Business model

How Segundo makes money

Clients pay 1% of what they spend. Freelancers pay nothing.

Today a freelancer abroad gives up a cut of every hour to a marketplace, waits ten days for it, and pays again to bring it home. Segundo charges the side that is buying the time, on what it actually spends, and pays the side doing the work every second, in full. The fee is already running on Monad testnet.

See the live treasury The pitch deck

One week: 36 of 40 hours at $25№ 0001

The client funds $1,000, plus 1%: $1,010.00
The freelancer is paid, by the second: $900.00
Unspent budget back at close: −$100.00
Its 1% back from the treasury: −$1.00
Segundo fee: 1% of what was spent: $9.00
The client pays in all: $909.00
The freelancer pays: $0.00

On Upwork the same week could cost the freelancer up to $135 (a 0–15% fee1) and the client up to $71.91 more (up to 7.99%2), paid out 10 days after the week ends3.

Revenue, live from the chain

Every fee is a public transfer into Segundo's treasury on Monad, so the revenue line is something you can check rather than take on trust. These figures refresh every minute.

Fees collected in the Segundo treasury

Reading Monad testnet…

Signed with the tab
When a client opens or tops up a tab, they also sign an AUSD transfer authorisation for the 1%. It is part of the same step, so there is no extra prompt and no gas.
Collected first, refunded in proportion
Segundo's relayer collects the fee, then sends the open or top-up. If that fails, the whole fee goes straight back. When the tab closes, the treasury returns 1% of the unspent budget with it.
Kept apart from the pay
The fee goes straight to the treasury. The tab contract has no fee switch and no admin key: what is in a tab can only pay the freelancer or go back to the client. The contract is deployed under Segundo's working name, Till.

The contract is a public good. The fee pays for the service.

Till, the tab contract, is neutral: it has no fee switch and no owner, and anyone can call it directly and pay their own gas. Our own load test did exactly that, so those tabs owe no fee. Segundo's 1% pays for what sits around the contract, the way a front end does: no gas for either side, passkey sign-up, and cash-out to local money as it arrives.

What hourly work across borders costs today

Published prices, from each company's own pages. A freelancer often pays more than one of these on the same dollar: a marketplace fee, then a withdrawal, then a conversion.

WhoWhatCost or waitSource

UpworkFreelancer service fee, taken from each payment0% to 15% per contractUpwork Help Center, Freelancer Service Fees

UpworkClient marketplace fee, on top of each paymentUp to 7.99% (3% for eligible US clients paying by bank)Upwork Help Center, What is the Client Marketplace Fee?

UpworkWhen hourly pay is released10 days after the weekly billing period endsUpwork Help Center, How payments for hourly contracts work

UpworkWithdrawing what you earned$0.99 to a local bank, $50 by US dollar wireUpwork Help Center, How to get paid on Upwork

FiverrSeller fee, and the buyer's service feeSellers keep 80%; buyers add 5.5%, plus $3.50 under $200Fiverr Help Center, Your earnings page; Fiverr Help Center, Paying for orders, extras or custom offers

DeelContractor management, paid by the company$49 per contractor a monthDeel, Pricing

RemoteContractor management, paid by the companyFrom $29 per contractor a monthRemote, Pricing

PayoneerReceiving from a client, then converting to a local bankUp to 3.99% + $0.49 by card, 1% by US bank debit; 1.2% to 4% to convert and withdrawPayoneer, Pricing

WiseReceiving a US dollar wire, then converting$6.11 per wire received; conversion from 0.23%Wise, Pricing to receive money; Wise, Pricing

Sending money abroadGlobal average cost of sending $2006.36% (Q3 2025)World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Issue 54

SegundoPaid by the client, on what they spend1%. Unspent budget and its fee come back. The freelancer pays nothing, and gas is paid for themThe live treasury above

Four ways Segundo earns, in the order they arrive

One is live. The other three grow out of the money that already passes through a tab, and none of them charge the freelancer for being paid.

A 1% fee on what clients spend
Live on testnet
The client signs 1% on top of each budget and top-up. When the tab closes, the unspent budget goes back in full, and so does 1% of it from the treasury, so the fee comes to 1% of what was actually paid to the freelancer. Fund $1,000, use $900: the fee is $9.
Freelancers pay nothing, and Segundo pays the gas for every action out of the fee; the calculator below shows what that costs and where it breaks even. This is the line we can show working today: the panel above counts it as it lands.
A share of the reserve yield on budgets waiting in tabs
Next, with mainnet
A budget sits in the contract from the moment a client funds it until it is earned. On mainnet that money is AUSD, whose reserves earn treasury yield, and Agora says plainly that it shares that yield with the partners who build with AUSD15, describing revenue sharing from the treasury yield on AUSD reserves for the businesses that use it14.
The rate is a matter for an agreement with Agora, so we don't put a number on it here; the calculator below treats it as an assumption you can set to zero. Nothing about it touches a freelancer's pay or needs a change to the contract.
Cash-out with local payout partners
Next
Freelancers want pesos, naira, rupees, shillings and reais in a bank account or a mobile wallet, not a token. Licensed local partners do the last step; Segundo earns a share of the spread on each cash-out, shown before the freelancer confirms. It isn't live yet: today pay lands in the freelancer's wallet as AUSD and stays there until they move it. See how cash-out will work, with a simulated partner on testnet.
The bar is what people pay today. The World Bank found sending money to a mobile wallet averaged 3.92% in Q3 2025, against 7.86% to a bank account13. A dollar balance that is already digital should cash out for well under both.
Advances against verified on-chain income
Later
Every second a freelancer is paid through Segundo is a public record: who paid, how much, how steadily. Segundo's income statement turns that into proof of income anyone can check without trusting us (here is Ana Reyes's, a demo freelancer in Manila), which is exactly what a lender lacks when a freelancer abroad asks for credit.
An advance against next week's tabs, repaid from pay as it lands, is the natural product. It needs a lending partner and a licence in each market, so it comes last.

Unit economics

Change any figure. The fee is what Segundo charges today, and gas is what the relayer actually spends, measured from its receipts. The yield share and the MON price, marked in amber, are assumptions until there is an agreement with Agora and a mainnet to price gas on.

Freelancers on Segundo

Each on one tab at a time

Hours each works a week

Billed hours on the clock

Average hourly rate

In dollars

Days a budget waits in escrow

From funding to being paid out, on average

Reserve yield shared with Segundo

Our assumption, a year. Agora publishes no partner rate.

Segundo fee, on what clients spend

1% today. Unspent budget and its fee come back.

What the relayer pays so neither side ever needs gas

Relayer pays a running tab every

Seconds between payouts. A tab on screen asks every few seconds; the relayer can cap it.

MON price, for mainnet gas

Our conservative assumption: above MON's all-time high of $0.049 and about twice the $0.022 The Block showed in October 2026.

Gas price

102 on every relayer receipt we measured; Monad's mainnet minimum base fee is 100.

A month at this size

Hours paid through Segundo: $455,000
Client fee (1% of what they spend): $4,550
Share of reserve yield (assumed): $125
Relayer gas, at $0.05 a MON: −$689
Segundo net revenue a month: $3,986
A year, at this size: $47,830

Per freelancer

Relayer gas per tab-hour: $0.0303 0.606 MON
Fee per tab-hour: $0.20
Net revenue per freelancer-month: $26.57

Break-even. At this pace the fee alone covers gas until MON reaches $0.33, 6.6× the price above. At $0.05 a MON, the fee pays for a payout as often as every 9.0 s.

What the same hours cost freelancers elsewhere, a month

On a marketplace taking 10% (Upwork's range is 0–15%): $45,500
Sent by wire at the 6.36% world average: $28,938
On Segundo: $0

A month is 52 ÷ 12 weeks. Gas per action is the average over Segundo's relayer receipts on Monad testnet, read October 13, 2026: a payout 97,673 gas, an open 512,162, a top-up 261,664, a fee or fee refund 113,517, a clock-in or out about 123,712, a close 180,670. Each freelancer-month counts a weekly budget (an open, then a top-up each week, each with its fee), one close with its fee refund, and a clock-in and out every 4 hours. Paying several tabs in one transaction costs about 40,000 gas per extra tab, so batching lowers this. The yield and MON price are assumptions; set the yield to 0 to see the fee alone.

Marketplace range from Upwork's published freelancer fees1; wire cost is the World Bank's global average for Q3 202513. Monad's minimum base fee25; MON price reference26.

The market

Hundreds of millions of people work online, and the money they earn crosses a border to reach them.

154–435M

online gig workers worldwide, 4.4% to 12.5% of the global labour force16

$685B

sent home to low- and middle-income countries in 2024, the World Bank's estimate17

$4.03B

of work bought through Upwork in 2025, its gross services volume18

$1.07B

bought through Fiverr's marketplace in 202519

We don't add these up into one big number: remittances are not freelance pay, and most freelance work never touches a marketplace.

A serviceable market, built from the bottom up

People already paid across borders every month536,000Payoneer's active customers at the end of 2025, each averaging over $500 a month24

The least each moves a year$6,000$500 a month, Payoneer's own threshold24

An hourly freelancer's year$19,500Our assumption: 25 hours a week at $15, for 52 weeks

Their pay in a year, and 1% of it$3.2–10.5B536,000 × $6,000 up to 536,000 × $19,500. At 1%: $32–105 million a year

An estimate, not a forecast: it asks what 1% would earn if the people Payoneer already pays across borders were paid through Segundo instead. Payoneer's base mixes freelancers with online sellers and isn't split by country, so it isn't limited to our five corridors. For scale, Payoneer itself took 1.18% from small businesses in 202524.

The competition, honestly

Each of these does its job well. Marketplaces find the work; payroll keeps companies compliant; receive-and-convert apps move money cheaply once it's sent. None of them pays a freelancer while the work is happening without a wallet to manage.

Who it's forWhen money arrivesCostWho holds the moneyIf the client disappears

MarketplacesUpwork, FiverrFinding a freelancer and a client in the first place10 days after the week for Upwork hourly work; after a clearing period on FiverrFreelancer 0–15% on Upwork, 20% on Fiverr; the client adds up to 7.99% or 5.5%1 5The platform, until it releases the payPayment protection if the work meets its rules, otherwise a dispute

Contractor payrollDeel, RemoteCompanies paying contractors they already haveOn the invoice or payroll date$49 or from $29 per contractor a month, paid by the company8 9The company until it pays, then the platform and banksAn unpaid invoice

Receive and convertPayoneer, WiseFreelancers getting paid from abroadWhenever the client pays the invoiceReceiving and conversion fees: 1% to 3.99% + $0.49 to receive and 1.2% to 4% to withdraw on Payoneer; $6.11 a wire on Wise10 11The client, until they payAn unpaid invoice

Crypto streamingSablier, Superfluid, LlamaPayCrypto-native teams paying salaries and vestingContinuously by calendar time, whether anyone is working or notGas in the chain's token, a wallet and a seed phrase; Sablier's app adds $0.99 per withdrawal, LlamaPay streams are free20 21A contractPaid up to the moment the stream runs dry or stops

SegundoClients paying freelancers abroad by the hourEarned every second on the clock; paid out every few seconds while the tab is on screen, and in full at close. Anyone can trigger a payout1% of what the client spends. Nothing for the freelancer; gas is coveredA public contract that can only pay the freelancer for time worked or refund the clientEvery second worked is paid out or locked to the freelancer; the rest of the budget can only go back to the client

Superfluid also asks for a deposit while a stream is open, returned when it closes normally22. Marketplace release times from Upwork3 and Fiverr7.

What Segundo does differently

Paid while you workNot ten days after the week. Pay lands in the wallet every few seconds while the tab is on screen, and anyone can trigger a payout.
The budget is locked before you startThe money is in the contract before the first second, so there is no invoice to chase.
Clients pay only for time workedThe clock runs only while the freelancer is on it, and the client can pause it at once.
No wallet app, no gas, no seed phraseA passkey or an email. Segundo creates the wallet and pays the gas.
1% instead of a cutPaid by the client on what they spend. The freelancer keeps every second of what they earned.

Go to market

Start where the wait and the fees hurt most: studios in Europe and the US paying freelancers in five cities by the hour. Each corridor is a currency the note already prints in.

ManilaPHPStudios in Europe, the US and SingaporeDesign, support and assistants billed by the hour.
LagosNGNStudios in Europe and the USDevelopers and designers paid in dollars.
PuneINRStudios in Europe and the USEngineering and QA contractors on monthly hours.
NairobiKESStudios in Europe and the USRemote work where everyday money is mobile money.
São PauloBRLStudios in the USDevelopers working US hours from close time zones.

The loop: every tab onboards a freelancer

A studio opens a tab and sends one invite link. No bank details to collect from anyone.
The link onboards a freelancer with a passkey in under a minute: a wallet they never have to see, and no gas.
They're paid by the second and watch the note print in the money they think in, instead of waiting ten days.
They bring their next client by asking them to open a tab instead of waiting on an invoice, and the loop starts again.

Distribution and timing

Time trackers as the front door

Agencies already run a tracker that knows when someone is working. A plug-in that clocks in and out of a Segundo tab turns every tracker install into a place pay can start, with no new habit for anyone.

Invite links as the sales team

A client never has to find a freelancer on Segundo, and a freelancer never has to sign up before they're paid: the tab arrives as a link, and the passkey takes under a minute. Both sides leave with a working account.

Why now

Digital dollars are becoming everyday money, and AUSD's issuer shares the yield on its reserves with partners. Monad made a block every 0.305 seconds on average over the last 10,000 we measured, and our payouts landed 0.6 to 2.6 seconds after they were sent, so pay arrives while you watch (see Monad under load). Passkeys make a wallet as easy as unlocking a phone.

Under loadThe whole test, block by block

Reading the benchmark… See Monad under load.

Milestones

What exists today, and what has to happen before the first real paycheck.

Built during Monad Metropolis October 2026, live on testnet
- The tab contract on Monad testnet: per-second pay, pause, top-up, refund; verified on Sourcify, 53 Foundry tests including fuzz and invariant runs
- Gasless everything: AUSD permits and transfer authorisations, a forwarder and a relayer, so nobody holds MON
- Passkey sign-up with Mera, email sign-in with Privy, and a way to try it without signing up
- The 1% client fee, signed with the tab and paid into a public treasury
- Live notes in twelve currencies, with demo studios paying demo freelancers around the clock
- Revenue and income read from the chain with Envio: the live panel above and an income statement for every wallet
Next After the hackathon
- Mainnet on AUSD with the same contract, audited first
- Cash-out partners to banks and mobile money in the five corridors
- Time-tracker plug-ins: the tools freelancers already use clock them in and out of a tab
- A yield-share agreement with Agora for budgets waiting in tabs
Later Once income history builds up
- Advances against verified on-chain income, with a lending partner

Who is building it

Rohan BoradeFounder, developer, India

Rohan is building Segundo on his own. He wrote the contract, the relayer and the app during Monad Metropolis, and every line of it is public on GitHub.

India is one of the five corridors Segundo starts with.

Sources

Checked October 13, 2026. Chain figures come from Monad testnet and are split into our demo studios and everyone else. Gas figures are averages over Segundo's relayer receipts.

The client pays 1%. The freelancer keeps every second.

Open a tab The pitch deck The treasury on MonadVision