Construction runs on a 94-day cycle. We replace the cycle with a signed receipt.
The U.S. construction industry moves $2.14 trillion a year through workflows that are decades behind every other sector. Subs wait an average of 74 days to get paid. Two thirds of payments are still paper checks. Hive ships a signed-receipt layer that lets a milestone, a delivery, a retainage release, or a lien waiver settle the moment the work is verified.
01Five places this hits today
Five different cross-org handoffs. Same missing layer. Pick the one closest to your project ledger.
ASubcontractor milestone — paid on attestation
A subcontractor frames the wall. The inspector signs off. Today the sub waits 74 days for the payment to clear the GC's three-stage approval and the lender's draw inspection. Materials were paid out of pocket on day minus seven. The sub is the bank.
Hive ships a signed receipt the moment the inspector attests the milestone. A nano-payment lands in the sub's wallet inside the same transaction. The traditional Net-30 invoice still runs in parallel for the balance — this is a cash-flow accelerator, not a replacement.
Inspector signoff binds to a sub-wallet payout. Both sides hold the receipt.
- Action type —
construction.subcontractor.milestone.paid - Receipt binds — subcontractor_did, milestone_id, gc_did, inspector_signoff_hash, amount_micro, lien_waiver_hash
- Compliance shape — 50-state prompt payment act, with the receipt as proof-of-payment date
- Why subs say yes — solves their number-one pain. 73% currently self-finance materials.
- Why GCs say yes — sub retention is a measurable line item. Reduces turnover cost.
BPer-load material delivery — settles on scan
A lumber truck pulls onto the site. The yard checker scans the delivery ticket. Today the supplier waits 60 days for a $200 load because the GC is on Net-60 with their lender. Multiply by 256 million deliveries a year and the supplier is also the bank.
Hive turns the scan into a signed receipt and a per-load nano-payment in one transaction. No new behavior — the delivery is already being scanned and verified. The supplier moves from credit risk to point-of-sale economics. The GC captures the 2-5% early-pay discount.
Delivery ticket binds to a supplier-wallet payout at the moment of scan.
- Action type —
construction.material.delivery.paid - Receipt binds — supplier_did, material_type, quantity, delivery_ticket_hash, inspector_verification, amount_micro
- Compliance shape — UCC Article 2 record-of-sale, with the receipt body serving the Statute of Frauds shape
- Why suppliers say yes — payment on delivery, not on invoice. Zero credit risk.
- Why GCs say yes — the early-pay discount is real money the supplier was already willing to give up.
CRetainage release — weekly micro-increments
Over $100 billion sits in retainage at any given moment, held in escrow for 30 to 180 days after project completion. It is the sub's money. The GC earns nothing by holding it. The state statute says when it has to come out. The bookkeeping is the only reason it does not come out faster.
Hive turns each weekly attestation into a fractional retainage release. The receipt encodes the milestone, the lien waiver, and the release percentage. The state's retainage cap is enforced in the contract. Subs get a predictable trickle instead of a 90-day cliff.
Each release is a receipt with the state-compliance check inside the trigger.
- Action type —
construction.retainage.released - Receipt binds — project_id, subcontractor_did, release_percentage, inspection_pass_hash, lien_waiver_hash, amount_micro
- Compliance shape — 50-state retainage cap, with state_code embedded in the action_ref
- Why GCs say yes — the dead-money objection vanishes. Audit shape is cleaner than escrow accounts.
- Why subs say yes — predictable weekly cash flow instead of waiting for a punch list to close.
DLien waiver — payment and waiver in one atomic transaction
The lien waiver standoff is the textbook example. The sub will not sign the waiver until they are paid. The GC will not pay until the waiver is signed. Subs withhold, GCs hold back, the project blocks, and 4.4 million mechanic's liens get filed every year because of the gap.
Hive resolves the standoff with atomic execution. The waiver signature and the payment land in the same on-chain transaction. If either side fails, both revert. Textura digitized the workflow; the settlement is still 3-5 days on ACH. We finish what they started.
Waiver and payment are bound to the same action_ref. No standoff possible.
- Action type —
construction.lien_waiver.atomic_settled - Receipt binds — gc_did, subcontractor_did, project_id, waiver_type (partial/final), waiver_hash, payment_amount_micro, notary_attestation
- Compliance shape — 50-state mechanic's lien statute. Notary block included when state requires.
- Why GCs say yes — the standoff that costs them weeks per project disappears.
- Why subs say yes — signing the waiver is no longer an act of faith.
EEarned wage — worker paid per completed task
Construction has 8.3 million workers. Most are paid weekly or bi-weekly, but their expenses — gas, tools, meals — are daily. The earned-wage-access market is large and growing, and existing players do not specialize in construction's piece-rate, per-task, per-mile compensation.
Hive issues a per-task receipt the moment a supervisor attests completion. A fraction of the worker's accrued wages settles to their wallet inside the same transaction. Payroll cycle continues unchanged for the balance. DOL gets an immutable per-task audit trail.
Task completion plus supervisor attestation triggers an earned-wage payout.
- Action type —
construction.worker.earned_wage.accessed - Receipt binds — worker_did, employer_did, task_completed, hours_worked (or piece_count), supervisor_attestation, amount_micro, payroll_period_id
- Compliance shape — FLSA, state wage laws, Davis-Bacon-compatible audit trail
- Why workers say yes — gas, food, tools paid for today on work done today.
- Why GCs say yes — recruiting and retention pull at no cost to payroll cycle.
02Why now
Procore digitized the project plan. Oracle Textura digitized the lien-waiver workflow. Built Technologies digitized the lender draw. None of them touched settlement speed. Payments still clear on three-to-five-day ACH or, worse, paper. The workflow is online; the money is still in the mail.
Hive does not compete with any of them. We sit underneath. We sign the handoff, we settle the value, and we leave the workflow layer to whoever the GC already pays for.
03What goes on the record
- Drops in on the record you already use — Salesforce Opportunity, Procore project, custom Construction object, or a flat ledger if that's all you have
- 50-state compliance encoded — state_code in every receipt; prompt-payment, retainage cap, and mechanic's-lien shapes baked into the action_ref
- UCC Article 2 record-of-sale on every per-load delivery
- FLSA / Davis-Bacon audit trail on every earned-wage receipt
- Public verifier — thehiveryiq.com/verify — subs, GCs, lenders, and auditors all check the same receipt without phoning anyone
- Two rails — signed-only for attestation-grade audit shape, or signed-plus-USDC for instant settlement
All nine live use cases, with Apex, Flow XML, signed-receipt JSON, and a curl proof per case →
Pilot a project. One job site. Two months.
We are ready to run a single-site pilot with a regional homebuilder, a Procore-connected GC, or a regional material supplier. Five minutes to install. One job to prove it. Two months to a measurable retention number on subs, suppliers, or workers.