Prevention is better than a cure. Please escrow.

[squall1066]

In these times of Mass scammers out there, I urge people to use an escrow. There are many good members out there willing to help to secure the bitcoin community, There are also more people willing to do anything to scam you out of your coins, Please just do your research on someone before you part with your hard earned coins.

An escrow list - Last update 15-11-18

Note to mod, I know this is in the wrong section as I am not selling anything, I feel we all need to be wiser, People in the selling forums are less likely to look elsewhere for information on what this is and how it is acheved,
Even if a few people read this and use escrow, Or a few scammers don't get their coins, I will consider this a good job.
Please consider not moveing out the way, This needs to be addressed.

** jan 16

There is a new wave of possible scammers, People who buy up legendary accounts and trade untill they have large sum of money then run, This has been done with a very trusted account recently.

Please be cautious, I am trying to set up a 3 way secure key escrow for my personal escrows to add peace of mind.

I would like to point out, that I do not partake in escrowing forum accounts, I never have and never will, in fact its against the rules on my forum, This is a trust based commodity as it stands, if we keep moving the goal posts as well as the stadium, no one can be accountable for theft!

Keep safe people, dont give up, trust in BTC, suspect people :-)

** April 17

please watch out for fake accounts made to look like hero/legendary escrow accounts, check the join date and the letters of the name exatly! some use numerical 0 instead of alphabetical O, and please watch out for sold accounts! this forum allows selling of any account, so make it difficult to know who's still real, I do not allow selling of accounts on my forum  

** Nov 18

watch out for fishing links, you will get a link in your PM directing you to a "really good deal" in another thread, when you click the link it will show this forum but you are not logged in! THIS IS A FAKE FORUM! designed to make you think you are not logged in so you put in your password! please report the message to mods in your inbox.

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[John (John K.)]

Stickied. I've seen enough scams happening without the use of escrow. Also, escrows increase the amount of trust a seller/buyer conveys, and thus increase the possibility of sales for newer members.

[ataranlen]

I've used escrow with a few transactions with shady people, and it totally saved the transactions. Other people have done transactions with these same people, without escrow, and suffered losses. Escrow is ALWAYS a good idea, no matter who you are trading with.

[Lethn]

Once we get trustworthy people to handle transactions then chances are we'll hear less about scams, escrow services are probably going to replace banks for the most part at least when it comes to physical goods.

[dree12]

Nitpick: Prevention is better than a cure.

[John (John K.)]

Nitpick: Prevention is better than a cure.

Good catch. 
Edited OP to help reflect this.

[squall1066]

Nitpick: Prevention is better than a cure.

Good catch. 
Edited OP to help reflect this.

Yer, I type fast, Typo's are easy for me, Especially when emotion and feeling is involved.

Excuses...Excuses...TUT.

P.S. Ta john for sticky.

[Darktongue]

For the time being I feel semi-safe with this practice. But I still fear the reaper.... Nothing is safe  really. It's not a matter of if It's when these sites will have something exploited.

I know most of these escrow services are serious about the work being done. but so wher a ton of the exchanges, online wallets and buyback services that have lost some serious hide after being exploited.

I commend the efforts and advocates of escrow services for coin. It's a huge step in the right direction of makeing everyone at the very least comfortable enough to trade with the currency.

[felipelalli]

in Portuguese we say: "prevenir é melhor do que remediar"

But what is an "escrow"?

[felipelalli]

Darktongue but how it should work? Give me an example, please.

[John (John K.)]

Darktongue but how it should work? Give me an example, please.

1) Buyer meets seller but afraid to do the deal for the lack of reputation on both sides. (the age old conundrum - who will send first?)
2) They meet an escrow person, someone who's not likely to run with the amount transacted.
3) Buyer sends coins to escrow, escrow confirms acceptance.
4) Seller sends item to buyer, giving tracking numbers to buyer and escrow person.
5a) Buyer confirms acceptance, escrow sends coins to seller.
5b) Buyer states item lost/damaged, escrow mediates the transaction based on evidence of both sides and decides who to send coins to.

[felipelalli]

Thanks!! 

[casascius]

Learn about cryptographic escrow!  Actual "How It Works" text from my escrow utility available at https://casascius.com/btcaddress-alpha.zip


How Three-Party Cryptographic Escrow Works

Escrow allows two people to transact in Bitcoin while leaving their funds visible to everybody and accessible to nobody until somebody releases them.  It allows the payer or the payee to release funds to one another, and also lets a third person decide for them if the two can't agree.  The third person never has access to take the funds, and is only needed to release the funds if the original two can't agree who gets them.  Whoever gets a copy of all three "invitations" gets access to the funds.

Let's pretend that Alice wants to pay Bob, and they agree to use Eddie as their escrow agent.

First, Eddie creates a pair of Escrow Invitation codes.  This is a matched pair of codes representing a single invitation.  These codes can be used by someone else in a future transaction to give Eddie the authority to act as the escrow agent.  He gives one code to Alice and the other to Bob, and keeps a copy for himself.

Second, Bob creates a Payment Invitation and gives it only to Alice, but keeps a copy for himself.  When Alice and Bob use the escrow tool to combine their individual Escrow Invitation codes with the Payment Invitation, they'll get the same Bitcoin address.  Alice and Bob must agree they have generated the same address.

Third, Alice sends Bitcoins to that address.  Now, nobody can get them until someone releases them.

Alice can release the Bitcoins to Bob by giving a copy of her Escrow Invitation code to Bob (so that he now has both halves, as well as his Payment Invitation).  He'll use the "Collect Your Funds" tab to enter all three, and will receive the private key needed to claim the funds.  The private key can be imported into a Bitcoin client or web wallet.

Bob can give a refund to Alice by giving her a copy of his Escrow Invitation code.

Eddie can also force the payment to be awarded to Alice or Bob by giving them both Escrow Invitation codes.  Eddie can't claim the payment himself because he would also need the Payment Invitation, which he doesn't have.

[paraipan]

^ Awesome work Casascius, had to check this one right away, now it should be way easier to do escrow-ed trades.

[alex_fun]

That crypto exchange is mathematically cool. Say Alice sold Bob plasma tv. She got proof of postage. Bob claims he got cardboard sheets in the box instead of TV. What is Eddie going to do?  Goods and services' indisputable proof of completed transaction is not there I say use common sense. If its normally looking internet shop, with paypal, etc they are unlikely to scam you out of say 50 usd worth of btc If its gumtree of Craigslist ad you might want to ask seller to confirm his id via Facebook And if seller wishes to remain anon well then otc web of trust or SR feedback

[kalinka]

Wouldn't simply using bitmit for transactions be an acceptable form of escrow? Are they trustworthy?

[GambitBTC]

Use common sense when dealing on the internet... PERIOD

[Kato]

Learn about cryptographic escrow!  Actual "How It Works" text from my escrow utility available at https://casascius.com/btcaddress-alpha.zip


How Three-Party Cryptographic Escrow Works

Escrow allows two people to transact in Bitcoin while leaving their funds visible to everybody and accessible to nobody until somebody releases them.  It allows the payer or the payee to release funds to one another, and also lets a third person decide for them if the two can't agree.  The third person never has access to take the funds, and is only needed to release the funds if the original two can't agree who gets them.  Whoever gets a copy of all three "invitations" gets access to the funds....

Casascius, the 3 party cryptographic escrow sounds like a neat solution. Who offers this service?

[hiima]

Wouldn't simply using bitmit for transactions be an acceptable form of escrow? Are they trustworthy?

Yes, they are a form of escrow, but you have to flat pay a fee. Other escrows have lesser fees since they are not a true marketplace.

[johnniewalker]

As a rule of thumb, NEVER pay for escrow services. Tipping someone doing it voluntarily is something different. If someone wants to be paid (usually a small amount), don't you think they'd be happy to take your "escrowed" funds as an additional form of "payment"? I say escrow ONLY w/mods or users with an extensive blemish free-trade history. I've posted somewhere else, but I will volunteer my escrow services. Do your due-diligence on me before you take me up on it though