Using RahaKaitse Escrow for Freelance and Service Payments

Escrow protection isn't limited to physical goods — the same trust problem exists whenever someone pays for a service before it's fully delivered, which makes RahaKaitse just as useful for freelance work and services as it is for classifieds items.

The trust problem with service payments

Paying upfront for a service means trusting the provider will actually deliver quality work; paying only after completion means the provider trusts you'll actually pay once the work is done. Both sides carry real risk, especially with someone you haven't worked with before.

How escrow applies to services

• Agree on the scope of work, price, and delivery timeline upfront, just as you would for a goods transaction.
• The client deposits payment into the RahaKaitse smart contract before work begins.
• The provider completes the agreed work, knowing payment is already secured.
• The client reviews the delivered work against what was agreed.
• Once approved, the smart contract releases payment to the provider.

Structuring larger service projects

For bigger projects, breaking the work into milestones (as covered in our B2B contracts guide) works just as well for an individual freelancer as it does for a business — an initial deposit, payment on a draft or first deliverable, and a final payment on completion, each secured in escrow before that phase of work starts.

What this protects against

For clients, it removes the risk of paying for work that's never delivered or is far below the agreed standard. For freelancers and service providers, it removes the risk of completing work and then not being paid — a common and difficult-to-resolve problem in informal freelance arrangements.