A client locks money in a digital safe box, a freelancer delivers the work, and the money is released automatically — no bank, no PayPal, no middleman, no delays.
Each step has a simple version and a slightly more detailed version.
Imagine you want someone to build you a website. You find a freelancer and agree on a price — let's say 1 SOL.
The client creates an escrow contract on FreelancePay, enters the freelancer's wallet address and the agreed amount.
Instead of paying the freelancer right away (what if they disappear?), the money goes into a digital safe box on Solana. Nobody can touch it — not even you.
The SOL is transferred into a Program Derived Account (PDA) — a smart contract vault that only releases funds when both parties complete their role.
The freelancer builds the website. When done, they press 'Submit Work' and write what they delivered — like a GitHub link or a description. This gets saved on Solana forever.
The freelancer calls the submit_work instruction, recording their delivery note permanently on-chain. The escrow status changes from Active → Submitted.
You look at the work. Happy with it? Click 'Approve'. The money instantly flies from the safe box straight into the freelancer's wallet. Done!
The client calls approve_work. The smart contract closes the escrow account and transfers the full SOL balance to the freelancer's wallet in the same transaction.
If the freelancer never starts the work and the status is still Active, the client can cancel and get their money back. No loss.
The client calls cancel_escrow. The contract closes and refunds the full SOL to the client's wallet. This only works before the freelancer submits.
A.You never actually 'pay' the freelancer upfront. Your SOL goes into the smart contract safe box. If the freelancer never submits work, you can cancel and get it all back.
A.This version is a learning/hackathon project. In a full production version, a dispute system or time-based auto-release would handle this. For now, both parties should agree before creating the escrow.
A.Not right now. The app runs on Solana Devnet — a test environment where SOL has no real value. You can get free devnet SOL from faucet.solana.com to test it out.
A.Think of it as a vending machine. You put money in, press a button, and the machine automatically gives you the snack — no human needed. A smart contract works the same way: rules are written in code, and it executes automatically when conditions are met.
A.Solana is a blockchain — a public digital ledger that thousands of computers around the world share. Transactions on Solana take less than 2 seconds and cost almost nothing (fractions of a cent).
The app runs on Solana Devnet — free test SOL, no real money involved.