For Trades:
- One of the parties to the trade sends a Group PM to myself any the other parties of the trade, with the terms of the trade and who is paying the escrow fee
- The other party(ies) to the trade should reply to all confirming their agreement to the terms of the trade
- I will reply to both/all parties of the trade with a GPG signed message including the escrow agreement, what I understand the terms of the trade to me, along with an address to send the funds to
- The buyer of the goods/fiat (the person selling their bitcoin) will send the agreed upon amount of bitcoin to the escrow address
- Once sufficient funds are confirmed, I will confirm with both parties that I am in control of the agreed upon amount of bitcoin (or other altcoin, if applicable)
- The seller (the person receiving the bitcoin) will ship the goods to the buyer (or in the case of most digital goods, send the digital goods to me, and I will then forward the digital goods to the buyer - this is to prevent any kind of he said, she said type dispute with digital goods/accounts)
- Once the seller confirms receipt of the goods, he will authorize the release of the funds in escrow, at which point I will send the funds in escrow (minis the escrow fee) to the address(es) of the seller's choice
In The Event of a Dispute
- I will get both sides of the "story" from each party of the transaction, along with evidence from each side of the transaction
- After hearing both sides, and asking additional probing questions as necessary, I will attempt to mediate a solution, including offering suggestions as to what I think would be beneficial to both parties. If both parties can reach an agreement as to who gets what amount of the funds in escrow, then the funds will be released as per what both parties agree to
- If both parties cannot reach an agreement, then I will solicit additional evidence from both parties. If at this point, the evidence is beyond clear that one person is in the wrong, and one person is in the right (e.g. something similar to goods were never sent, money was never sent, money was sent, ect.), then escrow will be released accordingly
- If after the above, there is still a dispute, then I will consult the community via the scam accusations subform, at which point I will present all sides to the story that I have along with the evidence I have, and will solicit the opinions of generally respected members of the community. If a reasonable solution can be reached at this point with a standard of the preponderance of the evidence then funds will be released accordingly
For Loans
- Both the lender and the borrower confirm the terms of the loan, either via PM or on a lending thread
- The lender will provide me with a unique repayment address for the borrower to repay to
- I will provide a GPG signed post/message confirming the terms of the loan, the address(es) where to send the collateral, the address where to fund the loan, the address where the loan should be repaid to and the address to pay the escrow fee
- Once the collateral is sufficiently secured, I will notify both the lender and the borrower that it is safe to fund the loan
- Once the borrower repays the loan to the lender, and such transaction is sufficiently confirmed, then I will return the collateral to the borrower, at the address(es) of his choice (minus any TX fees)
- If the loan is not repaid by the due date, then the collateral will be given to the lender
- If applicable: If a term of a loan is that if the value of the collateral falls below a certain value on a certain exchange, then upon notification by the lender of such decline in value, and upon personal confirmation of such decline in value, then the collateral would be sent to the address of the lender's choice
- If both parties agree to any modified terms, then such adjusted terms would replace the previous terms of the loan
For Contests, Giveaways, and Bets:
- Escrow procedure would be handled on a case by case basis, however the overall procedure would be similar to the above
