Applicants vanish into silence: dozens of applications, most never answered, not even with a no. Employers lose hours to no-shows, with two senior people waiting in an empty video call. Both sides behave badly because neither side pays anything for it.
What exists and what is new
Closest: the Circle Back Initiative and Indeed's response badge, which are promises with no money behind them, and no-show deposits on some dating apps. New: deposits on both sides of hiring, released automatically by a clock and an attendance check, so a reply promise is backed by €10 and an interview slot by a small refundable deposit.
The data it runs on
Interview bookings and application timestamps: when the application was sent, when (and whether) the employer replied by email or through their applicant tracking system, and whether both people joined the call. No CV content is needed to run the clocks.
1. The mission
Make silence expensive and showing up the default. Every job post carries a reply promise with money behind it, and every candidate builds a reliability record that follows them.
2. Why people can't resist it
Justice you can feel. Getting €10 from a company that ghosted you turns the worst part of job hunting into a small win.
Loss aversion works both ways. A ¥1,500 deposit gets people to the call; a €10 stake gets recruiters to send the no.
Public status. "Replies to 100% of applicants" is a badge employers will compete for, and candidates filter by it.
3. How it works for real
Accounts: email login with a smart wallet created behind the scenes (Privy or Coinbase Smart Wallet). Employers pay by card or bank; balances held as USDC on Base, gas sponsored.
Escrow: a simple contract per job post holding the stake pool, and one per interview holding the deposit. Releases are triggered by an oracle service that signs clock and attendance events.
Reply detection: read-only Gmail or Outlook access filtered to employer domains, plus ATS integrations (Greenhouse, Lever, Workable style APIs). A fast cheap model (Gemini Flash or DeepSeek via OpenRouter) classifies each message: reply, auto-acknowledgement, rejection, invite.
Attendance: join events from the video link Show Up issues (or calendar check-in), with a 10-minute grace window.
Drafting: a frontier LLM (Claude or GPT) drafts kind, specific rejection replies from the employer's own scorecard notes. Employers approve before anything is sent.
Payouts: USDC transfers on Base, off-ramped to local banks (yen, euro, naira, rupee) through licensed partners.
4. Cost per use
Email classification: about $0.0005 per message, roughly $0.02 per applicant over 14 days. Drafted rejection: about $0.004 each. Gas: under $0.01 per release on Base, sponsored. A 100-applicant job costs about $2.50 to run end to end.
Free for applicants (deposits are refundable, payouts are theirs). Employers: €1 per post plus €0.50 per applicant handled, or $99 a month unlimited with ATS integration and drafted replies. A small share of forfeited stakes funds the dispute reviewers.
5. Growth loop
Applicants share "they paid me for ghosting me" posts, which pressure employers to join, and employers with a 100% badge get more and better applicants, which pulls in their competitors. Every interview booked brings a new person onto the other side of the marketplace. A weekly board lists each application with its staked reply-by date, and reliability scores on both sides compound week after week, so applicants and employers both have a reason to come back every Monday.
6. Risks and guardrails
Gaming: applicants mass-applying to farm payouts: cap paid applications per week and require a fit check before a stake applies.
False silence: replies through portals or other channels are counted once the ATS is connected; any payout can be disputed to a human within 48 hours.
Fairness: an emergency pass each quarter, free cancellation 24 hours ahead, and deposits sized to local income.
Legal: deposits may be restricted for some roles or countries under employment rules; this is general information, not legal advice, so check locally and offer a deposit-free mode where needed.
Privacy: read-only inbox access, filtered to employer domains; nothing sent as the user without approval.
7. MVP build order
Employer post with a card-funded stake pool and a 14-day clock per applicant.
Applicant inbox connect and reply classifier with a manual "they replied" override.
Automatic payout on missed windows, with receipts.
Interview booking with a refundable deposit and video join check.