Escrow question

[curt.rowland]

Seems a shame I have to ask this question but could someone briefly explain escrow? I am a homeowner, so I am familiar with escrow in the fact that part of my mortgage payment gets set aside to pay for insurance and property taxes but how does this apply here when I see people wanting to use escrow to trade BTC for fiat or purchase miners from other users on this forum?

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[BitcoinBobbeh]

Basically you find a trustworthy person, site, or group to hold on to your BTC or collateral during a trade.

If you meet some shady dude offering X for Bitcoin, you can give your Bitcoin to an escrow agent and he'll keep it safe until you receive X.

Most people who offer escrow services here are just trustworthy guys, not licensed agents. Be careful who you pick.


Hint: pick me pick me!

Edit: Just kidding. For anything over 1 BTC you'll want to use one of these weirdos walking around with 400 trades under their belt. John K, TomatoCage, the other dude...

[curt.rowland]

oh ok...duh, lol we used to do this in Diablo2 on Battle.Net. A certain item was not able to be traded in the in game trade screen so we would get someone trusted to take the trade items and hand them out accordingly. I shoulda known that!! Thx! 

[BitcoinBobbeh]

No problem, but I seriously can't stress the "trustworthy" part enough.

I once traded with a guy who was supposedly on the up-and-up, and like a week later he stole 32 Litecoins from a forum member. There are only a couple people here now I could probably trust with a decent-sized transaction.

[revjp]

Is there an "official" list of people on here who will help out with escrow? If not, a sticky would be useful to new guys here.

Source: I'm a new guy and escrow would make me a bit more comfortable.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

[BitcoinBobbeh]

I asked the exact same question like a month ago:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=387749.msg4175892

There are links in that thread that will help you as they did me.

[revjp]

Thanks! I have a bad habit of not using that little search button up there 

[jonanon]

The best may be explain escrow:

You have coin and the buyer has $.

You send the coin to the escrow who holds it and advises the buyer. The buyer than sends the money to you. Once you confirm receipt the escrow will release the coins to the buyer.

If for some reason the buyer doesn't pay you know you will get your coins back - so you need a trusted escrow.