ShortWorks

A freelance marketplace for short, fixed-price video work, with USDC escrow on Arc.

Live: https://shortworks.vercel.app · Escrow contract on Arc mainnet: 0xe69C9077b3F12939EFCd673171A4489f0f1370da

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The problem we solve

Freelance marketplaces are built for long contracts. On short jobs, such as one 30-second video, their fees and rules take a large share of a small budget, and the platform sits between the two sides holding the money.

What clients deal with today

• They pay the platform up front, and the platform holds the money.
• If the job is cancelled, they wait days for a refund.
• Many platforms charge to post a job or to see more freelancers.
• On a small job, it is hard to see what each part of the price pays for.

What freelancers deal with today

• They pay to apply (paid bids or "connects") before they have earned anything.
• Platform fees of 10–20% are common, and the share is worse on small jobs.
• Earnings sit on the platform for days before they can be withdrawn.
• They lose more to the platform's currency conversion rates.
• Getting seen often means paying for ranking or promotion.

What ShortWorks does

ShortWorks is a marketplace for short, fixed-price video work (TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Facebook). Each job has a price per video, a delivery date and a set number of revisions. Payment runs through an escrow smart contract on Arc, so neither the client nor the freelancer has to trust ShortWorks with the money.

Benefits

For clients (employers)

• The money is held, not taken. USDC is locked in the escrow contract on Arc, or held as a PayPal authorization on the client's own account. ShortWorks never holds it.
• Instant refund on cancel. Cancel before delivery and the full amount goes straight back to the client's wallet.
• No fee to post a project or to invite freelancers.
• Clear costs. A price per video, a flat 5% fee, and the amounts shown before paying.
• Pay only for approved work. Money leaves escrow when the client approves, or when a dispute is decided.
• A safety net. If ShortWorks stopped running, the client could still take the money back from the contract after the deadline (reclaim), without us.

For freelancers

• Free to apply. No paid bids.
• A flat 5% platform fee, fixed when the job is funded. On a 100 USDC job, the freelancer receives 95 USDC.
• Paid the moment the work is approved. The contract sends the money straight to the freelancer's wallet, with nothing held back by the platform.
• No waiting on a silent client. 48 hours after delivery, the freelancer can claim the payment.
• No currency markup. USDC at market value, and Arc gas is paid in USDC, so there is only one token to hold.
• No paid ranking. Profiles and services are listed without paid placement.
• Guaranteed payment. The client's money is already in escrow before work starts, so the freelancer knows the job is funded.

How payment works on Arc

ShortWorks deploys one contract, ShortWorksEscrow. It holds USDC per job and works like PayPal's authorize / capture / void:

Step	Contract call	Who sends it
Client hires the freelancer	fundWithPermit (or approve + fund): USDC moves from the client's wallet into escrow	Client
Client approves the delivery	release: amount − fee to the freelancer, fee to the treasury	Client, or the ShortWorks operator after 48 hours
Hire undone before delivery, or dispute decided for the client	refund: the full amount goes back to the client	Operator, or the freelancer (voluntary)
Dispute opened	setFrozen: pauses the safety deadline	Operator
ShortWorks disappears	reclaim: after expiresAt, the client takes the money back without us	Client

Safety properties:

• The server signs the terms (EIP-712), not the browser. The amount, fee, freelancer wallet and deadline are signed by ShortWorks. Change any of them in the browser and fund reverts. A signature is valid for 30 minutes and only for the client wallet named in it.
• Funds can only go to the three addresses fixed at funding: the client, the freelancer and the treasury (fee only). A leaked operator key can release or refund early, but cannot move money anywhere else.
• The fee is capped on-chain (MAX_FEE_BPS), so a bad signature cannot take an oversized fee.
• Pausing stops new funding only. release, refund and reclaim keep working, so held funds never get stuck.
• Roles are split. The admin (pause, roles, treasury) is a separate wallet from the operator (sends release / refund) and the signer (only signs terms).
• The server reads the chain itself. A proposal becomes a job only after the server sees a Funded event that matches the signed terms in the transaction receipt. It never trusts the browser saying "paid".

Built with OpenZeppelin (SafeERC20, AccessControl, Pausable, ReentrancyGuard, EIP712, ECDSA) and tested with Foundry (30 tests).

⚠️ The contract has not been audited. It has been smoke-tested on Arc mainnet with small amounts (fund by permit, freeze, refund).

	Arc Testnet	Arc Mainnet
Chain ID	5042002	5042
Escrow	0xDCbD230Ee76458993cf2624c94530681e79BbC63	0xe69C9077b3F12939EFCd673171A4489f0f1370da
USDC (ERC-20, 6 decimals)	0x3600000000000000000000000000000000000000	0x3600000000000000000000000000000000000000
Explorer	https://testnet.arcscan.app	https://explorer.arc.io

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