How Escrows Work

A project locks the full payment for a KOL deal in its own escrow contract on Base Sepolia. The deal is split into milestones, each with an amount and a deadline. When a milestone is delivered, its amount goes straight to the KOL wallet.

Nothing pays out on a timer by itself. A payment needs the project to release it, or verifier approval plus a review window, or a ruling by the platform arbiter. Funds can only go to the project, to the KOL, or as the platform fee on a KOL payout.

• Verifiers cannot be the project, the KOL or the arbiter, and they never hold funds.
• The arbiter cannot touch an undisputed milestone or pick a recipient other than the two parties.
• Verifiers review their queue on the verifier dashboard.

1. 1Enter the KOL wallet.Payments go to this address. Double check it.
2. 2Pick the token.USDC, ETH or WETH. See Tokens below.
3. 3Add milestones.Up to 20. Each one has an amount and a deadline in the future, at most 5 years away. Deadlines do not need to be in order.
4. 4Add verifiers (optional).Up to 10, and how many must approve. With verifiers you also set a review window of up to 90 days.
5. 5Approve and fund.Approve exactly the deal total, then create. The escrow is deployed and funded in one transaction. The fee is not added on top.

Proof Submission#

• The KOL posts a public link to the delivered work before the milestone deadline. Its hash is stored on chain.
• Proof can be replaced until the first verifier approves it.
• Proof cannot be posted after the deadline.
• Proof links are public: they live in the transaction log.

Review Window and Auto Release#

When enough verifiers approve, the milestone becomes Approved and its review window starts. During the window the project can still release early or raise a dispute. Once the window has passed, anyone can release the payment, so a silent project cannot hold an approved milestone back.

• The review window applies only when the deal has verifiers. It can be up to 90 days.
• Approvals only count before the deadline.
• Without verifiers, payment needs the project to release, a dispute ruling, or a mutual cancel.
• The project can release any open milestone at any time, approved or not, since it is the project's money.

1. 1Raise.The project or the KOL disputes one milestone while it is Pending, Submitted or Approved, with a written reason. The reason is public in the transaction log.
2. 2Freeze.Only that milestone is frozen. Every other milestone keeps working.
3. 3Withdraw or rule.The person who raised it can withdraw it, and the milestone returns to its previous state. Otherwise the arbiter decides what share goes to the KOL.
4. 4Pay out.The KOL share (minus the fee) and the project share are paid in the same transaction.

Clawback#

If a milestone is still Pending or Submitted when its deadline passes, the project can reclaim that amount. Approved and Disputed milestones cannot be reclaimed, so the KOL is protected once verifiers have approved.

Mutual Cancel#

Either side can ask to cancel. When the other side agrees, every milestone not yet paid, including disputed ones, goes back to the project and the escrow closes. A request can be withdrawn until the other side agrees. Refunds carry no fee.

• Platform fee: 2.5% of each released milestonedefault, capped at 5% by the contract.
• The fee is fixed for each escrow when it is created. Later fee changes never apply to it.
• It is charged only on amounts paid to the KOL: releases, auto releases and the KOL share of a dispute.
• The project funds exactly the deal total. Refunds, clawbacks and cancels carry no fee.
• A fee change needs a public 2 day delay.
• Gas on Base is usually a few cents per action.

• At the contract level any standard ERC-20 works. Tokens that take a fee on transfer are rejected when funding.
• USDC can block transfers to blocklisted wallets. If the KOL wallet is blocked, that payout cannot go through, and the milestone falls back to clawback or mutual cancel.
• Tokens sent to an escrow by mistake can be recovered by the project.

1. 1Funding.The project approves and deposits 1,000.00 USDC. Nothing is added for the fee.
2. 2Milestone 1: proof.The KOL posts a link to the thread before the deadline.
3. 3Milestone 1: approval.The verifier approves. The 3 day review window starts.
4. 4Milestone 1: payout.The project releases on day 2, or anyone releases after day 3. The KOL receives 487.50 USDC and 12.50 USDC goes to the platform.
5. 5Milestone 2: dispute.The project says the video missed the brief and disputes. The arbiter rules 60/40. The KOL receives 292.50 USDC (300.00 minus 7.50 fee) and the project gets 200.00 USDC back.

Had milestone 2 expired with no proof instead, the project would reclaim the full 500.00 USDC with no fee.

• Up to 20 milestones and 10 verifiers per escrow.
• Each deadline must be in the future and at most 5 years away.
• Review window up to 90 days, only with verifiers.
• Terms are fixed at creation. To change them, mutually cancel and create a new escrow.
• The factory owner can pause new escrows. Existing escrows keep working.

• Funds can only leave an escrow to the project, to the KOL, or as the fee on a KOL payout. Collected fees can only go to the treasury.
• The owner has no function that moves escrowed funds and cannot renounce ownership.
• Fee and arbiter changes wait a public 2 day delay. A new arbiter must accept the role itself.
• No upgrades: a new version means a new factory, and existing escrows keep their code.
• Every function that moves funds is protected against reentrancy.
• Only trust an escrow that the factory confirms as its own.

Risks to Know#

• The arbiter is trusted to split fairly.
• A token that later adds transfer fees or shrinks balances could stop the last payout.
• At the deadline it is a race: a KOL with silent verifiers must dispute in time.

For Projects#

• Write the brief before you fund: what counts as done for each milestone, and where the proof will live.
• Split big deals into several smaller milestones.
• Leave enough time before each deadline for the KOL to deliver and for verifiers to approve.
• Pick verifiers both sides trust, and use more than one with a threshold such as 2 of 3.
• Release promptly when the work is good.

For KOLs#

• Check the escrow is funded and the milestones match what you agreed before you start.
• Post proof early, well before the deadline.
• If verifiers have not acted as the deadline nears, raise a dispute before it passes.
• Use a wallet that can receive the payment token. A USDC blocklisted wallet cannot be paid.
• Keep your own copy of the delivered work and the brief.

• Only trust an escrow if the factory confirms it with isEscrow(address).
• Proof links and dispute reasons are in the event logs (ProofSubmitted, DisputeRaised), not in storage.
• Read every milestone with getMilestones(), and use isAutoReleasable(id) and isReclaimable(id) to decide which actions to offer.
• Milestone status values: 0 Pending, 1 Submitted, 2 Approved, 3 Disputed, 4 Released, 5 Refunded, 6 Resolved.

// Project: approve exactly the total, then create (Escrow V2)
await usdc.approve(factory, total);
await factory.createEscrow(
  kol, usdc, total,
  [500e6, 500e6],            // milestone amounts
  [deadline1, deadline2],    // unix seconds, each in the future
  [verifier1, verifier2], 1, // verifiers and approvals needed
  3 * 86400                  // review window in seconds
);

// Or fund with ETH (held as WETH)
await factory.createEscrowETH(kol, amounts, deadlines, [], 0, 0, { value: total });

// KOL posts proof, a verifier approves, the project releases
await escrow.submitProof(0, keccak256(toBytes(url)), url);
await escrow.verifyMilestone(0);
await escrow.release(0);

// Disputes, clawback and mutual cancel
await escrow.raiseDispute(1, "reason");   // project or KOL
await escrow.resolveDispute(1, 6000);      // arbiter: 60% to the KOL
await escrow.clawback();                   // project, expired milestones
await escrow.requestCancel();              // both parties

Escrows created before V2 use the first contract and are marked as legacy. They can still be viewed, approved and released. Their dates are not enforced, and a dispute on them freezes the whole escrow with no way to resolve it on chain, so raising one is turned off in the app.