❓ Before you trade

Paying a stranger in crypto for a car, a phone, a domain or a job: how to protect yourself

Your crypto stays in escrow, not in the seller's wallet, and is released when you confirm delivery or by milestones. What escrow cannot judge is quality: describe what you are buying.

A seller who only takes bitcoin for a car, a phone or a domain is asking you to send something final for something you have not received. That is the same "go first" problem as any trade, with one extra twist: the thing you are buying can be late, different, or not arrive. Escrow handles the first part completely and the second part only as well as you describe the deal.

How it works on iEscrow

  1. 1You open a product or service trade with the seller and describe exactly what is being delivered. For a job, you can split the payment into milestones.
  2. 2You fund the escrow. The seller sees that the crypto is there and cannot touch it. The seller ships, transfers the domain, or delivers the work.
  3. 3You confirm delivery (or each milestone) and the crypto is released. If you never confirm and never dispute, the trade does not sit forever: after the window, it releases to the seller, so delivery is not hostage to silence either.
  4. 4If what arrived is not what was agreed, you open a dispute. An arbiter reads the description, the evidence from both sides, and decides with the reason in writing.

What escrow does not do, and what to do instead

  • It does not inspect the car or test the phone. Write the condition, the model, the serial number, the inspection you expect, and who pays return shipping into the description. That text is what the arbiter reads.
  • It does not recover a payment you made outside the trade "to speed things up". Nothing outside the trade is the trade’s payment.
  • For a domain or an account, it cannot verify the transfer for you: confirm only after the asset is under your control.
"500 units as per sample #3, inspection report by X" beats "500 units". The precision you put into the description is the protection you get in a dispute.
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