How do I tell people about my crypto escrow services/server?

[azogflair]

I want to preface this with: I am NOT going to link my service. This is NOT another one of those scammy posts who's entire purpose is to promote said service. No matter if someone asks in the thread or in PM, no link.


I have launched an escrow service where users can buy/sell stuff with my service's help to make sure they don't get scammed. The problem is that, as most of you know, the internet (especially the crypto world) is full of scammers. Hence, you can be sure that 90% of people that tell you about an escrow/trade/exchange service are scammers. Obviously, its hard to tell people you are legit and that they should try your services when so many scammers told them the exact same thing.

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit? I feel like it doesn't matter how legit I am, people will still dismiss whatever I say as another one of those billions of scams (although I haven't tried yet, that is the result I am expecting). What makes you trust/go to a specific escrow service if they aren't already established? What advice would you give me to build my service's reputation? (This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah)



For a bit more info: its on discord. When starting a trade with someone, you get taken to a private channel where you can discuss the trade with the other party and set the settings for the bot to properly handle the crypto while the trade takes place. The trades are obviously handled through a bot (the trades are handled automatically unless someone needs support). Considering that crypto users usually like privacy, I am not logging the transactions and the channel is deleted once the trade is done (2 things that the bigger escrow services definitely cannot/do not do).

If I have missed any information that might be useful for you to give me your opinion, please lmk. Thanks!

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[Vod]

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit?

Talk to your family and friends about it.  If they are not into bitcoin, ask them to talk to their friends about it.  If you offer a good service, they will start using it. 

[NotATether]

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit? I feel like it doesn't matter how legit I am, people will still dismiss whatever I say as another one of those billions of scams (although I haven't tried yet, that is the result I am expecting). What makes you trust/go to a specific escrow service if they aren't already established? What advice would you give me to build my service's reputation? (This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah)

Not ads, but you need reserves. LOTS of reserves. And also you will need to spend on security and pen-testing. The reason why people don't trust escrow services and similar kinds of businesses is that they are prime targets for hacks. And when your escrow gets hacked you will need to be able to cover the losses.

Most of the hackers responsible for this are not using zero days but old, discovered vulnerabilities. So that is why keeping stuff up-to-date is super-important. especially if your discord is using a NodeJS bot.

[avp2306]

I have launched an escrow service where users can buy/sell stuff with my service's help to make sure they don't get scammed. The problem is that, as most of you know, the internet (especially the crypto world) is full of scammers. Hence, you can be sure that 90% of people that tell you about an escrow/trade/exchange service are scammers. Obviously, its hard to tell people you are legit and that they should try your services when so many scammers told them the exact same thing.

Good for you for trying to create a service like this but expect that this service will only work if you have reputation or credibility to offer such service. But at current condition its hard for people to trust your service since first you are unknown in this platform and its hard to trust random dude on internet since you know they are capable to run a scam schemes using that service. I'm not telling that you are a scammer but its hard to prove that especially there's a lot of people doesn't know you.

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit? I feel like it doesn't matter how legit I am, people will still dismiss whatever I say as another one of those billions of scams (although I haven't tried yet, that is the result I am expecting). What makes you trust/go to a specific escrow service if they aren't already established? What advice would you give me to build my service's reputation? (This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah)

Maybe running an ads is the only option since word of mouth is not gonna work on this type of service you offered since no legit people would vouch your service unless there's someone would risk to try your escrow service offered to them.
 
But this is really though to introduce this to people and for sure you receive a lot of criticism due to the type of service you are trying to market to people.

[coin-investor]

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit?

Talk to your family and friends about it.  If they are not into bitcoin, ask them to talk to their friends about it.  If you offer a good service, they will start using it. 

Yes, I agree Reputation, trust, and testimony are what will launch your service, escrow service relies on trust and reputation and you can start with those people who know you personally but most importantly you need technical knowledge on how to protect the funds.
People who offer escrow services here do not reach their trusted status overnight so you have to work for it, escrow service is one of the hardest businesses to set up, which is why only a few people here can offer that service.

[examplens]

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit? I feel like it doesn't matter how legit I am, people will still dismiss whatever I say as another one of those billions of scams (although I haven't tried yet, that is the result I am expecting). What makes you trust/go to a specific escrow service if they aren't already established? What advice would you give me to build my service's reputation? (This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah)

I would agree with the previous comments, you need to ensure a good and reliable reputation first.
For example, pay verified people, and services for testing your platform. I'm not referring to grammar or appearance (that's completely different), but serious security checks, penetration tests, etc... Only after you receive such confirmations that you as an intermediary are reliable, then you think about potential users of your service.
Keep in mind that currently some of the most trusted escrow services started from scratch and with a very small number of customers.

You can look at the development of a competing platform like https://zen.land/

[seoincorporation]

This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah
...
If I have missed any information that might be useful for you to give me your opinion, please lmk. Thanks!

You don't have to drop money on it to make marketing on social networks, if you use the right hashtags you can start making some noise about your service and that will attract new possible customers. Just use the most popular social networks and try to make daily posts about it. You will see how your total followers grow until you get to the point where new customers use your service day by day.

[Easteregg69]

Secret inner number one is you don't mention it and see what comes up. If you don't feel like promoting it you let it wait.

How can I get back on X and not be treated like a girl band?

Admin. You play the game and pay the bills.

PS. Money shame. All I ever need I left down in the shop.

[robelneo]

Escrow business is one of the hardest businesses to establish because it involves trust and reputation because people are entrusting their money to your platform if you don't know what reputation and trust is don't run this kind of business.

You know you are trustworthy because you are confident that you are, start with people you know because they know how trustworthy you are, and from there slowly build it up, trust is something that adds up and leads to another client.

[Husires]

If you want to promote your service here, paying trusted members to promote it or using them to manage your multi-signature wallet will help you gain trust quickly. The escrow service must be a 2of4 multi-signature wallet where the trusted member has 2 signatures, the seller has one signature and the buyer has the other signature.
If you want to promote your service outside the forum, you need to create a business name and a company that has licenses, prove that you have sufficient reserves and a good promotional team.

[linenoise]

Back in the dotcom days I was involved with a business auction service with built in escrow services.

Are you in the US? If you haven't, get a good lawyer that knows about escrow services. Many states had various rules about what requirements are needed to call yourself an escrow. I know initially we had to not claim to be an escrow in California because you needed to be a member of a certain trade association. This is decades out of date info but expect lots of hoops.  As crypto has become mainstream I would only expect more hoops.

As to marketing the service you'll have to dox yourself so people know who they are trusting. Also be very upfront about where funds are held. Also be sure you can publicly say you are using them, one bank didn't like us using their name in any fashion without it being cleared by their legal.

[Kakmakr]

It is actually sad when a legit service (not saying that this service is a legit, because I have not seen the service yet) are struggling to build a reputation, because so many other scam services has tainted the reputation of the whole escrow service community.  

The same thing is happening with operations that are offering  Lottery services.

A lot of reputable people in the community also do not want to stick out their necks to vouch for a service, because some scammers might run a long con and looks legit in the beginning.

The best thing will be to build a long term trust in the community (example : funding a small signature campaign) and gaining people's trust over a long period and building a trusted brand)

I know you said you do not want to spend a lot on advertising, but you have to spend something to get your name (service) out there.

[Adbitco]

This is very hard to do considering doing it on discord, this is very risky bro and could be hard for it to work out as you may think discord is very easy to scam someone and go their account deleted since there are no kyc option for user to get verified before doing whatever business over there. Same thing applicable over here since you are newbie no one will accept to deal with you knowing too well that you have no reputation and coupled with you having nothing to lose while trading over here especially running and escrow services. I so much love what @Vod said "get your family & friends to test it for you"!

[JollyGood]

Here's my question: how do I tell people about my escrow service? How do I get people to do the first "leap of trust" that will lead them to know my service is legit?

Talk to your family and friends about it.  If they are not into bitcoin, ask them to talk to their friends about it.  If you offer a good service, they will start using it. 

And they will start spreading the word about how great the service is too 

This is obviously a small service so there is no possibility of "drop 5k on ads and see if it works" ahah
...
If I have missed any information that might be useful for you to give me your opinion, please lmk. Thanks!

You don't have to drop money on it to make marketing on social networks, if you use the right hashtags you can start making some noise about your service and that will attract new possible customers. Just use the most popular social networks and try to make daily posts about it. You will see how your total followers grow until you get to the point where new customers use your service day by day.

I would agree. The OP does not need to spend money on advertising when there are millions of people around the world that are using various social networks to connect with the potential audience they would like to turn in to their customers.

If businesses have a good hashtag and slogan, it is likely going to generate interest as well as curiosity therefore at least at the launch there should be no need to spend money to promote the business. If the social network free promotion does not work then he should consider paying to get the brand promoted.

[Vod]

BPIP/Loyce idea - list the longest "post and run" threads; when the OP never returns to read replies.   

(In this case, he did return once)

[internetional]

I ran such a business 20 years ago. One particular feature of the internet at that time was that nobody disclosed their real names online. So, I decided to use my openness and transparency as a competitive advantage.

Back then, I was working as a lecturer at the university, and I had a personal page on the university website through which people could contact me. I included the address of this page in my signatures on different forums so that every forum participant could reach out to me through the university website and verify that I was indeed who I claimed to be.

In addition to the link, my signature included an offer to contact me if someone needed a reliable escrow agent, as there was no incentive for me to deceive anyone since I was easily accessible.

With this signature, I engaged in discussions on forums focusing on electronic payments such as MoneyMakerGroup, DreamTeamMoney, TalkGold, and others. This way, my target audience became aware of my offer.

However, with the advent of Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar projects, everyone online became open and transparent, nullifying my competitive advantage. That's why I abandoned such a business long ago.

But now I see that in the cryptocurrency sphere, the internet resembles what it was like 20 years ago. Many cryptocurrency users strive to remain incognito, and there are not many people here who are easily found in real life. Therefore, my approach could work in the cryptocurrency community even now.

Simply be open, transparent, post where there are many cryptocurrency users, and accompany your posts with a mention that you offer an escrow service that would not benefit from deceiving clients.

[SickDayIn]

The way any business, whether or not it be an escrow service, builds trust and gather it's first initial customers is because of the personal brand and relationships of the company owner/founder. Until your escrow service itself develops its own brand of trust, you need to rely on your personal brand and relationships to build customers.

[Vod]

I ran such a business 20 years ago. One particular feature of the internet at that time was that nobody disclosed their real names online.

True.   Real names were the norm on BBSes in the 90s but once the internet took off thanks to the PTC (pay to click) era, with clicks paying dozens of dollars each, people started wanting anonymity to cheat.  :/

[aioc]

The way any business, whether or not it be an escrow service, builds trust and gather it's first initial customers is because of the personal brand and relationships of the company owner/founder. Until your escrow service itself develops its own brand of trust, you need to rely on your personal brand and relationships to build customers.

It is much more on escrow service, you not only thrive on relationships and trust but on recommendations of people who trusted you, when people start recommending your escrow service, it only means that you have done a great service and they want to pay you back more by recommending your service.

Escrow service is one thing that leads to another service, once you have returning clients expect them to recommend your service so you are right to build your relationship until your clients are the ones promoting you.

[Zenland]

Building trust in a new crypto escrow service can be challenging. From our experience, it's crucial to start small and focus on security and transparency. Using smart contracts can help ensure that transactions are secure and transparent.

Gathering positive feedback from early users can go a long way in building credibility. It's also helpful to connect with established names in the crypto space to gain trust.

Remember, it's all about taking it one step at a time and proving that your service is reliable.