Segundo
How Segundo makes money
Segundo№ 01 / 10

Segundo

Get paid every second you work.

Hourly work across borders still pays late and costs too much: 10 days before Upwork releases hourly pay, and 6.36% on average to send money abroad.

Upwork Help Center, hourly payments · World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, Q3 2025

Segundo№ 02 / 10

Who it hurts

The people doing the work, far from the people paying for it.

154–435M

online gig workers worldwide, the World Bank's range: 4.4% to 12.5% of the global labour force.

World Bank, Working Without Borders, 2023

  • ManilaPHPWaits for a wire or a platform release, then pays to convert.
  • LagosNGNWaits for a wire or a platform release, then pays to convert.
  • PuneINRWaits for a wire or a platform release, then pays to convert.
  • NairobiKESWaits for a wire or a platform release, then pays to convert.
  • São PauloBRLWaits for a wire or a platform release, then pays to convert.
Segundo№ 03 / 10

The solution

A tab that pays while you work.

  • The client funds a budget before work starts.
  • Pay builds up every second the freelancer is clocked in.
  • It lands in their wallet as they work, in digital dollars.
  • Unspent budget, and the 1% fee on it, goes back to the client.
Segundo№ 04 / 10

How it works

Three steps, one signature each, no gas.

  1. 1

    The client opens a tab

    An hourly rate and a budget in AUSD, Agora's digital dollar. The budget waits in a public contract on Monad.

  2. 2

    The freelancer clocks in

    From an invite link, with a passkey or email. No wallet app, no seed phrase, no MON for gas.

  3. 3

    Paid as they go

    Earnings land in their wallet as they work. Either side can stop the clock; closing refunds every unspent cent.

Segundo№ 05 / 10

Why Monad

Pay you can watch arrive.

  • A block every 0.305 s on average, measured over the last 10,000 blocks.
  • Every step of a whole tab landed 0.6 to 2.6 s after it was sent, from a laptop in India.
  • Under load: hundreds of payouts at once, recorded block by block. segundo.world/network
  • Every action is a signature; Segundo's relayer pays the gas.
Average Monad block0.305 sFrom sent to on chain0.6–2.6 sBlock time from block timestamps over the last 10,000 blocks; landing times from our 17-step proof tab (VERIFY.md), Monad testnet.
Segundo№ 06 / 10

Business model

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

  1. 1% client fee; unspent budget and its fee come back Live on testnet
  2. Share of AUSD reserve yield on budgets in escrow Next
  3. Cash-out spread with local payout partners Next
  4. Advances against verified on-chain income Later
Fees in the Segundo treasury……Testnet, including our demo studios. Test AUSD has no value. The tab contract has no fee switch and anyone can call it directly; the fee pays for the service around it.
Segundo№ 07 / 10

Market

Big, cross-border, and paying too much.

154–435M

online gig workers worldwide

World Bank, 2023

$685B

sent home to low- and middle-income countries in 2024

World Bank estimate, December 2024

$32–105M

a year at 1%: our bottom-up estimate of the serviceable market

536,000 Payoneer customers moving over $500 a month (Payoneer FY 2025, Form 8-K) × $6,000 to $19,500 a year (the upper end is our assumption: 25 h a week at $15)

Segundo№ 08 / 10

Competition

Everyone else pays after the work. We pay during it.

When money arrivesCost to the freelancerIf the client disappears
Marketplaces10 days after the week (Upwork)0–15% on Upwork, 20% on FiverrOpen a dispute
Contractor payrollOn the payroll dateNone; the company pays $29–49 a monthChase an invoice
Receive and convertWhen the client paysReceiving and conversion feesChase an invoice
Crypto streamingBy calendar time, not time workedGas, a wallet, a seed phrasePaid until the stream stops
SegundoEvery second you're clocked inNothing. Client pays 1% of what they spendEvery second worked is paid or locked to you
Segundo№ 09 / 10

Traction

Live on Monad testnet, read from the chain now.

Outside wallets
…
Their tabs
…
Paid on their tabs
…
Demo studios' tabs (bots)
…
Paid by demo studios (bots)
…
Fee collection
…

Outside wallets are everyone who isn't a demo studio, our own test runs included. Demo studios: three bot studios paying five bot freelancers. The load test is left out. Contract verified on Sourcify, 53 Foundry tests including fuzz and invariant runs.

Segundo№ 10 / 10

What's next

From testnet to the first real paycheck.

  1. Mainnet on AUSD, the same contract, audited
  2. Cash-out partners: pesos, naira, rupees, shillings and reais to banks and mobile money
  3. Time-tracker plug-ins: the tools freelancers already use clock them in
  4. Advances against verified on-chain income

The ask

Studios that hire abroad, payout partners in our five corridors, and investors in payments: let's talk.

segundo.world

Rohan Borade, founder