Why settlement is an Achilles heel (and how Web3 helps)

Everyone in the industry talks about the buyer experience. The part that rarely makes the keynote is settlement — the 5 to 14 days between the hammer falling and the consignor getting paid.

What settlement looks like today

A typical cross-border invoice flow:

1. T+0: Invoice issued.
2. T+3: Wire arrives (sometimes).
3. T+5: Shipping insurance cleared.
4. T+10: Consignor payout wire dispatched.
5. T+14: Consignor bank releases funds.

Every one of those steps is a workflow with humans, reconciliation, and tail risk.

What on-chain settlement changes

Stablecoin + escrow smart contracts do three things that matter:

• Finality in minutes, not days. A buyer's payment is visible and final within the block time of the settlement chain.
• Programmable clawbacks. If a provenance dispute is filed within the 48-hour window, funds are held automatically — no frantic calls to the buyer's bank.
• Simpler FX. The consignor can receive in USD-pegged stablecoin or convert on delivery.

What you still need

On-chain doesn't magic the human workflow away. You still need KYC (now re-usable across lots), jurisdictional tax reporting, and a fallback fiat channel for the long tail of buyers who aren't crypto-native. That's why Auction Rabbit pairs every on-chain rail with a parallel fiat rail — the switchover is invisible to the consignor.