Software escrow
What is a software escrow?
A software escrow is a mechanism where a project's payment is held by a neutral third party until an agreed condition is met — usually the verified delivery of a milestone — and only then released to the team that built it. It exists to reduce risk on both sides: the company doesn't pay upfront without a delivery guarantee, and the team doesn't deliver work without a payment guarantee.
How it's used
It's mostly used in remote projects between parties without a prior trust relationship, where neither side wants to carry all the risk of the other defaulting — paying everything upfront, or doing all the work on trust and hoping to get paid later.
SafePay is Zenit's escrow system: funds are locked before the first commit and released per delivered milestone. See SafePay.
Related question
How does money get released per milestone?
See it in action