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Web3 technology and decentralized applications (dApps) like Streamflow have revolutionized the way payments are made by introducing the concept of payment streaming. With payment streaming, employees can now receive instant and continuous payments throughout each pay period, eliminating the need for multiple transactions. This breakthrough technology has transformed the traditional way of making payments, making it more efficient and convenient for employees. This article will explore Streamflow and how its recurring payment streams can revolutionize payroll.
Streamflow: a new age of payments
During the 1980s, Direct Deposit was introduced as an improvement to financial systems, allowing individuals to receive payments without physical checks and trips to the bank. However, due to the costs associated with more frequent payments, employers are discouraged from sending payments weekly or daily resulting in employees receiving payments less frequently. Even today, most jobs still pay their employees bi-weekly or monthly, which aligns differently from the real-time value that employees provide to their company.
Streamflow utilizes blockchain technology to enable cost-effective and effortless transfers of value. The Streamflow platform is:
- Low cost — Token streaming only requires one transaction —incurring a .1% fee— diminishing the need to send multiple individual payments. There’s no need for gas or any further transactions by the sender or receiver.
- Fast — Streamline your payments with automation and watch them seamlessly process.
- Transparent — Token streaming details are accessible to both parties, and all transactions are verifiable via blockchain explorers.
- Trustless — No bank account is required. The sender and receiver only require self-custody crypto wallets.
- Secure — Streamflow is fully audited.
- Composable — Buildors can create new use cases for Streamflow via our SDK and integrate the streaming primitive within their protocols.
Payment Streams
Payment streams are the most efficient and secure way of making recurring payments to service providers in the modern era. You can stream according to a release rate and ‘top up’ the ongoing payroll stream with more funds. Streamflow allows employers to set up payroll streams that consistently release value to employees over the duration of each pay period. By streaming payments with Streamflow, employees can access the value of their paychecks every day!
Customizable payment streams provide the flexibility to design a tailored payment workflow, offering time-saving features such as:
- Customizable Schedule — The sender can specify the release frequency and the number of tokens for each stream. You can stream tokens to the recipient every couple of hours or even every second!
- Automatic Withdrawals — Automatic withdrawals allow all unlocked funds to be deposited automatically into the recipient’s wallet.
- Batch Payments — With batch payments, you can set up payments for multiple employees at once.
- Topping Up Streams — When the sender tops up a stream, they increase the duration of the stream by adding more funds. The ability to top-up streams is an essential feature for projects where the rate of compensation changes or you extend the project due date. The ability to top up streams also helps employees with less working capital, as they can add funds to the ongoing payment stream as they become available to the employer.
- Transferable Streams — The sender/employer can choose whether or not the sender can transfer the stream to another SPL wallet. Once transferred, the stream will continue to stream tokens to the new wallet.
- Cancel Streams — Streams can be canceled at any time, returning all locked tokens to the employer. The recipient receives all locked tokens upon cancellation.
Scenario #1: Web3 Company
Imagine you’re the founder of a web3 company- and you decide to contract people globally. With Streamflow, you can create a smart contract for the service provider, and as work is complete, the stream releases value to the service provider instantaneously.
Streaming is the best way to promote transparency, as employees can see the locked funds and the balances reflecting their issued payments.
What this looks like:
You’ve contracted a developer for a new landing page for $3000 with a deadline of one week. As the employer, you can choose to stream value to your employee at any interval of time you choose:
- Per Minute: ~$.29 streamed every minute
- Hourly: ~$17.8 streamed per hour
- Daily: ~$428.5 streamed, every 24 hours
Let’s say you choose to stream $17.8 to the developer every hour, during the week.
Imagine, it’s the last day of the project —and the stream— and you’ve decided to implement some new features to the landing page, extending the duration of the project. You’ve agreed with the developer on a price of $1000, increasing the total amount of the project to $4000. Adding more funds to an existing stream is as simple as topping up your stream with $1000, and extending the expiry date.
Benefits of Payment Streams
Although payment streaming is a seemingly simple concept, it has widespread implications for the economy and employee satisfaction as a whole.
For employers
If you use payment streaming instead of direct deposit, you can greatly reduce your overhead costs for payroll. Payment streams avoid the processing cost of recurring payments by only requiring one transaction.
Employers can operate with reduced working capital and initiate payments to recipients without having the entire amount of funds for the pay period upfront. However, it is essential to ensure that the stream is replenished before your wallet’s USDC balance reaches zero. Payment streams can also provide a competitive advantage in the market and assist in retaining Web3 talent.
For employees
Payment streams allow for a continuous stream of value to recipients encouraging a capital-efficient workflow for both the employer and employee. Streaming is vital to fixing the current payment model. Employees provide value to their company throughout the work week in real-time but do not receive compensation at the same rate.
More frequent payments also lead to happier employees overall. Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, reports:
When [people] think of their time in terms of money, the connection between income and happiness goes up and they become economic evaluators of their use of time in their life.
Pfeffer goes on to explain that hourly wages force employees to think about money, time, and happiness differently:
How organizations pay people has profound effects outside of that organizational context. If you’re paid by the hour, you come to see your time in a certain way that doesn’t change when you walk out of your employer’s door.
Studies indicate that when individuals are aware of their hourly wage, they tend to experience higher levels of happiness. Therefore, providing employees with direct deposits of their hourly wage could potentially boost their satisfaction.
Everyone Wins
By substituting centralized payroll solutions for payment streams, employers can substantially reduce their overhead while providing employees with a better experience.
In turn, employers can increase their overall employee satisfaction and turnover rate.
Implementing payment streams in place of centralized payroll solutions can result in a significant overhead reduction for employers, while simultaneously offering employees an enhanced payment experience. This innovative approach can improve overall employee satisfaction, ultimately leading to a lower turnover rate. Payment streams also offer increased transparency and security, allowing for a more efficient and accurate payment system. By utilizing payment streams, employers can streamline their payment processes, saving time and money, while simultaneously increasing employee retention and satisfaction.
To learn more, visit streamflow.finance/payroll