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Hey,

Wanted to know if you could handle a website sale and transfer?

I would like to be added to the list if possible: I do 1% escrows through my automated bitcoin escrow service at https://coinguard.org.

We might be able to help you with our escrow service. https://coinguard.org.

We've even been suggested by other members for the Escrow List: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=108716.msg3553630#msg3553630

In the case of bitescrow.org there still needs to be a human third party to create the transaction. Alice and Bob can't conduct a bitescrow.org transaction themselves without one of the two parties knowing both escrow keys.

What is CoinGuard:

In a nutshell CoinGuard provides an automated bitcoin escrow service that allows two people to transact with each other while protecting both parties involved from scams.

How do you intend on doing that?
Ok let's walk through the hypothetical example with Bob and Alice:
Alice wants to buy a new phone from Bob using nothing but bitcoin, but obviously as she's never done business with Bob before she hesitates to send Bob coins without some sort of protection in place in case things don't go as planned.

What's it like to create a new escrow?
Alice heads to Coinguard.org to start an escrow transaction; she enters her email address and the email address of Bob to begin the escrow.
The two escrow keys and a new bitcoin address are created for the buyer and seller. Both Alice and Bob are notified by email that an escrow has been initiated and Alice is prompted to send her coins to the corresponding escrow address.

How does Bob know when his funds are there?
Once the payment has 6 confirmations, Bob receives an email notifying him that the coins can now be redeemed. Now Bob is protected by the fact that as long as he upholds his end of the transaction the funds will be delivered to him.
Alice has somewhat more confidence in the fact that if Bob is indeed a scammer then the coins are retrievable back to her.

How does Bob retrieve his coins?
Upon successfully sending the new phone to Alice and providing a package tracking #, Alice can send her escrow key to Bob to unlock the escrowed funds.
Bob provides his escrow key, Alice's escrow key, and the address where he wants the funds paid out to.

How are disputes handled?
In the unfortunate event of a dispute, all evidence will need to be submitted on both parties’ sides to prove their case items such as a package tracking #, receipt of acceptance, or other circumstantial evidence can be provided. All matters will be examined and CoinGuard will make the best decision based on the items provided to strengthen either party’s case. In the future we will be looking at building a global dispute agent network based around ratings and community feedback when mediating escrow transactions.

How much is the escrow fee?
The escrow fee is only 1% per escrow and is deducted from the bitcoin address in the redemption phase. Both the buyer and seller will need to work out who is responsible for the escrow fee.

How did you come up with this?
Well we had been looking at a number of services that offered escrow. Casascius offers an escrow utility based on his escrow draft scheme but it still needs a trusted human third party to create the transaction and hold the keys to the wallet. Bitescrow.org is the web version of this implementation, but like the original tool still needs a trusted human third party to generate and create the transaction, and can be hard to use for many people who aren't steeped in bitcoin on an everyday basis. We took the concept even further by removing the need of a human third party to create the transaction for you and be available online when the purchase is successful to complete the escrow proceedings.

How can I trust you?
This is a valid concern, and one we would have as well of a new service. It’s a very natural human response that really only comes along with having the infrastructure’s best interest at heart and gaining the trust of the community. It won’t happen overnight and that we know and all we can say is you have to start somewhere.

We’d love if you gave us a spin and getting any suggestions and feedback to make the service better.
https://coinguard.org

Would it be more feasible to start off with simpler objectives? Instead of leap frogging directly into advanced AI bots that can spawn children - clones, prevent mutant clones, etc among the many other things purposed. But instead focusing on selling something simple like web hosting across many sites and verticals?

Let's see that puppy hashing

Because the important part of the process is generated by the user client side. So say a buyer needs to setup an escrow, they would generate their escrow code A. Input that escrow code A into step 2 to generate a wallet address and payment code. hit complete the escrow transaction and send an email to the other party with the details of the transaction. Send another email to themselves with the escrow details. Originating user never sees the escrow code B, all we store is the two escrow codes and corresponding emails. Thats all we need it's based on a 3 key transaction to unlock the funds. Both users have 2 pieces of the puzzle (Buyer - Escrow Code A, Payment Code, Wallet Address) (Seller - Escrow Code B, Payment Code, Wallet Address) (Coinguard - Escrow Code A, Escrow Code B, Email1, Email2)

I designed the system so I can never see what the wallet address or payment code are. I knew this would be a sticking point for users and in general the safety of the site. Because if I stored everything it allow people to hack the site, and so I never can ever run with funds. I don't even know what the addresses of the wallets are, nor the private key. But that also means that if you lose a piece of the escrow I can't help you because none of that info was stored.  

I know many will be skeptical but if people don't test it out how will trust ever be established. People don't have to put btc in the test escrow account to kick the tires to see how the service works.

I can easily provide a screenshot of the db tables that are stored. I will even give a trusted member access to the backend to validate I'm telling the truth.

I would even invite casascius to try it out, and I think he would be pleasantly surprised.

Kato, I've implemented Casascius cryptographic escrow into an easy to use web service that doesn't need any 3rd party intervention. So two people could transact between each other and handle escrows themselves without having to trust a 3rd party. I don't save the wallet addresses, payment codes, or private keys to the database. I don't want to highjack the thread just wanted to point that out.

Nowhere did I say I wanted to start a social network. What Mark has done is an achievement in of itself. But I think your missing the point of what I'm saying the mission statement of Facebook and what bitcoin stand for are not in alignment what so ever.

Terrific post and very true, I'm excited by the possibilities that BTC provides.

On a side note: 10k posts truly impressive!, I wonder what your "Total time logged in:" looks like.

This worries me, someone who has built the worlds largest repository of more than a billion people's thoughts, photos, address, phone numbers, friends, etc and actually could give two f**cks about user privacy, and was a part of the NSA PRIZM program (naturally) getting into btc will completely throw out what bitcoin is about.

No thanks Mark.

I remember someone mentioning that back in Facebook's early days Zuck was speaking to his cronies, and mentioned that "people who use Facebook are stupid" this was before the platform was opened to devs. Once the open graph and other FB APIs became available and I took a look at the massive amount of data you could use in your app I was a believer in the fact that he probably did make that comment.

Many of the people using Facebook have no idea the things us developers can access on them. Remember Mark is a nerd.

Great words!, Bitcoin is at the place were it's still in early adoption but the people coming in now are building the infrastructure needed to take bitcoin to the next level. And once these companies get to a good point to where they are innovating new services and products (i.e APIs, etc) that others can build on top of will be the time where btc could be poised to take off.

The NSA is deplorable, and despite this level of intrusion many will do nothing about it. It's interesting this was released on a Friday in the US as many are not reading this sort of information. By Monday I wouldn't be surprised if this all blows over. Once again the US government has swept a major issue under the rug.

We have just launched the beta test of CoinGuard, as well as a beta forum thread. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227799.0

Hello Bitcoin Community,

I would like to introduce a service I have created that will truly improve the bitcoin community and economy in general. An automated cryptographic escrow tool that completely removes the involvement of a human third party. I'm really close to publicly launching and felt it was my duty to let the bitcointalk community have first crack at it.  



Will there be a escrow fee?
- For the beta there is a 0% escrow fee, however once the site launches publicly there will be a 1% escrow fee associated with transactions.

Can you steal my bitcoins?
- No, I designed the system to not be able to see or save any important escrow information like wallet address, or private key. Namely for a couple of reasons. 1. To instill trust in bitcoin, I mean seriously what good is having a digital escrow service that could become a target for a hack, or attack in order to take  what would amount to some serious cash if successfully implemented. There are no bitcoins held by CoinGuard physically nor on the server. The wallet address, payment invite code, and private key are generated on the client side and not stored in the database in anyway. The only thing we keep are the two escrow codes and corresponding emails to be able to handle any disputes if they so arise. We have a good "How it Works" on the site to better explain the process step by step.

Is it open source?
- Yes its built on the Casascius Escrow scheme draft for which he provided an excellent tool to build upon and have translated into JS by bitescrow.org.

How are disputes handled?
- We are currently working on building out a global dispute agent network to handle disputes as they happen
 
Will you do Fiat Currency Escrows?
- No we don't want to get into handling any sort of fiat to btc or other crypto currencies exchanges. As you all know there has been quite the ruckus around bitcoin exchanges for right now.

Give us a go at -->  https://coinguard.org

Well be excited to get your feedback on the project, bugs, feature request, or how we can make the user experience better or easier to use.

Thank you very much for the kind words Bitcoin Dr. I'm extremely excited about the opportunity bitcoin provides to the global population it's hard to put into words. I'm working very hard to build up the needed infrastructure the ecosystem needs to truly blossom. I have some big ideas up the sleeve.

Thanks for putting this list together I haven't seen anything like it as of yet.