Cuniro

Get what you pay for with safe MNEE (money) payments.

Comment

Inspiration

Fraud in housing is a global problem, especially in student housing, where payments are often made before inspection. More often than outright scams, students face a subtler problem: misaligned expectations. After payment, there is usually no neutral or transparent way to resolve disputes, and most losses go unreported.

This creates a coordination problem. Students hesitate to pay upfront. Landlords hesitate to deliver without payment assurance. Existing systems either rely on blind trust or opaque intermediaries.

Cuniro addresses this gap by turning rent payments into programmable agreements. Funds don’t simply move, they wait, react, and resolve based on predefined, on-chain rules.

While escrow systems exist, they force tradeoffs. Traditional escrows are centralized and custodial. Many decentralized alternatives rely on volatile assets or off-chain dispute handling, a poor fit for rent payments where certainty matters.

Cuniro is powered by MNEE (0x8ccedbAe4916b79da7F3F612EfB2EB93A2bFD6cF on Ethereum mainnet), a USD-backed stablecoin on Ethereum, giving students stable, predictable payments. Because escrow state lives on-chain, access does not depend on a centralized platform, escrow IDs remain verifiable even if major data breaches occur.

With students and young adults among the fastest-growing crypto users globally, Cuniro treats blockchain as infrastructure, not a barrier, reframing escrow as programmable money for student housing.

What It Does

Cuniro is a decentralized escrow platform for student housing payments, ensuring rent is only released when agreed conditions are met.

At its core, Cuniro allows any student (buyer) to create an on-chain escrow using MNEE (ERC-20 on Ethereum), locking rent payments in a smart contract instead of sending money directly to a landlord or agent.

Key Capabilities

For Students (Buyers)

  • Create escrow directly from a housing listing
  • Choose timeout periods (e.g. 7 / 14 / 30 days)
  • Confirm release only after satisfaction
  • Raise disputes when expectations are not met

For Landlords (Sellers)

  • Receive structured, enforceable payments
  • Funds auto claimable(auto-release) after agreed timeouts
  • No need to trust off-chain promises

For Arbiters

  • Only interact with escrows that are explicitly disputed
  • Resolve disputes transparently on-chain
  • No power outside agreed rules
  • Collects a %1 fee on arbitrated escrows

Platform Features

  • Off-chain housing listings (fast, flexible, non-custodial)
  • On-chain escrow IDs as the source of truth
  • Role-based dashboard (Buyer / Seller / Arbiter views)
  • Automated releases, timeouts, and dispute-aware flows
  • Platform collects a %0.1 protocol fee on all escrows

How We Built It

Frontend

  • Built with a mobile-first approach for real student usage
  • Role-based dashboard that adapts based on whether the user is a buyer, seller, or arbiter
  • Wallet connection as the primary identity layer

Backend

  • Supabase for off-chain listings and metadata
  • Postgres trigger functions for updating off-chain state safely
  • Row Level Security (RLS) to strictly control who can read or modify listing and off-chain data
  • Backend is intentionally non-custodial, it never touches funds

Smart Contracts

  • EscrowManager.sol: Manages escrow creation, state transitions, timeouts, disputes, and arbitration
  • EscrowManager.sol Uses OpenZeppelin security patterns (ReentrancyGuard) and SafeERC20 for safe MNEE (0x8ccedbAe4916b79da7F3F612EfB2EB93A2bFD6cF on Ethereum mainnet) transfers
  • EscrowManagerTest.t.sol covers tests involving, access control, account invariants and edge cases
  • DeployEscrowManager.s.sol for deployment to mainnet and testnet
  • Cuniro uses a mock MNEE ERC-20 token for testing, mirroring the live MNEE stablecoin
  • Cuniro includes a faucet to allow judges and testers to experience the full flow safely

Payment Flow

  1. Student selects a housing listing
  2. Escrow is created and funded with MNEE
  3. Funds are locked in the smart contract
  4. Buyer releases, disputes, or timeout rules apply
  5. Funds resolve automatically based on contract logic

Challenges We Ran Into

  • Balancing decentralization with usability: fully on-chain listings add friction without improving trust
  • Learning Solidity, foundry and ERC20: Had to learn building on Ethereum
  • Off-chain security: working with Supabase Row Level Security and Postgres trigger functions
  • UX abstraction: making escrow logic understandable without exposing blockchain complexity
  • Smart Contract tests: Writing tests involving access control, account invariants and Edge cases

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

  • A polished end-to-end frontend that feels like a real product, not a crypto experiment
  • A production-ready escrow contract tailored for student housing
  • Full test coverage on EscrowManager.sol
  • Seamless integration of MNEE stablecoin for rent payments
  • A role-aware dashboard that makes escrow feel alive and understandable
  • Clear, enforceable on-chain rules for disputes and timeouts

What We Learned

  • Working with Solidity, Foundry, Etherjs
  • Building with MNEE ERC20 stable coin
  • How to write tests with solidity
  • Supabase Row Level Security and Postgres trigger functions
  • Escrow is fundamentally about coordination, not just custody
  • On-chain rules build more trust than off-chain promises
  • Treating blockchain as infrastructure dramatically improves adoption

What’s Next for Cuniro

  • Self-custodial escrow discovery (wallet-only recovery of escrow IDs)
  • Verified arbiter reputation systems(right now Cuniro uses a hardcoded list of verified Arbiters)
  • Expansion to deposits, short stays, and other high-risk upfront payments
  • Broader marketplace support beyond student housing

Long-term, Cuniro aims to become a general-purpose programmable escrow layer for real-world coordination, starting with student housing, but built to scale wherever expectations and payments must align.

Technological Implementation

  • Production-ready escrow smart contracts tested and built in Solidity using OpenZeppelin security patterns such as ReentrancyGuard, SafeERC20 for safe transfers and strict state-based modifiers to prevent invalid transitions
  • Off-chain strict security Row Level Security (RLS), and Postgres trigger functions for secure off-chain updates
  • On-chain enforcement of escrow rules (timeouts, dispute states, arbitration permissions) that cannot be bypassed even if the frontend or backend is compromised
  • Non-custodial escrow architecture where funds are locked in smart contracts, not held by the platform
  • Stable-value payments via MNEE, a USD-backed ERC-20 stablecoin on Ethereum, ensuring predictable rent payments without volatility
  • Gas-efficient escrow design using simple structs, indexed events, and minimal storage writes to keep transactions affordable
  • On-chain escrow IDs as durable references, enabling future self-custodial escrow discovery independent of any centralized service

Design & User Experience

  • Role-based dashboard with clear views for Buyers (students), Sellers (landlords), and Arbiters
  • Live escrow status and countdowns, making contract state changes visible and understandable in real time
  • One-click escrow creation from listings, abstracting blockchain complexity behind familiar rental flows
  • Off-chain listings with on-chain settlement, keeping the UX fast while preserving trust at the payment layer
  • Mobile-first, student-friendly interface designed to feel like a housing app, not a crypto tool

Impact Potential

  • Addresses a real, high-frequency coordination problem: upfront rent payments in student housing
  • Directly targets regions with high fraud risk, especially across Africa, while remaining globally applicable
  • Enables safer housing access for students who would otherwise avoid paying upfront or fall victim to scams
  • Lays the foundation for broader use cases such as deposits, short stays, and service-based escrows
  • Demonstrates how stablecoins can power everyday commerce, not just trading or speculation

Originality & Quality of Idea

  • Reframes escrow as programmable money, not just a passive holding mechanism
  • Combines stablecoin payments + on-chain dispute logic in a use case where certainty matters most
  • Focuses on the more common failure mode, “what I ordered vs what I got”, rather than only outright scams
  • Treats blockchain as infrastructure, deliberately minimizing user friction and cognitive overhead
  • Positions MNEE as a practical medium for real-world, non-speculative payments

Solves Real Coordination Problems

  • Student–Landlord trust gap: funds are locked until conditions are met, reducing fear on both sides
  • Dispute resolution without intermediaries: arbitration is only possible when a dispute is raised, and rules are enforced on-chain
  • Time-based enforcement: automatic releases prevent indefinite fund lockups and stalled agreements
  • Transparency by default: all escrow states and outcomes are publicly verifiable on-chain
  • Resilience to platform failure: In the case of unexpected events, users retain access to their escrow via on-chain IDs

Why Cuniro Fits the Creator Track

While Cuniro is fundamentally strong in financial automation and co-ordination, using smart contracts to enforce payments, timeouts, and disputes, its deeper value lies in how this automation serves creators and commerce here's how:

  • Creator-first by design Cuniro empowers individuals, students, independent landlords, campus agents, and small housing operators, to create enforceable rental agreements without relying on centralized platforms or custodial intermediaries.

  • Programmable trust, not platform trust Creators define the rules upfront: inspection windows, release conditions, timeouts, and dispute paths. Once set, these rules are enforced on-chain by smart contracts, not by a company’s discretion.

  • Ownership and autonomy Each escrow is an on-chain object owned by the participants, not a platform record. Creators retain control over their agreements even if the app or backend disappears.

  • No gatekeepers, no lock-in Anyone can participate without approval, hidden fees, or custodial risk. Cuniro functions as infrastructure, not a marketplace that controls access or relationships.

  • Built for real-world commerce Using MNEE, a USD-backed stablecoin, ensures predictable value for rent and deposits. Automation reduces operational overhead, no chasing payments, no manual refunds.

  • Composable and extensible Cuniro provides a platform creators can build on: listings, arbitration, and future marketplaces, starting with student housing, but applicable anywhere trust and upfront payment collide.

Cuniro demonstrates how programmable, stable-value money can coordinate trust in one of the most fragile real-world markets: student housing.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates