How to begin with becoming an escrow agent?

[l8nit3]

Hello again BCT members!
I am reaching out to all those with more knowledge then I currently have on the subject of escrow services. Being that I've become a 'Senior Member' here on BCT and have been a fairly active member since July 14, 2014, 11:03:00 AM, I have decided I would like to offer my services as an escrow agent to any who need one.

However, before actually releasing an ANN stating such (or similar advertising), I would like to do all of my research and know exactly what is required of all parties, specifically me of course. lol

I understand that I would need to have a valid and confirmed PGP signature (to essentially verify my 'online identity'), and would likely need to use a multisig setup for each transaction, however that is where my knowledge ends. (I understand how to setup the things Ive mentioned, I just don't know if more is required.)

So, if anyone here at BCT could shed some light on the subject for me that would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT#1
advice so far for anyone else who is looking into the subject:

1)from avatar_kiyoshi

begin from trade something like voucher steam, trade BTC to fiat/PayPal ....... your name listed to escrow list on Marco thread.

2)from WENGER

...trust is everything...

3) from Shibashi Dogemoto

...positive feedback from trusted members ...feedback from DT should be earned ....... giving your dox to theymos or badbear

4)from prodigy8

...deposit some money to administrator, And escrow the deals up to this amount...

and 5) from subSTRATA and twister

...forget it...

/EDIT#1

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[avatar_kiyoshi]

What I see a trustworthy escrow is begin from trade something like voucher steam, trade BTC to fiat/PayPal and then when you have at least 1 positive reputation you can open an ANN, also you can request your name list, listed to escrow list on Marco thread.

[WENGER]

Being long enough in the community is one thing but that shouldn't be the basis as trust is everything and after checking your rating, there's no indication of anything risky that as result have gained you any trust so far and I wouldn't recommend starting an escrow service as you haven't done trades and haven't been trusted with something valuable that put the other guy at risk of losing it so I doubt people would use you specially with all the trusted escrows available at the moment.

[Shibashi Dogemoto]

As been said before: you have no feedback whatsoever... At least do some trades with "normal" people and at least get a lot of untrusted positive feedback before attempting this. Even better would be to get some positive feedback from trusted members, but most of them use their +ve very sparingly. Also positive feedback from DT should be earned

[twister]

Why you want to do it? Its a thankless job and you don't even get paid enough and one fuck up can cause you to lose all the reputation you have gained so far.

So my suggestion is, forget it.

After master-p's incident, its hard for people to trust, even the members with so much green on their account that they can save the world from global warming, how can you expect them to trust unorganic account like yours?

But if you still want to do it, follow the advice of these nice people, like this one:

As been said before: you have no feedback whatsoever... At least do some trades with "normal" people and at least get a lot of untrusted positive feedback before attempting this. Even better would be to get some positive feedback from trusted members, but most of them use their +ve very sparingly. Also positive feedback from DT should be earned

This would make you appear trusted in the eyes of the bitcointalk members. /sarcasm 

[Shibashi Dogemoto]

What might actually help is giving your dox to theymos or badbear... In case you run with the money, at least the community will know who they have to hunt down . It might give you SOME credibility without having a lot of green trust.

Offcourse, fake info (id, drivers licence,...) can be bought pretty cheap nowadays, so theymos or badbear should actually verify your dox (sending a letter with a confirmation code to the addy you gave them + phoning you on the telephone number you gave).
I don't even know if they would be willing to do this (since they're quite busy nowadays).

Twister is completely right tough: i've followed the master-p debacle quite close, and it seems most escrow agents can only ask about 1% fee due to the competition between them... even if you escrowed 1000BTC a year, you'd only make 10BTC from the fees (minus the transaction fees, minus the fact you'd practicly HAVE to buy a HW wallet). Surely the hourly wage of an escrow agent is lower than the minimum wage of most countries

[UnknownUsername]

You lack a solid trade reputation here. Account age doesn't matter because there are buying/selling accounts

[noel57]

The very first step is to gain peoples trust in your dealings with them, people will then give you green or positive trust, you can now go from there, remember that people will not send you their funds even if you are a Legendary member unless you go green.

[adicted]

Staying active, posting good content, and build reputation by trading here will be enough I guess. If you've got green trust ratings and a lot of users recognize you as a reputable member, I think you are good to go to start a escrow service. But with the recent scam incident involving a reputable escrow, I think providing your real-life identity will be needed. Good luck

[jacee]

Being an escrow may be a thankless job but there are instances why people wants to be an escrow. For example is my reaso why I want to is because I want to be able to help other people. And prove m honesty and credibility as a real human.

I support the thought that an escrow provider here should give out their dox and be known atleast by thestaffs so there will be deails to cling in to just incase.

Anyway, if you want to be an escrow. Prove your worthiness of other peoples trust. Be a good person and do no harm. Obey Gods' rule and you're good to go. There are tons of explanations and etc but if I will say you will have to follow Gods' commandments then I think you willnot do anything against it thus you meaning you will not do any harm to your people. No scamming for short. Lol. Gl mate.

[s1ng]

Since master-p incident, it's will be more difficult to be a good escrow agent since we can't predict even they have many green trust doesn't mean they can be scamming.
But if you're trying to be a good & honest escrow, maybe you can ask experience trustable escrow for more information ( like Ognasty )

[l8nit3]

Thank you all for your advice! I also followed the masterP situation here, and definitely understand the current stigma attached to escrow agents here a BCT.
I am quite surprised how many senior and hero members took the time to advise

With all the current BS surrounding every escrow agent, including the most respected here, It seems I will have to 'tread softly' in my goal. As for sold accounts, the L8NIT3 / L8NIT3TR0UBL3 username will never be sold It is the same name I use everywhere and I refuse to have another person tarnish the very small reputation I have so far lol.

As for the DOX, is this something commonly done by the escrow agents here?? By the comments here, it would seem that a ~1% fee is a bit small for purposely handing out my full DOX.... goes against everything Ive learned about safety online lol. However, if thats whats required for gaining trust, and so long as its only given to an already reputable user.... I suppose it may be 'safe-ish'.

Can't expect others to trust me with their BTC, if I can't trust the forum owners with my DOX I suppose.

Also positive feedback from DT should be earned

Ive seen this term DT many times here, what exactly does it stand for??

[noel57]

Ive seen this term DT many times here, what exactly does it stand for?? this means Dark Trust, this applies to those member with heavy green trust, they give valid trust whether negative or positive trust.

[l8nit3]

Ive seen this term DT many times here, what exactly does it stand for?? this means Dark Trust, this applies to those member with heavy green trust, they give valid trust whether negative or positive trust.

Wow thats intense! I guess I need to start making some deals here on BCT lol. I understand trust here works with 'risked BTC', so basically I need to make purchases from a few members here and have them supply a trust rating based on our transaction... correct?

I apologize for sounding so noobish on this matter, I simply would like to be sure I go about this in the right way and not shoot myself in the foot before I even start lol.

[Bitinity]

Ive seen this term DT many times here, what exactly does it stand for?? this means Dark Trust, this applies to those member with heavy green trust, they give valid trust whether negative or positive trust.

As I know,it is not Dark Trust but DT stands for Default Trust.

@OP : just an advice, better to trade wisely. Dont do many trades just to get positive feedback, but do it when you need it only. And never ask for positive feedback after successful trade/deal.

[prodigy8]

To be a successful escrow i would suggest you as a new escrow to deposit some money to administrator,

And escrow the deals up to this amount that you sent to administrator.

By this even if you try to scam the users the funds are covered and can be payed from administrator.

[l8nit3]

To be a successful escrow i would suggest you as a new escrow to deposit some money to administrator,

And escrow the deals up to this amount that you sent to administrator.

By this even if you try to scam the users the funds are covered and can be payed from administrator.

Sounds like fair advice. However, that will take me some time to build my personal BTC stash to have 'collateral' so to speak. Come on solo.ckpool!!! lol

[prodigy8]

To be a successful escrow i would suggest you as a new escrow to deposit some money to administrator,

And escrow the deals up to this amount that you sent to administrator.

By this even if you try to scam the users the funds are covered and can be payed from administrator.

Sounds like fair advice. However, that will take me some time to build my personal BTC stash to have 'collateral' so to speak. Come on solo.ckpool!!! lol

This is the fairest way to be a trusted escrow and have more deals.

You can start offering your escrow service with a small amount.

And then increasing it time by time, i wish you best of luck in escrowing

[subSTRATA]

To be a successful escrow i would suggest you as a new escrow to deposit some money to administrator,

And escrow the deals up to this amount that you sent to administrator.

By this even if you try to scam the users the funds are covered and can be payed from administrator.

Sounds like fair advice. However, that will take me some time to build my personal BTC stash to have 'collateral' so to speak. Come on solo.ckpool!!! lol

This is the fairest way to be a trusted escrow and have more deals.

You can start offering your escrow service with a small amount.

And then increasing it time by time, i wish you best of luck in escrowing

that would be the classic pattern of a scammer, slowly building up the amount theyre trusted with. fact is, people wont look to random people to escrow their trades, assuming they understand the concept of escrow and the purpose an escrow service serves. for example. some time ago someone suggested using the user gkv9 (the horse / cricket thread spammer guy) as escrow, just a random user that happened to post in the thread and had zero trade history or known reputation, in the form of trust by other users or feedback left from trades.
the bad thing is, people take this to to their head and think that the solution is to 'build reputation' (farm trust) and gain fake reputation that is essentially bought. if people trust you enough to ask you to escrow their trades, itll happen at some point (example: i remember diamondcardz mentioned somewhere people came to him for escrow, despite not offering the service publicly). you might get a few deals here and there by inserting yourself into the equation (forcibly), but as a random 3rd party youd defeat the purpose of an escrow service, which is to serve as a mutually trusted third party to mediate and secure the trade. my advice, just forget about it.

[Timelord2067]

What exchanges have you been on?

I've seen the name l8nit3 but can't recall where or under what circumstances.