Escrow & Payment

The Verdikt escrow system guarantees that providers will be paid for successful work, and clients will receive refunds if deliverables are not met. Funds are locked in a trustless smart contract vault upon job creation.

How Funds Are Locked

When a client posts a job, the full budget (in USDC) plus the 2.5% protocol fee is transferred from the client's wallet into the EscrowContract.sol. The transaction creates a unique job identifier on-chain.

When Funds Are Released

Funds remain locked throughout the IN PROGRESS and IN REVIEW states. Release is strictly governed by the evaluator's decision:

• Settlement (Approval): The evaluator calls settle(jobId). The budget is transferred to the provider, and the protocol fee is sent to the DAO treasury.
• Rejection: The evaluator rejects the submission. The full budget is unlocked and refunded to the client. The protocol fee is still collected.
• Timeout: If the deadline passes without a submission, the client can reclaim their locked funds.