The core design of Splits separates two concepts: ratios and control. Ratios determine how money is divided. Control determines who can change those ratios. If you want the split rules to be permanently fixed and impossible for anyone to change, create the contract without a controller. The contract then becomes immutable. If you need to adjust recipients or ratios later, you must set a controller. However, this also means the controller has the power to redirect funds before you receive them. There is also an easily overlooked detail in the claiming process: distributing and withdrawing are two separate actions. After money is allocated to your share, you or someone acting on your behalf still need to execute a withdraw for the funds to enter your wallet.
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Ratios: Percentages Must Add Up to 100, or Funds Get Stuck
When creating a Split, each recipient has a percentAllocation. The total percentage for all recipients must equal exactly 100. Internally, the contract represents this as 1e6, meaning 100% = 1,000,000. If the total is wrong, contract deployment or later updates will fail. In the case of Liquid Split, the official documentation explicitly warns: if the total percentage does not equal 1e6, the Split cannot be updated and funds will be stuck. This is not a theoretical risk. It is a number you must verify before deployment.
Recipients can be any EVM address that can receive ETH and ERC20 tokens, including other Split contracts or smart contracts. If you have many recipients, Splits supports uploading addresses and ratios via CSV. However, the official recommendation is to keep the number of recipients below 2,000 due to technical block size limits.
Control: Whether You Set a Controller Determines If the Split Can Be Changed
The controller is an address specified when creating a Split. It has the unilateral ability to modify recipients and ratios. The official Splits documentation describes it as the \u201cSplit administrator\u201d and directly states: a Split is only as trustworthy as its administrator.
A Split without a controller is immutable. It can never be modified after creation. This is the safest option and suits scenarios where you have already finalized the allocation plan and do not need adjustments. Once a controller is set, it can make the Split immutable at any time. The reverse is not possible: an immutable Split can never become mutable again.
If you need flexibility but do not want to give control to a single person, you can set the controller to a multisig wallet. Changing rules then requires multiple signers to agree, reducing single-point risk. This choice must be made at creation. There is no normal operation to add a controller to an immutable Split later.
Claiming: Distributing and Withdrawing Are Two Steps, Not One
Many people assume that once money arrives at the Split address, their share automatically enters their wallet. That is not how it works. Splits uses a pull-based payment model. Funds first remain in the contract. When distribute is executed, money is allocated to each recipient according to the ratios, but the funds are still inside the contract. Recipients must then execute withdraw to move the funds to their own addresses.
Distribute is a permissionless operation. Anyone can trigger it, not just the recipients. When executing, there are two options: \u201cDistribute and keep balance within Splits\u201d, which only allocates funds and lets recipients withdraw later, or \u201cDistribute and withdraw for each recipient\u201d, which allocates funds and immediately withdraws for all recipients in one step.
There is an irreversible point here: once distribute is executed, funds are permanently allocated to the recipients at that moment and cannot be withdrawn or reallocated. Whether or not the Split has a controller, the allocation cannot be changed afterward. This means if you are the controller of a mutable Split and you change recipients or ratios before distribution, the new recipients will receive the balance. But after distribution, the money belongs to the people on the list at that time. Changing the list afterward will not recover it.
Liquid Split\u2019s Additional Branch: Ownership Is an NFT and Can Be Resold
If you create a Liquid Split, the control logic is different. Liquid Split uses ERC-1155 NFTs to represent shares. Initially, 1,000 NFTs are minted, and each recipient receives a corresponding number based on their ratio. For example, a recipient with 20% receives 200 NFTs. NFT holders are the recipients, and holders can transfer NFTs to others, transferring the share along with them.
But this introduces a risk you need to verify: Liquid Split NFTs only represent a claim on \u201cfunds that have not yet been distributed\u201d. The recipient list is updated based on NFT holders at each distribute. A seller can trigger a distribute to drain the current balance before transferring the NFT to you. The NFT you receive then corresponds to a contract that has already been emptied. When buying a Liquid Split NFT, you cannot assume it automatically includes the existing balance in the contract.
Liquid Split distribution requires extra gas to update the holder list. The official recommendation is to set the distribution incentive slightly higher, around 2-3% rather than 1%. It is also recommended to keep the number of recipients below 500 to avoid hitting transaction gas limits.
Completion Standard
It is not enough to simply \u201ccreate a Split\u201d. The standard is: you have confirmed all recipient addresses are correct and the total percentage equals exactly 100; you have decided whether you need future adjustments and set a controller accordingly, or explicitly chosen immutability; if funds have arrived, you or anyone else has executed distribute, and recipients have confirmed their shares are available for withdrawal in the contract, or have already received funds directly via \u201cdistribute and withdraw\u201d. If you are a recipient rather than the creator, go to the Splits interface and view the details page for that Split. Confirm your address is in the recipient list, the ratio is correct, and check whether there is any allocated but unwithdrawn balance. If funds have been distributed but you have not received them, check whether you need to manually withdraw.
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References
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