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TL;DR: Money is locked in on-chain escrow up front. A person then reviews the work, an organizer, a panel, a reviewer, or a community vote, and only then does the escrow contract release the payout. On-chain mechanics meet human review.

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What you’ll learn

  • What escrow is and why Boundless uses it
  • How fund → work → review → settle works
  • What this means for you as a contributor, backer, or organizer
  • Where to go if something goes wrong

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What is escrow?

Escrow is a secure holding place for money. On Boundless, escrow runs on Boundless’s own Soroban smart contracts on the Stellar network: no single person or company can quietly move the funds. Only the actions defined in the contract (release on award, refund on cancel, partner top-up) can touch the balance. The flow is the same across every pillar:
  1. Fund: the payer (organizer, backer, or grant program) locks funds in USDC into escrow when the program is published.
  2. Work: you apply, submit, or ship your work.
  3. Review: a human decides the outcome: the organizer picks a winner, a panel scores submissions, a reviewer approves a milestone, or the community votes.
  4. Settle: once the review passes, the contract releases the payout to your wallet, usually within about a minute.
Locked in escrow, then human review, then released to wallet in USDC

Funds sit in on-chain escrow until a human review step passes; only then does the contract release them.

You don’t have to trust the other party to pay, and they don’t have to pay before the work is done. The contract enforces what was agreed; the people decide what gets funded.

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How it works in each pillar

Bounty The organizer locks the reward. You submit work. The organizer (or a panel) selects the winner. Escrow sends the reward to your wallet. Hackathon Prize funds are locked when the event is published. Judges score submissions. When the organizer selects winners, escrow pays out to each winner at once. Grant The grant program locks the budget. You deliver milestone 1; the program manager approves it. Escrow releases that milestone’s amount to you. This repeats for each milestone. Crowdfunding Backers’ contributions go into escrow. You (the creator) complete a milestone and submit proof. A delegated reviewer approves it, and that portion of the funds is released to you.

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Why a human review step?

On-chain escrow guarantees the money is real and the payout is automatic once conditions are met. But deciding whether work is actually good, whether a submission wins, whether a milestone is complete, is a judgment call. Boundless keeps a person in that seat:
  • The contract enforces what was decided (who gets paid, how much, when).
  • People decide what counts (which work wins, which milestone is done).
That’s the balance: no “hope they pay,” and no bot deciding whether your work is good enough.

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What if something goes wrong?

If you disagree with a rejection or an outcome, you can raise a dispute and the evidence is reviewed. See Disputes and moderation.

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Next steps

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