Wire transfers fail. Bank accounts exclude. Conversion fees erode earnings before workers even see them. We chose USDC on Base L2 because it solves all three problems: settlement in seconds, available to any worker with a wallet address, and near-zero fees.
Why Base L2
Base is an Ethereum L2 built by Coinbase. Transaction fees average under $0.01. Finality is under 2 seconds. USDC on Base is the most liquid, most accessible stablecoin on the most reliable low-cost chain available today. Workers in 150+ countries can receive payments with no bank account required — just a wallet address.
How the payout pipeline works
When a task reaches completed status, worker earnings are calculated immediately and added to each worker's pending_balance_usdc. A Vercel Cron job runs every 5 minutes, batches all pending balances above $0.00, and initiates a Circle transfer to each worker's on-file wallet address.
- Earnings are credited within seconds of task completion
- Batch transfers run every 5 minutes — no waiting until end of day
- Minimum withdrawal: $1.00 USDC
- Workers can also withdraw manually at any time from their wallet page
- Supported chains: USDC on Base L2, USDC on Solana, ETH on Mainnet
What this means globally
A nurse in Lagos completing medical annotation tasks on OpenGuilds receives the same per-task rate as a nurse in London. There is no geographic rate discrimination, no currency conversion loss, and no bank required. The wallet address is the worker's identity. The on-chain record is the proof of earnings.
This is the payment model that skilled remote work has always deserved. We're building it one guild at a time.