Escrow services and problems

[pablocokeninja]

Hey,

I want to develop a Bitcoin escrow service and I have some doubts about it and to get started with it and all.
I know for a fact that Bitcoin is meant to be a peer-to-peer crypto-currency where trust is the key, even tho there is multi-sig, but for the simple user they would find it quite hard to do so. And therefore why there aren't many Bitcoin escrow services (excluding DW escrows for non-legit/illegal purposes).
Also, makes me question if it is actually a profitable business, given it is hard to earn trust for such platforms.
Finally, what's with escrow and disputes? I mean, solving disputes is not that hard of a thing to do, right? right??

Thank you for reading! 

[wallet4bitcoin]

one of the things I consider a major challenge in escrow services in the crypto space is the price volatility of assets. As much as we all understand that there is volatility in the market, can we say that those who are in a business deal also understands that their asset of concerns has volatile price movements and who covers for the losses in cases where it is the obvious.

The escrow service has to mediate over such disparity except it is being spelt out that is concerns precise volume rather than value of the asset.

[SFR10]

why there aren't many Bitcoin escrow services (excluding DW escrows for non-legit/illegal purposes).

There's a shortage of demand ^{[e.g. trust issues, fees (especially nowadays), etc...]} for those who try to launch their escrow services on a newly created dedicated platform.

Also, makes me question if it is actually a profitable business, given it is hard to earn trust for such platforms.

You're doing it for the wrong reason if profit comes into the equation!
^{- Most escrow providers who care more about profiting than actually protecting the involved parties, tend to disappear as soon as they hit a roadblock (e.g. losing their funds).}

Finally, what's with escrow and disputes? I mean, solving disputes is not that hard of a thing to do, right? right??

It depends on how complex they are.

[TheUltraElite]

I know for a fact that Bitcoin is meant to be a peer-to-peer crypto-currency where trust is the key, even tho there is multi-sig, but for the simple user they would find it quite hard to do so. And therefore why there aren't many Bitcoin escrow services (excluding DW escrows for non-legit/illegal purposes).

There are community based trusted users who act as escrows to mediate a deal between forum members, some of them even work outside the forum, all for a fee. You need to be highly trusted and elder user of this forum to be able to gain that trust through many different transactions and deals done here.

Also, makes me question if it is actually a profitable business, given it is hard to earn trust for such platforms.

Its not, from my viewpoint. There are very few such transactions happening.

Finally, what's with escrow and disputes? I mean, solving disputes is not that hard of a thing to do, right? right??

We have had instances where such escrows have turned scam. We have one user posing as one party and as the escrow while the other party is effectively scammed. So before even solving disputes, there are disputes that have remained unsolved for years now.

I would not recommend such a service, but dont let that discourage you.

[hugeblack]

As the platform grows, you will face difficulty in recruiting a sufficient support team to verify all disputes, release escrow, and ensure that they are notscammed.
The requirements of a short response time, understanding all aspects of the deal, and release escrow at a reasonable all are things that make managing such services unprofitable, and when reducing the number of members of the support team to reduce fees from users leads to a bad customer experience, so balancing these two things is key for success.

[pablocokeninja]

one of the things I consider a major challenge in escrow services in the crypto space is the price volatility of assets. As much as we all understand that there is volatility in the market, can we say that those who are in a business deal also understands that their asset of concerns has volatile price movements and who covers for the losses in cases where it is the obvious.

The escrow service has to mediate over such disparity except it is being spelt out that is concerns precise volume rather than value of the asset.

Indeed, But there is always a solution for such problem nowadays as it is mostly technical.

[rat03gopoh]

Indeed, But there is always a solution for such problem nowadays as it is mostly technical.

There are some problems that seem to have no final solution (or are too expensive to solve). I have never run an escrow, for some reason what I noticed is that the trusted escrow service on this forum refuses to be an intermediary for physical goods transactions between countries.

[hugeblack]

There are some problems that seem to have no final solution (or are too expensive to solve). I have never run an escrow, for some reason what I noticed is that the trusted escrow service on this forum refuses to be an intermediary for physical goods transactions between countries.

There are services outside the forum that do this, and perhaps the problem here is that it is difficult to verify physical things without revealing identity, as it is difficult to verify whether the buyer is lying about the product or not, and despite that, many on the forum do not prefer warranty for digital things due to the difficulty of verifying them. Where a person can withdraw the value of the digital card and claim that the balance is invalid.