Get Paid Safely for Remote Work

The problem

You are a freelancer. You work with clients you find online — websites, code, design, writing, translation. You get paid remotely, often in a different country.

The problem is this: you cannot trust a stranger to pay after you deliver. And the client cannot trust a stranger to deliver after they pay. Most freelancing platforms solve this by holding money themselves — and taking a large cut for it.

Irium removes the middleman. You and your client agree on terms. The client locks the payment on-chain before you start. You deliver. The client releases the payment with a code. If the client disappears, the chain enforces a timeout refund. No platform. No 20% fee. No account that can be suspended.

How it works for you

• Client creates a settlement agreement and funds it on-chain — you can verify the money is locked before you start any work
• You complete the work and deliver it
• Client reviews the work and releases the payment (reveals the secret)
• You collect the IRM from the on-chain contract
• If the client refuses to release despite good delivery — you can submit a proof; an on-chain policy evaluator can force release
• If the client goes silent and the deadline passes — the client's money is returned automatically; you lose no work you had not yet started

What you need

An Irium wallet address. The client handles creating the agreement and funding it. Your only required action is to receive the release code when the client accepts your work.

To claim your payment yourself, you run one wallet command with the release code the client provides. This takes less than a minute.

Cost

Two transactions: one to fund (paid by the client), one to release. Transaction fees are approximately 0.001 IRM each — a fraction of a cent at current prices. There is no platform fee.

What counts as proof if a dispute happens?

Irium uses objective, verifiable proof. For freelance work this means things like: a git repository with commits, a working URL, a file hash, a delivery confirmation. The proof policy is defined in the agreement upfront so there is no ambiguity when it is evaluated.

Subjective disputes ("the work was not good enough") cannot be resolved by the chain — only objective, verifiable conditions can be committed to on-chain policy. This means the agreement terms need to be written carefully. The settlement walkthrough shows how to do this.