non-technical but build-in/on-chain escrow
That would be cool, and I've read elsewhere it's perfectly possible.
It would be cool, but how would it work? Any links to further info?
No links, saw it in a shoutbox on other forum.
Would still need real 3rd party middle-man to hold and release funds.
Escrow transaction and details enter blockchain.
Basically miners could place bids on escrow jobs, escrow amount they can handle proportional to their total hashrate and rating.
Miners doing this escrow work get rated by buyers/sellers.
Many jobs will not need miner to get involved, because the recipient of the items purchased for coin also have ability to release the coin.
If buyer/seller disagree then the contracted miner gets involved; and then needs to work as current escrow agents do; talking with both sides, check proof of delivery etc. before releasing coin to seller.
Basically coins can be "locked" into the blockchain, the buyer of the goods and a contracted miner both have the key to release the coins to the seller, after which the transaction is written properly into a new block and appears as a new transaction.
I don't know the nitty gritty of what needs to be altered/added in bitcoin code.
We have a "Trustless" escrow at
https://anark.it based on the open source "Casascius Escrow" written by Mike Caldwell. Is this what you mean?