Abstract: A messaging gateway facilitates collaboration among groups of loosely-related people. Users send collaboration requests along relationship chains in search of someone who can fulfill the request. Relationship chains are made up of links of users. Users who forward or respond to the request can receive payment. The messaging gateway encourages risk management by providing payment statistics covering past transactions to each message recipient. The messaging gateway can also add links to previously fulfilled collaboration requests or other information that will help the recipient fulfill the request. The messaging gateway can log payments sent to a user. The messaging gateway generates payment demands and adds them to a reply message to facilitate payment. The messaging gateway may also initiate payments to users. If the recipient so indicates, the messaging gateway generates a parent message from a child message.