The payroll system we use today is archaic. The majority of payroll systems settle twice a month, leaving the 64% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck struggling to make ends meet at the end of every pay period. When an unexpected expense pops up, individuals resort to racking up expensive debt in the form of payday loans and credit card debt. With the incredible innovations we see across the financial technology space today, why can’t we find a fast, reliable, and inexpensive way for employers to pay employees for their work on a more frequent basis?

One potential solution is instant settlement protocols. Using smart contracts (contracts built and executed on the blockchain), payments can be instantly distributed on an as-earned basis. Every minute you work, every job you complete, and every deal you close immediately triggers a transaction on a blockchain, transferring funds safely and securely from employer to employee.

To me, this idea is particularly interesting in the context of the creator economy. As a creator, you derive income from a variety of different sources that fluctuate on a minute-by-minute basis. Creators’ pay ticks up in micro installments as clicks, impressions, and views accrue. This process creates a logistical nightmare for both creators and the platforms in charge of paying them. Platforms must handle all the data for creator revenue streams, tally up every tiny payment, and settle the funds through a banking partner, while creators must wait over 2 months for payments from a video view to settle in their bank account. With an instant settlement protocol, each one of these “revenue events” (e.g. click, impression, conversion, purchase) would instantly settle to the creator’s bank account via smart contracts.

There are a number of different companies tackling this problem, but one I recently ran across was Zebec.io. They have a killer team and just raised a fresh round of funding from the likes of Alameda Research, Coinbase, Circle, Lightspeed, and Solana Ventures.

It will be interesting to see which industries are quickest to adopt instant settlement protocols (Creator Economy (e.g. YouTube), Gig-economy (ie Uber, Fiverr, Grubhub), Commission-based jobs (e.g. Real Estate), etc.).

Good luck to the team at Zebec.io, I’ll be following your progress!

-Bennie iii

Note: Cover art by Jack Butcher of Visualize Value.