on claim. Software, documents, templates, audio, or any other digital asset.
• Service — a time-based engagement: a consultation, a lesson, a repair, a creative project. Fulfilled when the service is completed.
• Experience — an event, an access pass, a ticket, or anything that grants participation in something specific. Fulfilled when the experience occurs.

Merchants choose the type when creating an MBO. The type determines what information is collected at claim time and what fulfillment looks like.