Getting ready to release the beta of Getcoin, which will be simple, fast, and free escrow. Before we release it publicly, would love to offer it to anyone who'd like to give it a try and offer their thoughts.
Why we built itAs an experiment, I offered in the Marketplace thread to buy and ship anything from California for Bitcoin. Unsurprisingly, the biggest issue I was faced with was escrow/trust.
As a buyer, my stomach literally turns when sending BTC. Once I send, I'm at the seller's mercy. And the scammers are the best at preying on newbies by pressuring and stating that it's insulting and a waste of time to worry about escrow. And when you're dealing with an honest seller, it absolutely is.
As a seller, I checked out existing escrow services, and the problem I faced was that in order to trust them, I wanted a completely transparent, reliable, secure service. What I found was a few web forms that felt like they could be honeypots for suckers, and a handful of varied reviews. Realistically, I wanted to know that there was an support email or Skype I could hit up if I had an issue, that the coins would be stored securely, and basically that the service was more concerned about ensuring the success of transactions (as I'd imagine the folks at Coinbase are) than that which they might gain by running off with someone's Bitcoin.
Earning your trustIn order to build trust in supporting something like escrow, I think that one either needs a tremendous amount of positive references, as on a site like this forum, and/or to be "out in the open" and fully transparent, with one's identity, and the financing and purpose behind's one work.
The guys behind Getcoin are myself, Ryan Mickle, and Ed McManus, who I've been working with since 2011, building 2 marketplaces, funded and supported by several folks who also funded Coinbase, such as Y Combinator. We've supported 7 figures (USD) in transactions in our work so far, and everyone who has used the products we've built, even when there were issues, has been happy. So that's us.
Check out our betaWhen I talk to folks who haven't yet started using Bitcoin (but have heard of it), the main hesitation is volatility, which I believe will solve itself when there are other unique, native uses of the currency, and the second is trust. In order for Bitcoin to succeed, I believe that we must "bridge the trust gap" for transactions between parties who don't already know and trust each other.
Would love your thoughts, and feedback.
If you'd like a preview, shoot your email to me here and I'll send you an invite:
https://ryansf.wufoo.com/forms/escrow-service-early-preview/A little sneak peekhttps://i.imgur.com/yMsApsp.png
