Q ♥ · Incentive · Draft
Token Stream
Pay flows from one wallet to another every second, so the receiver is paid for exactly the time served.
How it works
The sender deposits a lump sum into a streaming contract and sets a rate, a start time, and an end time. From the start, the contract counts the receiver's balance up and the sender's balance down at that rate, second by second. The receiver can withdraw whatever has built up at any moment. Nothing moves before the start, and nothing extra is owed after the end. Either side can cancel if the terms allow it, and the contract splits the deposit by the time elapsed.
Use it when
- You pay contributors and want to stop paying the day they stop working.
- Release a grant to a team over its whole timeline rather than up front.
- You want no monthly payroll votes and no one waiting for payday.
Watch out for
- The full amount sits locked in the contract from day one, so the treasury cannot use it.
- A stream pays for time, not results, so it needs a separate check that the work is done.
Example
Sablier. Sablier launched token streaming on Ethereum in 2019, and DAOs have used it since to pay contributors by the second instead of by the month.