❓ Before you trade

Getting paid in USDT for freelance work: escrow with milestones so neither side gets burned

The client funds the whole job before you start; each milestone releases its share when the client confirms. No platform fee of 20%, no clawback, no client who disappears after delivery.

A client in another country wants to pay you in USDT, directly, without Upwork or Fiverr. The upside is obvious: no platform taking a fifth of the invoice, money that arrives in minutes. The risk is the same as always: you deliver first and hope, or they pay first and hope. Escrow with milestones is how both of you stop hoping.

How it works on iEscrow

  1. 1You and the client open a service trade and write what is being delivered, split into milestones with a percentage each (for example 30 / 40 / 30). The percentages must add up to the whole job.
  2. 2The client funds the escrow for the whole amount, once. You see the crypto locked before you write a line.
  3. 3You deliver milestone 1. The client confirms it; that milestone’s share is released to your balance. Then the next.
  4. 4If the client disputes a milestone, that milestone is frozen and an arbiter decides on the evidence; the rest of the job is not affected. If the client goes silent on a delivered milestone, it does not sit forever: after the window it releases to you.

What it protects you from, and what it does not

Client disappears after delivery
Covered. The money was locked before you started; the client cannot take it back by going quiet.
Client pays, then reverses
Covered. Crypto does not reverse, and the client never paid you directly; the escrow released to you.
"Overpayment, send the difference back"
Not possible inside the trade: the amount is fixed when it is funded.
Client says the work is bad
Partly. The arbiter reads the milestone description and the delivery. Write the deliverable precisely: "landing page, 5 sections, Figma file + deployed URL" beats "website".
Taxes and invoicing
Yours. The trade record (who, when, how much, what) is the document you will want when you declare it.
The client who will not fund the escrow before you start is telling you how they plan to pay. Believe them.
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