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Silk Road has implemented this because it is a market between sellers and buyers. BitcoinStore is a company selling stuff, having escrow would have no point at
by r2DEYdly 14y ago
Silk Road has implemented this because it is a market between sellers and buyers. BitcoinStore is a company selling stuff, having escrow would have no point at all.
- mikeash 14y agoHow does the fact that it's a company instead of an individual change the picture at all? In both cases, escrow serves the same purpose: to safeguard against getting ripped off.
- rdl 14y agoAssuming bitcoinstore hasn't ripped off their previous N customers, I'm fairly confident being purchaser N+1, especially if my transaction isn't "special" in any way. They would have a lot to lose by ripping off customers, vs. a random seller on silkroad, so I'd feel comfortable up to a few thousand dollars. I think I've actually bought something from Memorydealers before. I'm not sure of the relationship between bitcoinstore and Memorydealers. If they're the same entity, then I'd be fine up to $100k or so -- it's a real business.
- mikeash 14y agoThat makes escrow less likely to be useful, but the chance doesn't go to zero, so it hardly has "no point at all".
- rdl 14y agoEscrow has its own risk and cost. The hilarious thing with previous online currencies (E-Gold, OSGold, Pecunix, ...) was that the escrow providers themselves were often the weak link.
- mikeash 14y agoWell sure, but it's still useful, just not something you might automatically want. My credit card issuer effectively acts as an escrow agent, and I love that fact when ordering from companies. It has saved me more than once, too.