Topic: [DEV][DEBATE] Escrow architectures, best practices, and implementations (Read 842 times)

This is not a rant,

I keep seeing scams and ignorant posts on trader services, etc, like a stock broker. It's hard enough to keep/refrain pool operators from leveraging the large balances they have on central wallets, a day trader operation without any securities background or collateral is just plain nonsense. Next there will be derivatives and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), I've already heard one post talk about short selling doge with a stop loss arrangement. The BS factor with all that is why I started my own pools, so I know no one is getting fu&*ed. Which brings me to the escrow topic.

There are zero regulations to this world, and many many thieves and bastards in it. Anyone who has been in this market for very long knows that it's full of assholes. Pools drop overnight and coins are stolen constantly. People get hacked all the time, and left for dead. Kinda like the old days when miners mined. Except my miners weight about 5 pounds instead of a skinny starving human counterpart back in the day.

One of my pools has over 300 miners on it right now, guess how many of them donate over .5%? 9 miners do. Only 9. Seriously. Wtf. I set my own miner on that pool to donate, it is is #2 on the rank list. Of my own pool! I digress....(raising that fee now...)

If you model the current commercial escrow services today, for example a real estate transaction, you can quickly see what is missing in this market place, at the price of anonymity. There is no reason or track record to trust anyone really, so laws and court end up potentially eroding freedom and liberty. The only time they are a problem really is when they are corrupted, otherwise honest people do the honest thing. So how would a good escrow service be implemented (broker trading is no different really, just a little usury on top)? I've been considering an escrow service architecture for only a little time now, I'd like to hear people's opinions on it.

For me to be comfortable sending money to a 'trusted 3rd party' I would want to know who they are, see transaction history, see the chain, know an address, mirror collateral, micro trading, etc. What would it take to trust a perfect stranger? Any thoughts or white papers out there going down this rabbit hole? Could there be trust in many perfect strangers? Could it possible to design a wallet that has escrow built in??? Kinda thinking out loud. You have an 'unconfirmed balance', immature blocks as well before confirmed when mining. There is a already an escrow in way, what could be done to expand that? Please share your thoughts, and if you prefer, PM me and we can discuss over different media.