How on-chain escrow pays an owner, month by month

The problem escrow solves

If the brand pays first, the owner might never place the sticker. If the owner places first, the brand might never pay. In the old business this is solved by contracts, invoices and lawyers, which is why the smallest billboard deal is still thousands of dollars. An escrow solves it with code: the brand's money leaves the brand's hands at the start, and reaches the owner only as the work is proven, month by month.

The peelbid escrow, step by step

1. Funding. When the owner approves a bid, the brand pays the whole run, in USDC, into the escrow contract on Arc. One campaign, one amount, one record on-chain.
2. Placement. The owner has 14 days to print, place and send the first photo. The photo carries a code peelbid issued minutes before it was taken, so it cannot be an old picture. Its fingerprint is recorded on-chain.
3. Monthly proof. Each month the owner sends a fresh photo the same way. A reviewer compares it with the approved artwork and the listing; people take the uncertain ones.
4. Spot checks. Between proofs, the brand may ask for a fresh photo, at most once every 30 days. The owner has 48 hours. A missed spot check is recorded and can count in a dispute.
5. The seven-day window. The brand has seven days to dispute a proof. Silence means consent: when the window closes, the contract releases that month's instalment to the owner. Doing nothing means it pays, on purpose.
6. The fee. peelbid takes 8 per cent of each amount paid to the owner, deducted at release. Founding Listers pay 4 per cent. Nothing is taken from anything returned to a brand.
7. Refunds. A month that is never proven is never paid. If the owner never places the ad within the 14 days, the brand can reclaim the full amount. When a campaign ends early, whatever is still in escrow goes back to the brand, in full.

A worked example

A brand wins a three-month run on a laptop lid at 75 USDC a month. It pays 225 USDC into the escrow. The owner places the sticker and sends the first photo on day 3. Seven days later the first 75 USDC is released: 69 to the owner, 6 to peelbid. The second and third photos, a month apart, release the second and third instalments the same way. If the owner forgets month three, that 75 stays in escrow and goes back to the brand. If the owner is a Founding Lister, each release is 72 to the owner and 3 to peelbid.

When a brand disputes

A dispute freezes that month's instalment. Each side can add up to three written statements, and the rest of the campaign carries on while the one instalment waits. Then a named arbiter decides the owner's share of that instalment, from nothing to everything. The share is executed by the contract and visible on-chain; the written reason, and the name of the person who decided, go to both parties. Amounts already released are final, and on mainnet a decision takes effect only with two of three keys. It is the one place a person steps into the money flow, and it is done in the open rather than behind a support desk.

What peelbid cannot do

• Spend, redirect or delay money in an escrow. The contract has no function for it.
• Raise the limits quietly. The caps on campaign size are constants in the code, and changing them means deploying new contracts in public.
• Pay an owner without a proof. The release function requires a submitted proof and a closed window.

The contracts are verified and public on the Arc explorer; the On-chain page lists them with every selector and event. Payments are in USDC because an owner should know what a month is worth before it starts, not after a token moves.

Why USDC, and why Arc

An owner should know what a month is worth before it starts. A payment in a project token can lose a third of its value between the proof and the payout; a payment in USDC is a dollar. Arc is Circle's network, built around USDC: gas is paid in USDC too, so an owner never has to buy a second token to receive or move a payment, and a brand's finance team sees one currency on the statement. Transactions cost a fraction of a cent, which is what makes a 50 dollar campaign worth running on a chain at all.

Check it yourself

None of this asks you to take our word for it. The On-chain page reads the escrow straight from the contract, with no server in between, and lists every deployment with its verified source. Each campaign has a public proof page that shows proofs exist and when they arrived, without photos, amounts or emails. Both parties receive a statement of every instalment, refund and transaction reference. And because the contracts are verified on the Arc explorer, anyone can read the functions and confirm that none of them sends the money to us.