State your Reputability, and any fees you require.
Another criteria might be if the escrowed funds will be held in full, without being lent out.
This ^^
* Graet shakes head and sighs
I was astounded when I found out people actually do this.
I don't so much advertise as doing escrow but many people that (must) trust me have asked me to hold escrow funds for them.
I held the funds for the "unboxing BFL FPGA" bet
another bet I cant remember the details, some fiat / bitoin deals of and a lot of hardware purchases for BTC
I have set up a separate wallet in a vm on my laptop as an "escrow wallet" it does go online from time to time but is usually offline.
I give the deposit address to both sides so they can see when the coins arrive, make sure they don't move and go to the required address on completion of deal.
I don't feel "State your Reputability" is appropriate, lets face it every scammer says "trust me".
If people do their research (or already know and trust me) ie due diligence, they will get a better picture than me claiming stuff.
I ask the the parties involved in the trade make a good agreement that includes faulty hardware and what happens etc - appropriate to the trade. Without this I will not proceed, I feel my role as escrow is to facilitate a trade not as a dispute resolution service. It is also good for both parties to protect their interests and cover all possible points of dispute before commencing a trade.
I don't charge a "fee" for holding escrow, but I do ask if the users have found it to be a good and easy experience to send a little thanks back to me.
I would also rather discharge all funds and have a "thanks" sent back than hold part of the escrowed funds - this way everything is as transparent and traceable as possible.
Cheers,
Graet
