Project idea: P2P Billing w/ Built in Escrow- suggestions?

[btc4peace]

I have an interest in a billing system that would work as follows:

User #1 (buyer) deposits coins into app/wallet.  User #2 lists an item for sale in app.  User #1 buys the item and funds are sent to a separate escrow wallet.  Seller provides proof of shipment.  Buyer confirms.  A % of Funds are witheld for the platform fee and seller gets paid.

I searched but didnt find any similar solution.  I presume this could be done with ETH but is there a way to do it with BTC?

My example is not the real world idea I am developing.  I have an interest in developing a rideshare platform that utilizes BTC as payment.  There is a need to hold funds when a ride request is placed and then handle it or refund it, withhold cancel fee, payout, withhold platform fee, etc.

Thoughts?

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[kzv]

What will be difference from ebay in this service? Only in using BTC instead of PayPal? 

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

This essentially sounds like OpenBazaar. It's for desktop only (I'm not sure if when you say "app" you are talking about mobile), but it does exactly what you describe. Buyer deposits coins, makes a purchase, sends coins to escrow, seller ships, escrow releases coins once item received.

It works entirely with BTC. You can read about it here: https://openbazaar.org/features/

There is no reason you can't do this with BTC (or any other coin). You simply need a trusted third party to act as escrow for the deal. As long as users can safely send and receive coins, there is no need for smart contracts or similar to perform this.

[btc4peace]

Thanks for the input 💯

[btc4peace]

What will be difference from ebay in this service? Only in using BTC instead of PayPal?  

Well, my example doesnt really contain my unique-ish ideas.  But here is my thought:

Uber and Lyft are not going to be anything more than taxi cab companies with an app.  There is still a void for a private rideshare service to disrupt that market by allowing independent contractors to operate as true IC's.

I am thinking to build it out as a simulation game first and then see where it goes from there.

I am developing some ideas for a delivery service that is unique as well.

[btc4peace]

-snip-

This essentially sounds like OpenBazaar. It's for desktop only (I'm not sure if when you say "app" you are talking about mobile), but it does exactly what you describe. Buyer deposits coins, makes a purchase, sends coins to escrow, seller ships, escrow releases coins once item received.

It works entirely with BTC. You can read about it here: https://openbazaar.org/features/

...

... there is no need for smart contracts or similar to perform this.

Cool.  I am against 3rd parties in general.  I prefer to build it out as a DAC / dApp

[hugeblack]

Thoughts?

Do you mean that the trusted third party is the one who controls the deposited & decides to send and refund? If so, there are some apps like OpenBazaar or sites like Bitify.com.

Some services use multi-signatures to act as collateral. It consists of 5 pvt keys, one for the seller and the second for the buyer, and a third for a party accepted by the seller and the other for a party accepted by the buyer and the latter an independent party. thus making a decision based on  3 of 5 will be sufficient.

[Kyraishi]

I have an interest in a billing system that would work as follows:

User #1 (buyer) deposits coins into app/wallet.  User #2 lists an item for sale in app.  User #1 buys the item and funds are sent to a separate escrow wallet.  Seller provides proof of shipment.  Buyer confirms.  A % of Funds are witheld for the platform fee and seller gets paid.

I searched but didnt find any similar solution.  I presume this could be done with ETH but is there a way to do it with BTC?

My example is not the real world idea I am developing.  I have an interest in developing a rideshare platform that utilizes BTC as payment.  There is a need to hold funds when a ride request is placed and then handle it or refund it, withhold cancel fee, payout, withhold platform fee, etc.

Thoughts?

It could work pretty well - problem with using crypto-currencies and not fiat payments (especially if you chose to allow Bitcoin payments) you'll need to be able to cover the 2 sets of transaction fees (sending to escrow, and then releasing from escrow).

This would either cut in the customer's funds or your own, which isn't really fair, but an escrow is needed otherwise people could just farm free rides of random accounts - I know for a fact that Uber doesn't charge until the ride is over and it'll be pretty easy to exploit.

[joniboini]

Some services use multi-signatures to act as collateral. It consists of 5 pvt keys, one for the seller and the second for the buyer, and a third for a party accepted by the seller and the other for a party accepted by the buyer and the latter an independent party. thus making a decision based on  3 of 5 will be sufficient.

I think this is a better framework. It increases the security of the escrowed funds even though it might complicate things a little bit. Going with 2 of 3 is probably enough as long as the 3rd party is trustable. Adding more parties here could slow things down, and that's not what the buyer or seller wants.

[espressodoppio]

I did see some electronic payment discussion which can be sent or refunded like a bank card. PayPal may already have a hold on secured online payments in a marketplace but there is no escrow. Let's assume that you want to sell something for $1000 USD (or EUR or GBP) for an item on eBay. The buyer sends the money and you ship the item, but the payment method was compromised (like a stolen credit card) or the item is damaged in transit. The agreed upon price or good is no longer valid.

Unfortunately, PayPal doesn't account for much that may happen after the payment has been sent. I recently purchased a small ticket item on eBay where the seller sent me the wrong item and I returned it hopefully in exchange for the item I purchased. However it never came and no communication from the seller. PayPal investigated and refunded the money within the hour which wasn't too much work but let's go back to the 1000 item. There would be a lot more investigating into the matter without any escrow account in the middle. This is just an example of course but it does happen in an online marketplace like eBay more often than one would think...

[nc50lc]

I searched but didnt find any similar solution.  I presume this could be done with ETH but is there a way to do it with BTC?

You can use BIP112: CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY scripts. (BIP link)

Particularly, "Escrow with Timeout" scripts to generate addresses that can work as you intended.
Since it's generally a multisig address, the users still have control over the the funds depending on the signature requirement (no third-party required for the transaction) just a platform for UI, guides, "listings", online non-custodial wallet, etc.
Plus there's an expiration date which will enable the original fund owner to claim/spend his funds whenever he like (after the set date) if the deal didn't gone well.

For the part "percentage of the fund going to the platform", you can just set a fee for every listing in your page.
I can't help you with the implementation.

[btc4peace]

These are all great thoughts and feedback.  I really have little knowledge of how blockchain can be implemented but it seems that there is no reason why we cannot have a decentralized logistics company. 

I am going to begin my journey by creating a simple & free and ad free faucet game funded by my personal funds.  Nothing big for payouts but I can begin to grow a userbase and see if I can develop it into a full CONCEPT game... And then find a way to develop it into an actual game app.

From there we could look at taking the game concepts and creating a real world application based on BTC somehow so that we can have a legitimate market driving force to give validity to the BTC asset.

[DiamondCardz]

How is this peer-to-peer? By definition if you're having a centralized authority which controls one of the escrow keys, it's not really peer-to-peer. I assume you'd be using a 2-of-3 multisig setup with the website stepping in if there is a disagreement in order to provide the 2nd key to release the funds, there isn't really any other way you could do it.

It's a fine idea, but I don't think you're the first to come up with "ebay with multisig escrow built-in".