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Stablecoin Payroll: How to Automate Payouts without Risking the Vault

· 2 min read
PolicyLayer Team
PolicyLayer Team
PolicyLayer

Payroll is the perfect use case for AI agents. It's repetitive, data-heavy, and time-sensitive. An agent can calculate hours, verify deliverables on GitHub, and send USDC instantly.

But most CFOs will never approve giving an autonomous script access to the company treasury.

Here is how to solve the "CFO Problem" using Asset-Specific Limits.

The Risk​

The company treasury wallet holds:

  • 100 ETH (Long term hold)
  • $500,000 USDC (Operating Capital)

If you give a Payroll Agent the key, it has access to everything. A bug could accidentally send the 100 ETH to a contractor instead of 100 USDC.

The Strategy: Least Privilege​

Using PolicyLayer, we can create a "Payroll Policy" that enforces strict boundaries.

Rule 1: Asset Whitelist​

ALLOWED_ASSETS = ["0xa0b8..."] (USDC Mainnet Address).

  • Result: The agent literally cannot touch the ETH. If it tries to sign an ETH transfer, PolicyLayer blocks it.

Rule 2: Recipient Whitelist​

ALLOWED_RECIPIENTS = [List of Contractor Addresses]

  • Result: The agent cannot send funds to a random address (or a hacker's address).

Rule 3: Velocity Limit​

MAX_SPEND_PER_TRANSACTION = $5,000 MAX_SPEND_PER_WEEK = $100,000

Implementation​

const payrollAgent = new PolicyWallet({
  policyId: "finance_dept_payroll",
  ...config
});

// Safe to run via Cron Job
await payrollAgent.batchPay(contractors);

The Outcome​

The CFO sleeps at night. The developers get to automate their boring work. The contractors get paid instantly on Fridays.

This is the power of Programmatic Compliance.