BlazrEscrowAbout BlazrEscrow:I am willing to act as an escrow for most transactions.
An escrow is a third party that both a buyer and seller trust who takes controls of the funds for a transaction in order to allow a buyer and seller who do not trust each other to trade.
How BlazrEscrow works:The buyer/seller contacts me and lets me know the details of the trade, such as what is being bought, who the other party is, how long it should take to be delivered.
I will then send a PGP signed message to both buyer and seller, which includes this brief description of the trade, and an escrow bitcoin address.
Once the buyer funds the escrow address, I will confirm to both parties that the escrow has been funded and that the seller should now send the goods.
Once the buyer receives the goods and they are content with the trade, they will send me a message informing me to release the escrow payment to the seller.
If either party is unhappy with the trade, they should contact me to let me know they are opening a dispute. At this point both parties will provide all the evidence they have (such as PM's, tracking numbers, etc). I will review this evidence and act as a mediator and try to resolve the issue. Based on this evidence I will decide which party receives the funds.
Frequently Asked Questions:What is the minimum transaction amount?There is no minimum, however note that I charge fees.
Do you escrow bitcointalk accounts?Yes I do.
How escrow funds are stored:All funds held in escrow by me are backed by my own personal funds. In the event something happens to funds I am holding in escrow, I will attempt to cover the loss personally.
For small transactions (<$500) I will be storing the Bitcoin on a hot wallet.
For larger transactions (>$500) I will be storing the Bitcoin on an airgapped wallet.
For very large transactions (>$20,000) the funds can be stored in a multisig 2-of-3 address along with the buyer and seller. More on how that works below. In addition to this I am willing to participate in a multisig transaction for any sized transaction. Multisig escrow is mandatory for transactions over $25,000 as I cannot personally guarantee transactions of that amount without a multisig setup.
Fees:Normal Escrow:For a normal escrow, I charge 1% of transaction amount + transaction fee for every payment I need to make. Typically I only need to make one payment (releasing the funds to the seller). I will confirm upfront the total fees I charge.
Multisig Escrow:If there is no dispute, I charge 1% fee for a multisig escrow + transaction fee.
If there is a dispute that I need to resolve, there will be a 2% fee.
For transactions over $25,000 in value multisig is required.
My contact details:The best way to contact me is by PM here on the forum.
My Email:
blazr2048@gmail.comPGP fingerprint: 851E 59A1 4E68 9192 5754 700A 5C34 AC76 2916 3393 (
https://keybase.io/blazr)
I am also sometimes on freenode IRC, username: Blazr
These are the only ways you can contact me. I don't use Skype or anything else nor will I.
My PGP Key:Update:Now you can directly verify my signed messages on Keybase: https://keybase.io/blazrAll important message I send, especially ones that include Bitcoin address, will be signed by my PGP key. A PGP key is like a digital passport that lets you verify a person's identity. It prevents an imposter or hacker from pretending to be me and also prevents someone tampering with my messages. Additionally you can use this to send me encrypted messages, in case you need to send me private information.
It is your responsibility to verify that the messages are actually signed by me. To do this, you will need to install gnupg. Gnupg is preinstalled on most Linux/Mac systems, and gpg4win is available for Windows. Learning how to use this software is HIGHLY recommended if you use Bitcoin, as it will allow you to verify your Bitcoin wallet software whether it has been tampered, and many other things.
First you will need a copy of my PGP key. To get it open a terminal and type this:
$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 0x5C34AC7629163393
And you will get an output similar to this:
gpg: requesting key 29163393 from hkp server keys.gnupg.net
gpg: key 29163393: "Blazr <blazr2048@gmail.com>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1
Next thing you need to do is verify this key is really mine, because it could belong to an imposter. You can do this by verifying its fingerprint, type:
$ gpg --fingerprint 0x5C34AC7629163393
What you see should exactly match this:
pub 1024D/29163393 2012-04-25
Key fingerprint =
851E 59A1 4E68 9192 5754 700A 5C34 AC76 2916 3393uid [ unknown] Blazr <
blazr2048@gmail.com>
sub 2048R/2D7A5315 2016-06-04
sub 2048R/CBFC4E4F 2016-06-04
The key part here is the bit in bold. This part is the fingerprint, think of it like a Bitcoin address. It should exactly match above.
Once you have my key, it is very easy to verify my messages. Here is a test message you can try:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256
This is a test message.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2
iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJXVBLaAAoJEJrhnjctelMVUeIH/j7D91vdIe3h/4KkJzxvXv3H
KhlKK0BuL57z5IgD8cdqCGeqdEhJGw6UCFwZ9mKms1P6xVqETBnJoZMODzO722Pj
RCDJ1FvcA9ORiRPJtAebsY21dZ+Ke1Pcs54+c/LGIxioPZ68XSXkkK/LVIwTxD2z
soNUWwSqNW6NgSKBET6t3E0WO11+uKW68/WJN5y6cAo4geN2gUMDKysckbAXhuER
t6m603shDIdc7sIVZbb7ZQyhialtjZce3BnRE58T1iClHyhRg3nOHDgJFlQ886NA
2MHjShUftBEHqWliTuVST060waEJH7rSdL74AdEy7EseN60PW766bhFAwtNQJSU=
=PWVO
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Copy this message, open a terminal and type
gpg and press enter. You should see the following:
gpg: Go ahead and type your message ...
Paste in the message, press enter to make a new line and then press ctrl+d (ctrl+z on Windows) and then enter. You should see something similar to this:
gpg: Signature made 06/05/16 12:54:02 GMT Daylight Time using RSA key ID 2D7A5315
gpg: Good signature from "Blazr <blazr2048@gmail.com>" [unknown]
The key part here is
Good signature. You should also pay attention to the key id. You may get a message about an untrusted key, this is OK, it is just because you haven't signed my key, which is something you do if you are 100% sure it is my key, for example if I meet you in person and we exchange keys face-to-face.
How does MultiSig escrow work?MultiSig escrow is a special kind of escrow where the funds are stored in a multisig 2-of-3 address.
This is a special kind of Bitcoin address that has 3 private keys.
The buyer holds a key, the seller holds a key, and the escrow (me) holds a key.
The funds are stored in this multisig address. In order to spend the funds in the escrow address, two keys are needed, every transaction needs to be signed by two keys.
This means that if both buyer and seller are satisfied with the transaction, they can use both of their keys to send the funds to the seller, without me needing to do anything.
If there is a problem, I will decide who should get the funds and will ask that person to sign the transaction. This is very powerful because this means I cannot steal the funds, and if I am hacked, the funds cannot be stolen as well.
It also means that if both buyer and seller disagree with my decision, they can use both of their keys to move the funds.
How do we setup a multisig escrow?Currently setting up a multisig escrow requires both the buyer and seller to be running Electrum Bitcoin Wallet. In future I will have a simpler system for setting this up.
Here is a video explaining how it works:
http://vimeo.com/96983886DonationsDonations are much appreciated if you feel my service is flawless.
bitcoin:1BLazrD33MLN9U9q7Sdv4CbWNo97mMukog
