Web3 Payroll Management with Reactive Network

Summary

• Unlike banking autopayment systems that can be setup, each crypto payment needs to be initiated and approved by individual(s) controlling a certain wallet/account
• Because Reactive Network listens for the emission of smart contract events, once criteria pertaining to a smart contract has been fulfilled, the contract will execute — and be broadcast across the network
• Reactive Smart Contracts can respond accordingly, funding the just executed smart contract with the following month’s payroll

Web2 vs Web3 Payroll Management

In the Web2 world, the term “set it and forget it” is one that you hear often. Companies can set payroll systems and processes to auto-deduct from their accounts on a bi-weekly/monthly basis, consumers can setup credit card payments to pay for monthly subscriptions, and so on.

However, crypto payments operate differently. Because each transaction must be signed by the payor before funds are transferred, manual intervention is required by the payor for each payee which the payor would like to transfer funds to.

The Problem

While manual payments do “work”, the process is cumbersome and prone to manual error. Additionally, it is reliant on a central party (the payor) to remember to make payments on certain days and to ensure that their wallets are sufficiently funded to make payroll.

Automation by relying solely on the underlying blockchain network simply has not been feasible in the past because of the transaction ultimately needs to be signed by the payor prior to payment.

But what if the underlying blockchain network could have automation setup? Not only would the payor be relieved of the tiresome process of sending out numerous transactions to employees per month, but it would also minimize (or eliminate) any manual errors in the process.

The Solution

Reactive Network introduces new features into the underlying capabilities of EVM chains. In particular, it will allow users to subscribe to smart contract events — meaning that subscribers will be notified each time that a smart contract they are interested in emits an event.

In the payroll scenario, the employer and employee would each have their own smart contract. This contract would fire when the criteria set forth in the contract is fulfilled. In the payroll case, this most likely would be the definition of calendar days (e.g. smart contract fires on the first calendar day of each month).

With the employer and employee having the terms of their arrangement defined in a smart contract, work can commence. Assuming the employee does get paid on the first of each month, the smart contract would initially be funded with the employee’s monthly salary, which he/she would not receive until the first day of the subsequent month.

With Reactive Network, after the smart contract is drained of its funds, an event will be emitted by the smart contract to log this activity. This is where Reactive Smart Contracts (a key component of Reactive) comes in.

RSCs would be notified that a particular smart contract has been fulfilled — and in the case of an employer/employee relationship, the RSC would be coded such that it would initiate the funding of the original smart contract for next month’s payroll.

By doing this, the employer only needs to ensure that their principal wallet/account has sufficient funding for all of their employees, but that the actual payment and distribution of funds, as well as the timing of such distributions, is fully handled by the Reactive Network, and the RSCs.

Conclusion

With more and more individuals onboarding into Web3, crypto payments between employers and their workers will become increasingly commonplace. Manual payments for a few employees is feasible, but as projects grow and employee count rises — automation is required to ensure timely and accurate payments.

Reactive Network provides the underlying functionality to enable such capabilities, leaving projects to focus only on the stuff that matters — building.