Bitcoin Forum

can anybody please explain me how the escrow thing works....
Thanks in advance ;)

Simple video that explains it all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZlHcazNMrc

The escrow works as a mediator that is independent on both parties. The buyer sends the escrow the money, once the escrow has received the money he keeps it until the seller gives you whatever you bought him, then once you receive what you bought the escrow sends your money to the seller. It may vary but this is the basic usage.

Simply put: You send money to escrow. Seller sends item to you. Escrow releases money to seller.

Escrow acts as intermediate between buyer and seller to virtually enable the charge back or refund. We must look for trust worthy of Escrow. Bitcoin really needs escrow services to help people avoiding scams.

Since your a new member on this forum and if you want to do some trade with another new member but you can trust each other for sending money first so you will need a trusted person make the deal smooth. That trusted person is call escrow. You both send your coins or any other things to him and as per the deal escrow will manage the funds.

escrow should be avoided in the future, or eliminated altogether, or do it automatic, bitcoin should not rely on a trust third party, it's a system that in theory should work without trust

if they can come up with a decentralized automatic escrow(yeah it sounds like fiction) it could be ideal

of course that acts as a perfect third party or mediator but it cant  solve problems like how humans would do ,I mean it has no thinking ability ..
which might arise some other problems too.

Also, above me posters have explained only human escrow. There is also completely automated escrow system that works very well with the help of BIP38.

http://www.bitnow.co/escrow/

Check it out. I have used it and never had any problems with it.

Cheers!

could you give some more details about that deal ? I mean what did you bought or sold and what was the fees ?
also the money involved,thanks

I am very sorry. I have actually used https://bit2factor.com/
It's weird but the bitnow website that I have shared in a first link look exactly the same as this bit2factor. I don't know what's a deal but this might be a scam so stay away from this. You can't also find anything on Google about the bitnow, on the other side about https://bit2factor.com/ you can find many threads that confirm it's legit.

A while ago I have bought 0.35 BTCs via Paypal. I was paying via Paypal and we have used this method https://bit2factor.com/ and everything went smooth!

Cheers!

Edit: Also connection is not private to bitnow so stay away from this definitely!

There should be nothing automatic about escrow, as there's nothing automatic about our lives. They are complicated and should stay that way, need for escrow reflects simple truth that we need third party to resolve potential conflicts. It's normal, you tend to trust one party more then some other. What you are correct is that amount of trust should be minimized by technology, but as long you move goods and services from one human being to another there will always be a chance one party is not satisfied with quality of those goods and services.

loll there is no difference in them ?
thanks for the feedback though, will do some research on the second one.

There are some Hero/Legendary members here who will accept to be an escrow. Take a look around and choose the one who suits you best.

That's what I thought as well. That's why I got confused and sent you a bitnow link because the site looks exactly the same as bit2factor one. I guess that the creator wanted to mimic the site so the people would fall for it, just like I did.

But there are differences. Bit2factor is https while the fake site is just http, connection is not private as well. This is a huge difference, especially when you need to send funds over the Internet and execute a safe transaction.

Bitnow is just a scam attempt. Why else would they make the same exact website if they don't want to screw people over.

Cheers!

thanks for making it clear ..but both of them don't look safe to me ...lol

There is currently some controversy on the forum about escrows, especially escrows who are also traders and see no conflict of interest in representing themselves as an impartial third party, whereas they are, in fact, the person on the other side of the deal to you, but using an alternate forum name.
Reasonable people seem to have no problem with the concept that a third person is, in fact, a third person, but it would be as well for anyone using a forum "escrow" to have the situation clarified in writing regarding their impartiality, before agreeing to anything or parting with any goods or coin.

For more reading on this subject search "Quickseller".

There is a list of escrows here in the forum and they are highly recommended
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=855778.0
It's much better and safer if we stick to this list as this list is being updated from time to time
Hiring a Hero or a Legendary member that is not in the list is OK, but keep in mind that you can see how many Hero member and Legendary ( I think I saw 1) accounts are being offered for sale in the Digital goods section and Auction section so be very careful as you maybe talking to a Newbie who just bought a Hero member or Legendary account and try to make some money out of escrowing bid deals and run.

Yes never go with the rank of the member here to take escrow service. Its better to choose the member on the basis of their escrow record till now. Try to see at the trust point, go for the one who have little bit of +ve trust.

I'm wondering how can sombody be called scammer for not accept escrow?
I understand that there is lot of scammers around the forum, but escrow need 3rd person.
It never could be 100% safe, my funds my choice.

Escrow is when two people want to engage in a transaction and need a third independent party to hold something until the transaction is complete.  For example, if I want someone to ship me something but don't want to pay until it arrives, but they don't want to ship it until I pay, then we can use an escrow service.  I pay the escrow company.  When I receive the item, I tell them and they release the payment to the seller.  If there is a dispute, there is a formal resolution process and reputation for future sales are on the line.

usually those same guy are doing also paypal trading, or are newbie or hav ea very shady history

i'm sure that with an experience trusted user, many don't need an escrow

for example i traded with hedgy73 last time, he even sent first without escrow and he has more trust than me

everything went smooth, i think i can do the same with a few member on here

thanks guys ur replies helped me a lot...thanx for replying.......:)

So, instead of trusting the other person you trust in the escrow person (who has a lot more reputation, but still can run away with the money). Am I right?

yes. that's why it's wise to choose an escrow with really high rep for your safety.