Topic: Discussion about escrow service offered by forum users - page 2. (Read 393 times)

this is interesting now. I don't want to defend anyone, but whether bL4nkcode violated escrow rules in this case?
There is no clear charge that he misused his service, I mean no complaints from funds "owners" (people involved in this charity group). apparently, he was spending money with the approval of cabalism.

Since escrow service is a very sensitive topic, the whole drama excludes him ^bL4nkcode as a trustable user. I think there must be an impeccable reputation, also a user running his escrow service would have to show that he owns the same amount which he will hold as a third party. there is probably less possibility that he will use funds from escrow for grandfather's treatment (just example).

It all depends on how much money you're talking about. Although $400 may appear to be a small sum to you, it is a significant sum in the context of where bL4 came from. Borrowing is done for a variety of reasons, not just because someone is broke or short on cash. Elon and Jeff both have personal debts.

It's not necessary for an escrow provider to be financially stable, but I wouldn't do business with someone who isn't. The question is, how can you be sure that bL4 isn't financially solid?

Looking at his escrow service history, he has had multiple multi-million dollar dealings in the past, and I believe this is why I'm going to oppose the flag against bL4.

There are 2 or 3 separate things here (IMO) so I am going to split them up a bit

As for borrowing money / being an escrow.
I am going to go the other way and say it's not *that* big a deal.
I have borrowed money (from banks or used credit cards never here) for things at times even when I had cash / funds available.
Sometimes it's just timing, sometimes you would rather pay interest then not have the cash / funds on hand and so on.
Heck, I took a loan out for my last bike when, at the time, I had the cash in the bank earning just about nothing because I did not want to move those funds.

From the far away view you can take a look at bL4nkcode and say, oh he can pull in $100 a week in the signature campaign he is in, and is (in theory) only borrowing 1 month of income from that so what's the big deal.

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As for the charity thing, yeah that is a shitshow. But it's a shitshow of our own making. I have lost count, what is this the 3rd or 4th time in recent memory that there has been some group of us here making donations to something that went sideways? Not saying the funds were stolen or not used properly since we don't know for sure but look back at the  Bruno / Phinnaeus Gage / Gleb Gamow fiasco https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/flag-bruno-aka-phinnaeus-gage-gleb-gamow-yutucoin-bitcoin-100-5251105 there was another one last year but I don't remember the name at the moment. I'm sure there are more that I just did not notice.

We as a group should come up with a set of "guidelines" so to speak on how to deal with donation / charity situations.
Or, it's going to keep happening.

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If, and that is a big *IF* you are running the escrow like a business, it also might be better to take a loan for something that is another business then move other funds around. Depending on where you live and how you are running things. The best example I can come up with is a friend who runs 3 separate PC parts businesses. It's just him, no staff or anything like that, but they are all independent businesses. It's actually easier from the accounting side to borrow money from elsewhere and pay interst on it then it is for him to put money into the business as a private loan or loan money from one to another. It's a tax / accounting nightmare here in the US. I don't know how other parts of the world operate.

Just my views.

-Dave

My answer is "no". He will always be tempted to use the fund when he needed which we have already seen in the case of cabalism13.

Yes but how can we check that? I mean if it is a bitcointalk loan and it is published then it would be a red flag, but we cannot know if the escrow has loans outside bitcointalk. And as of now, knowing this, do you think in the future people in the same situation as cabalism13 and bl4nkcode would publish the loan in bitcointalk?

And I would go further, should a person run a charity that receives significant donations if they are taking low amount loans ($200) as in the case of cabalism13?

It is not incompatible to have debts with being honest, running businesses or charities, the problem is when the donations or what you get in the escrow address is several times your annual salary and you are going into debt for pennies.


I don't even want to mess with you but it seems to me a pretty generic and empty answer you have given, the point is how can we check trustworthiness.

What I know should be most important about escrow is trustworthiness, anyone that provide escrow should be perfect enough to make sure nothing go wrong. The purpose is to serves as an intermediary between two people due to trust of the service. Escrow person will have its own terms and conditions to make sure no one got scammed, both the buyer and the seller will also have to comply to the terms and conditions. If done appropriately, the buyer, seller and the escrow person will not be scammed which means no one will be scammed.

bL4nkcode was/is running an escrow service from long time on the forum. I have no idea about the trades he executed but the escrow failed for Bitcointalk Charity Program.

Going through cabalism13's trust page I see bL4nkcode even had to borrow >$400 from him. How could someone offer escrow service where he do not have enough financial solvency to pay off the money if something gone wrong in a trade or if he found guilty of sending the escrow amount to wrong person?

Shouldn't be an escrow need to have enough money of his own before performing an escrow in a marketplace?

Edit: Title changed.