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" It should be seen as a way to provide escrow services at a cost far cheaper than one backed by courts and lawyers." But it wouldn't be, because it would stil

" It should be seen as a way to provide escrow services at a cost far cheaper than one backed by courts and lawyers." But it wouldn't be, because it would still involve the courts if things go sideways, which is the only time when the courts usually do get involved.

dragontamer 8y ago
It costs $25 to $35 to file a claim in small-claims court... and more if you go to the greater court system (with lawyers and such). If you're worried about getting your $20 back, then its counter-productive to use the courts. As such, a cheaper automatic mechanism is just simply going to be more useful to any micro-transaction. ------------ Non-court mechanisms are the typical: A call to customer service for Amazon almost-always results in the money being returned. Same with Ebay. These are the mechanisms that can be automated. Courts are needed to settle serious disputes. But the $5 battery pack that doesn't work right... or some other item that was damaged during shipping... that's something you might want to use the automatic escrow over.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  Yeah, you can automate a system so that it always decides for one party, but then as a seller, what's my incentive to use that system?
  - dragontamer 8y ago
    The same incentive as selling on Amazon or Ebay, which overwhelmingly caters to the customer. To attract more customers. -------- Lets put it this way: its an automated, strongly provably, money-back guarantee. If you want your money back within 30 days, you can have it through this escrow service. And I think a lot of companies would be willing to offer money-back guarantees on their services.
tim333 8y ago
Also non blockchain Escrow can be quite cheap, for example transpact.com: >Our flat charge means that your costs are normally limited to £2.99 per party for (GB) Pound transactions or €3.49 per party for Euro transactions – that really is it for transactions up to £10,000 / €15,000 ! That tends to be a problem with arguments about crypto/blockchain in general saving money - the alternatives can be cheap and buying/selling crypto costs a bit. It only really seems to come into it's own as a way to skirt the law when fiat transactions are banned by securities laws and similar.

dragontamer 8y ago

It costs $25 to $35 to file a claim in small-claims court... and more if you go to the greater court system (with lawyers and such). If you're worried about getting your $20 back, then its counter-productive to use the courts. As such, a cheaper automatic mechanism is just simply going to be more useful to any micro-transaction. ------------ Non-court mechanisms are the typical: A call to customer service for Amazon almost-always results in the money being returned. Same with Ebay. These are the mechanisms that can be automated. Courts are needed to settle serious disputes. But the $5 battery pack that doesn't work right... or some other item that was damaged during shipping... that's something you might want to use the automatic escrow over.

s73v3r_ 8y ago
Yeah, you can automate a system so that it always decides for one party, but then as a seller, what's my incentive to use that system?
- dragontamer 8y ago
  The same incentive as selling on Amazon or Ebay, which overwhelmingly caters to the customer. To attract more customers. -------- Lets put it this way: its an automated, strongly provably, money-back guarantee. If you want your money back within 30 days, you can have it through this escrow service. And I think a lot of companies would be willing to offer money-back guarantees on their services.

tim333 8y ago

Also non blockchain Escrow can be quite cheap, for example transpact.com: >Our flat charge means that your costs are normally limited to £2.99 per party for (GB) Pound transactions or €3.49 per party for Euro transactions – that really is it for transactions up to £10,000 / €15,000 ! That tends to be a problem with arguments about crypto/blockchain in general saving money - the alternatives can be cheap and buying/selling crypto costs a bit. It only really seems to come into it's own as a way to skirt the law when fiat transactions are banned by securities laws and similar.