Crypto payroll for contractors and remote teams

A payroll run, step by step

1. The roster

   Per person: net amount, payout asset, network, address. Check each address with GET /v1/validate-address when it is added and again before a run — a typo found on payday is an expensive typo.

2. Quote each line by the net amount

   from_asset is your treasury asset, to_asset is theirs, and amount_to is what they are owed. The offer answers with the FromAmount the run will cost you, so the whole run can be priced before a single coin moves.

3. Open an order per person

   client_order_id is your run + employee key, and the Idempotency-Key is derived from the same pair. Rerun a half-finished payroll and the orders already created come back unchanged instead of doubling.

4. Fund the payouts

   Each order returns its own DepositAddress and exact AmountFrom. Your treasury sends to each one — this is the part the API cannot do for you, because it never holds your funds.

5. Close the run

   Poll each order to a terminal status. DONE gives you AmountToReceived and TxID for the payslip; anything else is a line to re-run, with a fresh quote.

The run loop

const BASE = "https://api.swapzilla.io";
const head = { "X-API-Key": process.env.SWAPZILLA_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" };

async function payout(run, person) {
  const q = new URLSearchParams({
    from_asset: "USDT", from_network: "TRC20",
    to_asset: person.asset, to_network: person.network,
    amount_to: String(person.net), rate_type: "fixed",
  });
  const { offers } = await fetch(`${BASE}/v1/partner/quotes?${q}`, { headers: head })
    .then((r) => r.json());
  if (!offers?.length) throw new Error(`no offer for ${person.id}`);

  const order = await fetch(`${BASE}/v1/partner/orders`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { ...head, "Idempotency-Key": `${run}:${person.id}` },  // same key on every retry
    body: JSON.stringify({
      offer_id: offers[0].ID,
      to_address: person.address,
      refund_address: process.env.TREASURY_ADDRESS,                 // failures come home
      client_order_id: `${run}:${person.id}`,
      expected_to_amount: person.net,
    }),
  }).then((r) => r.json());

  return order;      // DepositAddress + AmountFrom — what the treasury must send
}

// Five at a time is plenty: providers throttle bursts, and a payroll run is not
// a race. Wrap each line so one failure is one failed payslip, not a failed run.

Run bookkeeping

The honest limits

Who pays this way

• Studios and agencies with remote contractors across a dozen countries, each preferring a different asset and network.
• Product teams paying in stablecoins from a single treasury asset, without operating a wallet per network.
• DAOs and open-source funds whose payouts have to be individually traceable to a TxID.
• Anyone who has outgrown a spreadsheet and a hot wallet but does not want a custodian holding the payroll.

Questions