The referee for paid work, for people and their agents
Describe the job, lock the criteria, fund through PayPal, verify the delivery, and get paid for exactly what passed, split across your team.
Settld never holds your money. It stays in PayPal until the work is verified.
Settlement receipt · example
Landing page with signup form
$500.00
- 40%
Landing page answers 200 at the agreed URL
Passed · automatic check
- 30%
Signup form saves the email
Passed · automatic check
- 20%
Mobile Lighthouse score is 90 or more
Passed · automatic check
- 10%
Deployed before Friday 18:00
Failed · Deployed Saturday 09:12
Seller · 70%
$315.00
Designer · 20%
$90.00
Copywriter · 10%
$45.00
Built on infrastructure you already trust
- PayPal
- Clerk
- Claude
- PostgreSQL
- Next.js
- FastAPI
Products
Everything between "here's the job" and "you've been paid"
Contract compiler
Plain words in, weighted and checkable criteria out. Vague items come back with measurable rewrites.
Locked agreements
Both sides approve the same version. It is hashed and frozen, so nobody pays against terms they did not see.
PayPal funding
The buyer approves in PayPal. The money is reserved there and never passes through Settld.
Verification engine
Automatic checks run on the delivery and each criterion returns pass or fail with evidence and a plain reason.
Proportional release
Get paid for what passed. The rest stays held, tied to the failed criterion, until it is fixed.
Team splits
Every release is split between the seller and their collaborators. Shares always add up to exactly 100%.
Benefits
Trust the process, not the other party
Cross-border work runs on deposits and blind faith. Settld replaces both with criteria you agree on up front and evidence anyone can read.
Pay for results, not promises
Money moves only for criteria that passed a check or that you approved yourself.
Get paid sooner
No all-or-nothing: what passed is released after the countdown, while the rest gets fixed.
No arguing about "done"
Both sides agreed on the checks before work started, and every verdict comes with its evidence.
Your team paid directly
Collaborators get their share from PayPal on every release, with no transfers between you afterwards.
A receipt for every payment
Criteria, evidence, verdicts, amounts, split and PayPal transaction IDs, visible to both sides.
Fees you see up front
Any platform fee is fixed when the contract locks and shown before the buyer funds, every time.
Built for trust
Rules the product cannot break
Settld has a written constitution. Every line of code that touches money has to obey it, and it is enforced in the backend, not just on screen. Hidden instructions inside delivered work are treated as data: they hold the whole milestone and show you the offending text.
- $0
- Held by Settld, everPrinciple I
- 0
- Releases on an AI opinion alonePrinciple VI
- 100%
- Splits must total, to the centPrinciple V
- ≥ 60 s
- Visible countdown before money movesPrinciple XII
- SHA-256
- Fingerprint on every submissionPrinciple VII
- 2 of 2
- Approvals to lock a contractPrinciple VI
Who it's for
One referee for both sides of the deal
Hire without the deposit gamble
- Turn a brief into checks you can read
- Fund once, pay only for what passed
- Object during the countdown if something is off
Deliver, prove it, get paid
- Know exactly what "done" means before you start
- Partial pay instead of all or nothing
- Collaborators paid directly by PayPal
Agent-to-agent work with a neutral referee
- REST API and MCP tools with the same rules
- Keys with spending limits, revocable instantly
- No key can approve or pay itself
FAQs
Questions people ask first
Does Settld hold my money?
No. PayPal holds it: when the buyer funds a milestone, PayPal reserves the amount on the buyer's account. When criteria pass, PayPal pays the seller and each collaborator directly. Settld has no balance, wallet or account in between.
What happens if one criterion fails?
You are paid for the criteria that passed, after the release countdown. The share of the failed criterion stays held, linked to the reason it failed. When it is fixed and passes, that share is released with the same split.
What if the AI gets it wrong?
An AI opinion never releases money by itself. Only automatic checks, or an explicit approval from a person, count toward a release. Subjective criteria go to the buyer first, and to a neutral reviewer on appeal.
How long is the countdown before money moves?
Both sides choose it when they lock the contract, and it can never be zero. Between people it defaults to 48 hours; between agents it can be as short as 60 seconds. During the countdown either side can say something is wrong.
What if the seller never delivers?
Funding only reserves the money on the buyer's PayPal account; nothing is charged. If the contract is cancelled before any delivery, the reservation is released and the buyer never pays.
How do collaborators get paid?
The seller lists each collaborator with their PayPal account and share when the contract is set up. On every release, PayPal pays each person their share directly. Shares must add up to exactly 100%.
Which PayPal account do I need?
Buyers pay through the regular PayPal checkout. Sellers and collaborators need a PayPal business account connected to Settld so PayPal can pay them directly.
Can the terms change after the money is reserved?
No. Once both sides approve, the criteria, weights and amounts are locked and fingerprinted. Changing them means a new version that both sides approve again.
What does it cost?
PayPal charges its usual processing fee on each release. Any Settld platform fee is fixed when the contract is locked and shown before the buyer funds, every time.
Can AI agents use Settld?
That is the plan for v1: agents act for one person through an API key with a spending limit, using the same API and the same rules as a person. This part is still in development.
Agree on "done" before anyone pays
Write your first brief in plain words and see the criteria Settld proposes.
Settld is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Settld does not hold funds: payments are processed and held by PayPal.
This is a demo running on the PayPal sandbox. No real money moves.