How MettaPay escrow works

Your money, locked in math — not promises.

Every deal lives in its own smart contract. Funds only move when the rules — agreed up front — say so. No company in the middle that can freeze, reverse, or vanish with your money.

Create your first escrow See how it works

01 — Architecture

One factory. Thousands of escrows.

MettaPay deploys a single Factory contract per chain. Every new deal stamps out a tiny Clone — its own isolated escrow, with its own funds and rules — for about $1 in gas instead of $100+. The Factory holds the global config (fees, referees, allowed tokens); each clone holds the money for one deal.

Without clones

~$100 / escrow

With clones (EIP-1167)

~$1 / escrow

Why this matters

Each deal is sandboxed. A bug in one escrow can't drain another. Rules are frozen the moment the buyer funds — nobody can change fees, cosigners, or referees mid-deal.

02 — Lifecycle

The five steps of a deal.

Step 1
Buyer funds
Factory stamps a clone, pulls USDC into it.
Step 2
Seller delivers
Marks milestone fulfilled on-chain.
Step 3
Buyer accepts
Confirms the work meets the milestone.
Step 4
Cosigner signs
M-of-N approval unlocks the release.
Step 5
Funds release
93% → seller, 7% → fee. Clone retires.

03 — Cosigners

A neutral third party signs off before money moves.

Releases require M-of-N signatures: e.g., 2 out of 3 keys must approve before the clone pays the seller. The cosigner set is locked at funding time and can't be swapped later.

Default cosigner: MettaPay's hot key, signs automatically after the buyer accepts delivery.
Custom cosigners: a lawyer, an agency, a DAO multisig, or a friend you trust.
If a cosigner goes offline, the dispute path opens — a compliance officer can step in as a fallback signer.
Every signature is on-chain and provably tied to a specific milestone.

Configure your cosigners

04 — Fees

Transparent splits. No hidden cuts.

Fees are written into the Factory at deploy time. Anyone can read them on-chain. They can't change for an escrow that's already funded.

Standard release

$1,000 USDC

93%

Seller: $930

MettaPay fee: $70

Recall (buyer cancels)

$1,000 USDC

85%

15%

Buyer refund: $850

Recall fee: $150

When	Fee	Where it goes
Happy path release	4–7%	MettaPay fee wallet
Disputed release (after review)	7%	Fee wallet + compliance pool
Buyer-initiated recall	15%	Seller compensation + fee wallet

05 — Disputes

When buyer and seller disagree.

Either party can flag a milestone. The funds stay locked. A compliance officer (from the Factory's approved list) reviews evidence — anchored on-chain as hashes — and the clone executes their decision: release, refund, or split.

06 — Recall

Buyer changes their mind? There's a path for that too.

Step 1
Buyer requests recall
Reason hashed on-chain
Step 2
Compliance reviews
Seller responds within window
Step 3
Funds split
85% buyer · 15% recall fee

A buyer can request a whole-deal recall as long as the seller hasn't already delivered an accepted milestone. The reason is hashed on-chain so it can't be edited later.

15% recall fee comes out of the original deposit — protects sellers from being jerked around.
Compliance reviews the buyer's reason against the seller's response before releasing the refund.
Per-milestone recalls are also possible from inside the milestones list.
If the seller doesn't respond within the review window, the recall auto-approves.

07 — Why it's better

Compared to what you're used to.

Capability	PayPal hold	Bank escrow	Generic smart contract	MettaPay
Settles in minutes
Fee under 10%
On-chain audit trail
Neutral dispute path
Can't be frozen by one company
KYC + compliance built-in
Per-deal isolated contract

Ready to make your first deal safer?

Free to try on testnet. No card needed. Real funds only move when everyone signs off.

Create an escrow See product overview