Part 37 chapters · live
And thenNorthwind gets paid in crypto.
Then a new client asks to pay in USDC, a digital dollar. The studio says yes, and starts paying its freelancers the same way.
Seven chapters, seven ways the books go wrong: a payment that vanishes, lands on the wrong invoice, comes in fake, goes out twice or never gets reported. Each time, a careless version and a careful one face the same payments.
In six of the seven chapters, a button sends a real payment on a public test network, with a receipt anyone can open. Test money is worth nothing, so nobody loses anything.
7 chapters · read in order or jump in
- 3.1ConfirmationsConfirmationsA client pays in digital dollars. One way of checking says 'paid' the second the payment shows up. The other waits a minute and keeps checking. Then make the payment disappear and see who already handed over the work.Open
- 3.2MatchingWhich Invoice?Two clients owe the same amount and one of them pays. If every payment lands in one place, you guess who it was from the amount, and you guess wrong. Give every bill its own address and there's nothing to guess.Open
- 3.3AmountsWrong AmountPeople rarely pay the exact amount. A fee gets taken on the way, a payment is split in two, someone rounds up. Look for the exact number and money goes missing in your own books. Write down every payment and nothing does.Open
- 3.4TokensFake USDCAnyone can make their own digital dollar and call it USDC. I made one. Pay a bill with it, and a check that reads the name says paid. A check that looks at who issued it isn't fooled.Open
- 3.5PayeesAddress PoisoningThe studio pays a freelancer by copying their address from past payments. A scammer slipped in addresses that start and end the same. Try to spot the real one in 30 seconds, then see the safer way.Open
- 3.6PayoutsPaid TwiceThe studio pays a freelancer and never hears back. Try again the simple way and the freelancer is paid twice, for real. Save the exact payment before sending and retry that same one, and they're paid once.Open
- 3.7ReconciliationStuck DepositsThree clients pay. The service that's meant to tell you about payments tells you about one on time, one late and one never. Trust it, and you chase a client who already paid. Check the payments yourself and you catch it.Open
Next · Part 4 →And then Northwind keeps a secret.Ten clients share one portal, Harbor. Two of them, Tidepool Payments and Halden Health, signed confidentiality clauses. And the support bot from Part 1 reads every file.