How your payment account works

When you set up a payment account on Zttld, the account itself is created and secured by Privy, Inc., an independent technology company that provides payment-account infrastructure to many businesses. Zttld builds the marketplace you see; Privy supplies the secure account technology underneath it. Privy is not owned by or affiliated with Zttld.

Your account is protected by a key that is created for you during setup and confirmed with your own passkey (Face ID, Touch ID, or your device's screen lock). That key stays on your side — Zttld never sees it, never stores it, and has no way to reconstruct it.

Every contract on Zttld gets its own shared escrow account with exactly three keyholders:

• You hold your own key, protected by your passkey.
• The other party (your client or your freelancer) holds their own key the same way.
• Zttld holds one key.

Moving money out of escrow — releasing a payment, issuing a refund, carrying out a dispute decision — always requires two of the three keys. One key alone can never do anything.

Because Zttld holds exactly one of the three keys:

• Zttld cannot move your funds on its own — not to itself, not to anyone else. Any movement Zttld signs must also be signed by you or the other party.
• Zttld cannot block or freeze your funds on its own — you and the other party together can always move funds without Zttld.
• Zttld cannot see or use your key, and it cannot approve anything on your behalf. Only your passkey can confirm an approval from you.
• What Zttld does do: run the marketplace, coordinate the escrow steps, and — when there's a dispute — propose or carry out a resolution by adding its one signature alongside the signature of the party the decision favors.

There is nothing to back up and no code to lose. Sign in to Zttld on any other device, approve with your passkey, and your payment account works exactly as before — same account, same funds. Passkeys made with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device's screen lock usually sync automatically through your Apple or Google account, and you can add a passkey on a second device any time from payment account settings as extra cover. Nobody at Zttld can access your account, remove your passkey requirement, or recover it on your behalf — and Zttld still cannot access or move your funds.

Your payment account doesn't depend on Zttld. The email you verified at setup is linked directly to your account with Privy, so you can sign in on Privy's own site, export your account's key there, and use it in any compatible wallet — with no involvement from Zttld at any step. See using your payment account outside Zttld for the walkthrough.

The legal version of all of this lives in our Terms of Service. If anything is unclear, email support@zttld.com — we're happy to walk you through it.