Enigma Box

The Enigma Box, the on-chain escrow contract behind our platform, efficiently facilitates these benefits with little to no human intervention. The cryptocurrencies that will be accepted for payment at launch are $ENG, Ethereum, and Tether. When an employer wants to hire a freelancer on Enigma, they will deposit the chosen cryptocurrency in the smart contract, and the payment will be made in a milestone-based structure agreed upon by both parties. In a milestone-based model, the employer and freelancer agree on a set price for the product or service being provided. Payments are made in one or more batches once an equal number of milestones have been met and reviewed by the employer. Milestones serve to organize fixed-price projects, track progress, and provide opportunities for reviewing the work completed. These benchmarks outline the tasks to be performed at a specific point in the project and the corresponding payment for the work. After receiving the completed work, the employer must review it and either approve it or request modifications. Additionally, service providers are required to log in to their dashboards by connecting their wallet to the platform and providing relevant updates to the milestone or contract terms.

You and your freelancer should decide how you would like to transfer files or other deliverables. Files can be shared using the contract's chat room or any third-party communication solution.

Milestone Escrow Example: Michael has a Metamask Wallet that holds Ethereum and wants to build a blockchain game that will need an integrated NFT marketplace. Michael browses Enigma and discovers Liam's profile, an experienced developer, and decides he wants to have a call with him. After explaining his needs, Michael and Martin agree to enter a four-milestone contract which will be handled through Enigma's on-chain escrow. Martin agrees to a payment of 2 ETH in rounds of 0.5 ETH. The due dates for each milestone are 3 days apart from each other.

Two days pass and the developer has completed the first milestone. The client is pleased with what he sees and agrees that the first milestone has been successful. The smart contract wires the first batch of 0.5 ETH into Martin's wallet. If the work that was uploaded didn’t meet the expectations of the employer, he could have requested changes so that the terms were met. If the due date for the milestone was passed, Enigma will not enforce anything upon the freelancer. If the freelancer needs some extra time, both parties must discuss this before the due date.

Medium and Long-term Employment Use Case Enigma's escrow contract can also support medium and long-term commissions like community management services.

Janna is an experienced community manager in the Ethereum NFT space who charges her work weekly for 0.5 ETH. Luther is the founder of a project with funding that is ready to start marketing and building a social media community around its branding. While browsing Enigma, he spots Janna's profile and is impressed by her portfolio. After a 15-minute call, Luther decides to hire Janna as a community manager for six weeks, paying her 0.5 ETH. 4 ETH has been transferred from the employer's wallet into the escrow smart contract, and Janna's work officially starts on the date they agreed upon. After one week, Luther is satisfied with the growth and engagement Janna has brought to them, thus he greenlights the smart contract in the employer dashboard to wire 0.5 ETH.

Escrow Refunds and Disputes If project expectations are not met, the commission can be subject to an escrow refund. You can request this as an employer from the dashboard. If your freelancer accepts or he doesn’t respond within 7 days, the funds will be wired back to the employer’s wallet. The freelancer can also dispute the refund. In this case, if the employer accepts the response, the money can be released by the contract to the service provider. On the other hand, if the response is rejected, the dispute can be submitted to an Enigma mediation specialist who provides mediation assistance for both parties. In the rare case that disputes cannot be mediated by our specialist, the case will then be transferred to a 3rd party association which will provide a verdict for the case.