L2 Smart Contracts
RobinGrid settles payments through escrow contracts on an Ethereum layer 2, which keeps per-job gas costs low enough for small, per-hour GPU rentals while still giving both sides an on-chain guarantee instead of relying on trust.
1. Escrow lock
When a job is matched to a node, the consumer's payment is locked in an escrow contract on an Ethereum L2, not sent directly to the provider. Nothing is released until the job's output is verified.
2. Verified release
Once a job completes, its output hash is checked against what the node reported. On a match, the contract releases the locked funds to the provider automatically, no manual invoicing required.
3. Refunds
If a node fails to deliver (drops offline, times out, or produces no verifiable output), the escrowed funds are refunded to the consumer instead of paid out.
4. Disputes
Either side can flag a job as disputed. Disputed escrow is held until a RobinGrid admin reviews the job's execution logs and resolves it as a refund or a release.
Provider staking
Node providers can lock a small stake against their node. It's slashable for confirmed malicious behavior (e.g. fabricated job output) and factors into the reputation score used for job matching.
This page describes the intended contract design. RobinGrid is under active development; check the team for current mainnet deployment status before relying on it for real funds.