Bitcoin Forum

Hi -- I'm new to this forum, but not entirely new to BitCoin.

My background is financial services and regulation, what do folk think is important for an escrow service ?

Cliff

To put in one word: TRUST.

I'd be feeling much better if I could use a service that is (for me) located in my country, with a company run by professionals in background. Currently almost every Bitcoin-related service has no real postal address to mail to. Nobody to talk to personally. Someone I can trust he won't run with the money.

Oh, and I would pay for that.

Yes, I also believe that trust is the most important aspect. So if you want to make a name for yourself, I`d recommend:
1 - be active, or at least semi active in the community (post on the forum, stack exchange, etc)
2 - when you want to start your escrow service, first run it on testnet. Let everyone play with it without endangering their true bitcoins
3 - when you are running your escrow, keep the testnet one up in case someone wants to fiddle with it and test if it is working good (trying to find bugs, this can be very beneficial at times)

As for the actual escrow, hmm:
-keep it simple, running fast and have high uptime. Check my calculator out for example - http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/ . It does exactly what it promises to do and doesn't clutter the page with things you don't really need. It is running on Google Apps Engine, so it is lightning fast, up all the time, and has Google's infrastructure backing it.
-make sure your website is secure and show some proof of it if you really want some cudos
-deliver what you promise, don't hide costs of transactions and how they work. Don't trick people, explain them exactly how the transaction will look (again, keep it simple)

Where are you based?

Currently I`m living in Poland, but my app is in the cloud, so my location matters a bit less. Why are you asking?

This doesn't mean that you should post a lot. It means that you can announce news about your services here and give support if requested.