Reputable escrow without network fees?

[caffinated]

Hi which reputed escrow can be used whilst saving network fees?
First preference is to use a stable coin like USDT or something similar as there is shipping time involved, can resort to using BTC as well but would want a escrow whos willing to work on a system which can save network fees like localbitcoin or some exchange so buyer can transfer to escrow and escrow can transfer to me and we save on the network fees in general apart from sending the crypto to the exchange initially.
Or maybe theres some other way?

[1714060083]

1714060083

[Welsh]

The ones on this forum are listed over here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2439910.0

I'm not quite sure what you mean by saving on network fees, but you could probably discuss the best way of going about your trades with the escrow themselves. For example, segwit addresses, lowering the escrow fee for large amounts of trades.

Otherwise, just contact a few of the escrows, and see if they are willing to work on websites such as localbitcoin. The escrows are likely familiar with a lot of platforms, so they'll know the best way about your particular situation, so just give them a message.

[caffinated]

it was my misconception that the network fees would cost me 200+ usd while dealing in btc... as its not very high i'll just use whatever means the escrow uses and ive decided to go with ognasty.

[PrimeNumber7]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by saving on network fees, but you could probably discuss the best way of going about your trades with the escrow themselves. For example, segwit addresses, lowering the escrow fee for large amounts of trades.

I believe he is referring to transaction fees. It appears he wants to use altcoins that have lower current transaction fees than a typical bitcoin transaction would have under current conditions.

Otherwise, just contact a few of the escrows, and see if they are willing to work on websites such as localbitcoin. The escrows are likely familiar with a lot of platforms, so they'll know the best way about your particular situation, so just give them a message.

LBC is an escrow itself. I don't think it is possible for a person to escrow a transaction on LBC. LBC will also only facilicte certain types of transactions.

[Findingnemo]

it was my misconception that the network fees would cost me 200+ usd while dealing in btc... as its not very high i'll just use whatever means the escrow uses and ive decided to go with ognasty.

Like BTC fee, the network fee also highly volatile so you can't find the fee in the fixed region but all you can do is to consolidate all the inputs when fee is too low like 1-5 sat then you can make transfers with low fee, because weight decides how much you need to pay not the value of BTC.

@Ognasty is a good choice and most reputed as well but don't forget escrow have their own fee and they are not working for free.

[sheenshane]

it was my misconception that the network fees would cost me 200+ usd while dealing in btc... as its not very high i'll just use whatever means the escrow uses and ive decided to go with ognasty.

Like BTC fee, the network fee also highly volatile so you can't find the fee in the fixed region but all you can do is to consolidate all the inputs when fee is too low like 1-5 sat then you can make transfers with low fee, because weight decides how much you need to pay not the value of BTC.

That's a huge fee if that is $200 cost just for the transaction fee.  For now, at the moment, the transaction fee costs only 10 sats/vB above and it only costs approximately $0.69 which is very low.  I noticed since this month that the transaction fees on the mempool are frequently low.  Always check and monitor the transaction fee on the mempool.space before making any transaction in Bitcoin because it is also volatile that anytime it will increase up to even 100 sat/vB.

Any P2P exchanges can act as escrow by themselves, there is no need to hire an escrow service.  If you trust that exchange then, good for you to buy and sell Bitcoin there.  Like LBC, Hodl Hodl, Paxful, and many more, I suggest having your own research first.

[Findingnemo]

it was my misconception that the network fees would cost me 200+ usd while dealing in btc... as its not very high i'll just use whatever means the escrow uses and ive decided to go with ognasty.

Like BTC fee, the network fee also highly volatile so you can't find the fee in the fixed region but all you can do is to consolidate all the inputs when fee is too low like 1-5 sat then you can make transfers with low fee, because weight decides how much you need to pay not the value of BTC.

That's a huge fee if that is $200 cost just for the transaction fee.  For now, at the moment, the transaction fee costs only 10 sats/vB above and it only costs approximately $0.69 which is very low.  I noticed since this month that the transaction fees on the mempool are frequently low.  Always check and monitor the transaction fee on the mempool.space before making any transaction in Bitcoin because it is also volatile that anytime it will increase up to even 100 sat/vB.

Any P2P exchanges can act as escrow by themselves, there is no need to hire an escrow service.  If you trust that exchange then, good for you to buy and sell Bitcoin there.  Like LBC, Hodl Hodl, Paxful, and many more, I suggest having your own research first.

Size of the transaction matters the most, so if OP wants to send 200 worth of BTC to someone and he may still have to pay all the 200 as fee itself if all the transaction came into hundreds of small inputs that is why consolidating is important.

OP not actually talking about the escrow of LBC, he just wanted to use LBC wallet for the escrow purpose because they can have little fee when the network is congested compared to ours because they do batch withdrawals so you can get some benefits but don't forget LBC have deposit fee around 10 -15$ at the moment so they will deduct that amount for every deposit you make.

[Welsh]

LBC is an escrow itself. I don't think it is possible for a person to escrow a transaction on LBC. LBC will also only facilicte certain types of transactions.

I haven't looked at LocalBitcoins in a while, but I was under the impression that you could choose to not use their built in escrow services, and contact your own if you wanted too?

I haven't used it in a few years, but I'm sure that was possible when I used it. Seems a bit odd that they would remove that feature, you know to promote being decentralized, and all that. I guess its less liability of their hands, if someone selects a untrustworthy escrow.

[PrimeNumber7]

LBC is an escrow itself. I don't think it is possible for a person to escrow a transaction on LBC. LBC will also only facilicte certain types of transactions.

I haven't looked at LocalBitcoins in a while, but I was under the impression that you could choose to not use their built in escrow services, and contact your own if you wanted too?

I haven't used it in a few years, but I'm sure that was possible when I used it. Seems a bit odd that they would remove that feature, you know to promote being decentralized, and all that. I guess its less liability of their hands, if someone selects a untrustworthy escrow.

It has been a solid 3-4 years or so since I have used LBC, before they started requiring everyone to complete KYC, and stopped allowing in person cash trades, but I don’t recall ever them allowing traders to not use their built in escrow. I guess you could say that you weren’t using their escrow if you were doing a face to face trade, or at least it would be very difficult for them to mediate any dispute.

[caffinated]

it was my misconception that the network fees would cost me 200+ usd while dealing in btc... as its not very high i'll just use whatever means the escrow uses and ive decided to go with ognasty.

Like BTC fee, the network fee also highly volatile so you can't find the fee in the fixed region but all you can do is to consolidate all the inputs when fee is too low like 1-5 sat then you can make transfers with low fee, because weight decides how much you need to pay not the value of BTC.

That's a huge fee if that is $200 cost just for the transaction fee.  For now, at the moment, the transaction fee costs only 10 sats/vB above and it only costs approximately $0.69 which is very low.  I noticed since this month that the transaction fees on the mempool are frequently low.  Always check and monitor the transaction fee on the mempool.space before making any transaction in Bitcoin because it is also volatile that anytime it will increase up to even 100 sat/vB.

Any P2P exchanges can act as escrow by themselves, there is no need to hire an escrow service.  If you trust that exchange then, good for you to buy and sell Bitcoin there.  Like LBC, Hodl Hodl, Paxful, and many more, I suggest having your own research first.

Wow thats interesting, usually LBC requires indicating payment mode, so if we entered Wire Transfer and are instead expecting goods how would that be recieved in a dispute, anyone with experience on this?

[OgNasty]

I have done a few escrows using USDT, and while the fees can be cheap (I paid $1 for my last transfer) you still have to pay escrow fees so I wouldn’t base the escrowed currency solely on transaction fees. Whether or not you want to be exposed to variance in cryptos is probably the larger concern. Just be careful using services like LBC, as they will happily allow you to accept reversible payment types where you can lose your funds once escrow is released.

[NeuroticFish]

Or maybe theres some other way?

No fees means off-chain transactions. There aren't many people old and smart enough to be escrow and careless enough to keep funds on custodian wallets.

1. If you are cheap on network fees you may end up losing all the money for being careless/getting the wrong escrow. You cannot really ask an escrow to help you out and also pay from his pocket for helping you out.

2. If you want to do this on Bitcoin and you can wait... bitcoin fees do drop now and then and you can profit then. Like for example the last 24h and maybe some days to follow too. I know that the post was 2 weeks ago, but now it can be a good time to do the transaction with low fees.

3. If all this is a problem, you can turn to altcoins and DYOR, since some have very small transaction fee. (But you can risk huge price changes, unless you choose to work with stable coins).

[Potato Chips]

Any P2P exchanges can act as escrow by themselves, there is no need to hire an escrow service.  If you trust that exchange then, good for you to buy and sell Bitcoin there.  Like LBC, Hodl Hodl, Paxful, and many more, I suggest having your own research first.

Wow thats interesting, usually LBC requires indicating payment mode, so if we entered Wire Transfer and are instead expecting goods how would that be recieved in a dispute, anyone with experience on this?

If by goods you mean items/products/accounts and such, then there was a misunderstanding as I think sheenshane said that for when you are buying or selling bitcoin-- as per their word.

LBC doesn't handle goods and services, it's only for trading bitcoins against money (medium of exchange), and it would be best to not try to find a loop hole about it.