escrow

[slowlori-x]

I hear every one talking about escrow could you explain what does it mean exactly?

[pooya87]

escrow is like a middle man. he/ she will take the money or something else that is supposed to be traded instead of the buyer, and when the buyer pays the seller, escrow will release the funds to seller.
this way buyer or seller can not scam each other

[Pursuer]

look at lending section here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=65.0 you will see a lot of examples.
for instance, person A wants a loan and provides his account as collateral.
he then gives control of his account to "escrow".
after escrow confirms lender will give the loan.

this way both parties are sure that their assets are safe; if person A doesn't pay the loan back. lender has no worries because he will get the collateral. and if person A pays the loan back, he has no worries because he can safely get his collateral back.

[notlist3d]

escrow is like a middle man. he/ she will take the money or something else that is supposed to be traded instead of the buyer, and when the buyer pays the seller, escrow will release the funds to seller.
this way buyer or seller can not scam each other

Very well put. There are well known escrow agent's that have a good reputation, so look for one with good rep.

Easiest way to describe why it is needed is that there is no way to reverse a bitcoin traansaction.   So lets say you send and the other person never sent you item X, your out of luck.  With escrow you can get your money back.

[btc-facebook]

I hear every one talking about escrow could you explain what does it mean exactly?

example:

you want to buy TV from Mr.X but you're afraid of Mr.X getting away. Then use escrow as the third party

Here's the step:
You send BTC 1 to escrow

Escrow has confirmed and received the fund from you

Escrow tell mr.X to send the TV to you

Once you have received the TV then Escrow will release the fund to Mr.X

[AcidDemo]

I hear every one talking about escrow could you explain what does it mean exactly?

Escrow- A financial instrument held by a third party on behalf of the other two parties in a transaction. The funds are held by the escrow service until it receives the appropriate written or oral instructions or until obligations have been fulfilled.

[Studio60]

Everyone is giving great descriptions of escrow, but you may also want to know why it's needed.

Bitcoin is what's called non-reversible. Once you send it, it's gone! You can't get it back and there is nobody to complain to, unlike with credit cards or banks. For this reason you should be very sure you trust the party you're sending coins to before sending. If you're not sure if you can trust them (and there are a lot of scammers out there) it's safer to use escrow.

[Amph]

Everyone is giving great descriptions of escrow, but you may also want to know why it's needed.

Bitcoin is what's called non-reversible. Once you send it, it's gone! You can't get it back and there is nobody to complain to, unlike with credit cards or banks. For this reason you should be very sure you trust the party you're sending coins to before sending. If you're not sure if you can trust them (and there are a lot of scammers out there) it's safer to use escrow.

this is not the only reason, the real reason for escrow is the decentralized nature of bitcoin, while with a bank you have the bank itself that act as a intermediary, with bitcoin there isn't an authority for that, thus the needs for an escrow

[ranochigo]

Everyone is giving great descriptions of escrow, but you may also want to know why it's needed.

Bitcoin is what's called non-reversible. Once you send it, it's gone! You can't get it back and there is nobody to complain to, unlike with credit cards or banks. For this reason you should be very sure you trust the party you're sending coins to before sending. If you're not sure if you can trust them (and there are a lot of scammers out there) it's safer to use escrow.

Other than it being non reversible, it is also pseudonymous. One can easily create an account to scam people and vanish into the thin air and the authorities will not bother with them at all. For banks, some of them allows transactions to be disputed. Without proof, the buyer will always win.

[pooya87]

escrow is like a middle man. he/ she will take the money or something else that is supposed to be traded instead of the buyer, and when the buyer pays the seller, escrow will release the funds to seller.
this way buyer or seller can not scam each other

Very well put. There are well known escrow agent's that have a good reputation, so look for one with good rep.

Easiest way to describe why it is needed is that there is no way to reverse a bitcoin traansaction.   So lets say you send and the other person never sent you item X, your out of luck.  With escrow you can get your money back.

there are some lists of available escrows on the forum on services disscussion section:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=855778.0 (claims to be [Updated Daily])
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=108716.0

and make sure to look at escrow's reputation too.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Read http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escrow for a depth answer.

[Studio60]

Other than it being non reversible, it is also pseudonymous. One can easily create an account to scam people and vanish into the thin air and the authorities will not bother with them at all. For banks, some of them allows transactions to be disputed. Without proof, the buyer will always win.

Yes, also I forgot to mention being non-reversible is a good thing

This is because people often use reversible things like credit cards for fraud. They buy things they want then tell their credit card company it was a fraud charge or they didn't get what they thought from the business, which results in a chargeback to the business even though they sent the product! They lose money on that transaction and pass those operating costs onto other customers.

Being pseudonymous is also a good thing of course. It's not about doing anything illegal. It's about privacy. Some people might want to shop online and buy adult toys. That's perfectly legal, but maybe they don't want everyone knowing their business.