decentralized escrow?

[wRelic]

Is there a working and reliable escrow that works on the blockchain?

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

[bL4nkcode]

Smart contract is a thing now, it might be good for some or most transactions as a third party escrow but there are some things it cannot do. So make sure to put details/about/list of transactions that it cannot secures since a dispute is inevitable

While using smart contract escrow is not so often as people much prefer the traditional, it's just how you can promote/market that app/software to the community, I'm sure people will use if it benefits them most.

[vv181]

To be solely relying on a smart contract to meet the transacting party agreement could become tricky. It also limitate only on what specific conditions could be designed within the smart contract as for the escrow.

I don't know if there are exists in-development or trustable decentralized escrow, at least it never get mainstream attention within the crypto space. I think the reason it never gets discussed is that it is only limited to a very specific condition, thus I believe it won't scale broadly.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Depends on the kind of marketplace you want the escrow to deal with, but I think we already have one example of such a platform though it's limited to only 5 assets (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Bitcoincash)

The platform was initially known was localethereum and the escrow is based on smart contracts. It's not custodial like localbitcoins. You can even export your addresses to other wallets using private keys.

[makishart]

Is there a working and reliable escrow that works on the blockchain?

As far as i know there's no reliable escrow that works on blockchain. This could be an opportunity.

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

I never heard any escrow platform that was using smartcontract for that thing. The question is how reliable the code that implemented in the smartcontract? How can we trust the developer for this? If the smartcontract was not getting any audit and there will always be possibility for back door to be implemented in the contract.
Seller and buyer didn't need to trust each other but they need to trust the code that already deployed. This is the main concern.

[wRelic]

Smart contract is a thing now, it might be good for some or most transactions as a third party escrow but there are some things it cannot do. So make sure to put details/about/list of transactions that it cannot secures since a dispute is inevitable

While using smart contract escrow is not so often as people much prefer the traditional, it's just how you can promote/market that app/software to the community, I'm sure people will use if it benefits them most.

Thank you for your feedback.

To be solely relying on a smart contract to meet the transacting party agreement could become tricky. It also limitate only on what specific conditions could be designed within the smart contract as for the escrow.

I don't know if there are exists in-development or trustable decentralized escrow, at least it never get mainstream attention within the crypto space. I think the reason it never gets discussed is that it is only limited to a very specific condition, thus I believe it won't scale broadly.

Thank you for your answer, but could you please elaborate on it? What conditions do you think a decentralized escrow could not potentially have that would keep it from being used broadly? Your detailed answer is very appreciated.

Depends on the kind of marketplace you want the escrow to deal with, but I think we already have one example of such a platform though it's limited to only 5 assets (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Bitcoincash)

The platform was initially known was localethereum and the escrow is based on smart contracts. It's not custodial like localbitcoins. You can even export your addresses to other wallets using private keys.

Thank you. I will definitely check the localethereum out.

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

I never heard any escrow platform that was using smartcontract for that thing. The question is how reliable the code that implemented in the smartcontract? How can we trust the developer for this? If the smartcontract was not getting any audit and there will always be possibility for back door to be implemented in the contract.
Seller and buyer didn't need to trust each other but they need to trust the code that already deployed. This is the main concern.

This is very good feedback. Thank you for taking the time.


Anyone who deals with escrow services, please drop your feedback on what features would an ideal decentralized escrow need to have and what would it take for you to trust and use it on regular basis. Every opinion is appreciated. Thanks.

[vv181]

To be solely relying on a smart contract to meet the transacting party agreement could become tricky. It also limitate only on what specific conditions could be designed within the smart contract as for the escrow.

I don't know if there are exists in-development or trustable decentralized escrow, at least it never get mainstream attention within the crypto space. I think the reason it never gets discussed is that it is only limited to a very specific condition, thus I believe it won't scale broadly.

Thank you for your answer, but could you please elaborate on it? What conditions do you think a decentralized escrow could not potentially have that would keep it from being used broadly? Your detailed answer is very appreciated.

There are various type of transaction under many conditions that the party want/agreed on. If you want to truly implement a smart contract in order to decentralize an escrow, how viable does the smart contract handle the specific conditions? I doubt it will be viable to handle across many types of transactions as per "conditions" the parties met.

I just recently knew, that there is some escrow niche project that his signature campaign here, Escrow Protocol. I barely scratch the surface, but it is exactly what my concern is, which is about it only solving a specific niche which makes, as of now, I think it will be hard to scale broadly. If you take a look at that project, it only handles investment funding.

[joniboini]

Yeah, the escrow market is definitely limited right now. It can't be helped since developing the sc also depends on the chain/programming of the main network itself, so it will take some effort to develop a robust platform that can handle various kind of deals. If you can build it, no doubt it will gain a lot of interests. Most deals right now depends on multi-sig with a limited time window, if you can expand that and add more flexibility, it will be a huge deal.

[jrrsparkles]

Is there a working and reliable escrow that works on the blockchain?

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

There is no such thing exist, either it can be a multi signature wallet or custodial third party and that is the actual meaning of escrow. But in future there will be more service providers to become a solution for this issue.

Or please mention if there is any actual decentralized escrow is active which is legit.

[wRelic]

To be solely relying on a smart contract to meet the transacting party agreement could become tricky. It also limitate only on what specific conditions could be designed within the smart contract as for the escrow.

I don't know if there are exists in-development or trustable decentralized escrow, at least it never get mainstream attention within the crypto space. I think the reason it never gets discussed is that it is only limited to a very specific condition, thus I believe it won't scale broadly.

Thank you for your answer, but could you please elaborate on it? What conditions do you think a decentralized escrow could not potentially have that would keep it from being used broadly? Your detailed answer is very appreciated.

There are various type of transaction under many conditions that the party want/agreed on. If you want to truly implement a smart contract in order to decentralize an escrow, how viable does the smart contract handle the specific conditions? I doubt it will be viable to handle across many types of transactions as per "conditions" the parties met.

I just recently knew, that there is some escrow niche project that his signature campaign here, Escrow Protocol. I barely scratch the surface, but it is exactly what my concern is, which is about it only solving a specific niche which makes, as of now, I think it will be hard to scale broadly. If you take a look at that project, it only handles investment funding.

To begin with, we want to create a basic one for transactions between individuals: freelancers, or someone who just wants to sell his old laptop. They would need to enter only the title of the product/service being traded, and the TAT. The platform would create a smart contract and deploy it after the "buyer" sends money to it. The "buyer" would have the right to release the funds until the TAT is over.

Very simple transactions without any terms and conditions. Locking your money in a smart contract and releasing it to a seller after your receive what you wanted to buy. I think this would work best for freelancers who sell their services/products to individual clients.

Over time we would make more specific smart contract layouts as per different conditions, like ICOs, traditional crowdfundings, stocks, NFTs, real estate, etc.

So, what do you think about the "basic" one I wrote about above? Would you use it for daily transactions if you were, saying, a freelancer?

[bitgov]

Is there a working and reliable escrow that works on the blockchain?

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

I don't know if your knowledge of the cryptocurrency market is so small, or if your imagination has gone in some strange direction, but I will surprise you because something like this already exists and it's not one thing. This is called decentralized exchange:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_exchange

[noorman0]

-snip-
The "buyer" would have the right to release the funds until the TAT is over.

What if I buy a digital service, and then I submit a report that the condition of the product is not as I expected just to get my funds back or just to slow down the release of funds? Digital products cannot be returned perfectly, buyers can still make copies.

Some cases the transaction will not be able to be handled by bots/scripts, it must really require a human to complete it.

[wRelic]

Is there a working and reliable escrow that works on the blockchain?

If there isn't would you use it if I made one? Image creating escrow smart contacts as per your conditions, neither seller nor buyer wouldn't need to trust each other as well as to pay a fee to third-party escrow service providers (of course creating a smart contract costs money but when chosen the right smart contracts platform you could lower it to a minimum).

Or, kindly recommend one you already are using. Thanks.

I don't know if your knowledge of the cryptocurrency market is so small, or if your imagination has gone in some strange direction, but I will surprise you because something like this already exists and it's not one thing. This is called decentralized exchange:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_exchange

For this exact reason, I created this thread - to widen my narrow understanding of the crypto market with the help of crypto GURUs just like you, my friend. Thank you for your feedback!  

-snip-
The "buyer" would have the right to release the funds until the TAT is over.

What if I buy a digital service, and then I submit a report that the condition of the product is not as I expected just to get my funds back or just to slow down the release of funds? Digital products cannot be returned perfectly, buyers can still make copies.

Some cases the transaction will not be able to be handled by bots/scripts, it must really require a human to complete it.

Great feedback.

I was thinking about involving platform representatives in such situations, there anyway will be disputes that require a human to handle. But this would make the platform "centralized" at some level. We're brainstorming all possible solutions that wouldn't require human involvement.

[vv181]

I was thinking about involving platform representatives in such situations, there anyway will be disputes that require a human to handle. But this would make the platform "centralized" at some level. We're brainstorming all possible solutions that wouldn't require human involvement.

Have you seen how Bisq works? I suggest try to look around how that whole application works. On the docs, there's also a mention of decentralized dispute resolution. Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange that does not use smart contracts instead it uses a specific trading protocol. I believe if you take a look at it, it will somehow be able to widen your understanding if you really want to create decentralized escrow.

[davemichaelson]

I was thinking about involving platform representatives in such situations, there anyway will be disputes that require a human to handle. But this would make the platform "centralized" at some level. We're brainstorming all possible solutions that wouldn't require human involvement.

Have you seen how Bisq works? I suggest try to look around how that whole application works. On the docs, there's also a mention of decentralized dispute resolution. Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange that does not use smart contracts instead it uses a specific trading protocol. I believe if you take a look at it, it will somehow be able to widen your understanding if you really want to create decentralized escrow.

Agreed, you would need to set up very clear conditions for the release of funds plus be prepared with a mechanism for dispute resolution.  This doesn't need to be expensive; you can do it in-house if you have an experienced lawyer on your team.

I've been thinking of a similar project, and might suggest you also plan on incorporating reviews and reputation scores. People will need to understand they can't withhold payment for services which were actually completed - but they can leave a negative review or score to protect others in the future.

[wRelic]

Have you seen how Bisq works? I suggest try to look around how that whole application works. On the docs, there's also a mention of decentralized dispute resolution. Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange that does not use smart contracts instead it uses a specific trading protocol. I believe if you take a look at it, it will somehow be able to widen your understanding if you really want to create decentralized escrow.

Thank you for this quote, I've read their dispute terms, maybe I'll do something similar.

Agreed, you would need to set up very clear conditions for the release of funds plus be prepared with a mechanism for dispute resolution.  This doesn't need to be expensive; you can do it in-house if you have an experienced lawyer on your team.

I've been thinking of a similar project, and might suggest you also plan on incorporating reviews and reputation scores. People will need to understand they can't withhold payment for services which were actually completed - but they can leave a negative review or score to protect others in the future.

Great idea. And the "mediators" could be chosen based on the reputation and rating of whoever proposes to become a mediator.