What would you build with an escrow API? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

What would you build with an escrow API?

5121 sats \ 19 comments \ @Tristan 27 Mar bitcoin

I've been diving deep into the capabilities and potential applications of the BitEscrow API link recently and it's sparked an intriguing question in my mind: What innovative, disruptive, or just plain interesting projects could be built leveraging this technology?

If you’re not familiar, Escrow services provide a neutral third party to facilitate secure transactions, holding funds until all parties meet the terms of a given agreement. The integration of Bitcoin into this process not only decentralizes it but also introduces a level of transparency, security, and efficiency previously unattainable with traditional financial systems.

Here are a few thought-starters:

A global marketplace for freelancers, ensuring payments are secure and only released upon approved deliverables.
A crowdfunding platform for startups and social causes, releasing funds only when specific milestones are achieved.
An alternative to stockX, where the verification of luxury goods is not only way better, but delivery of funds and goods are way faster.

But I believe the surface has barely been scratched. The potential uses go far beyond these initial ideas, especially when considering the global reach of Bitcoin and its capacity to execute transactions across borders with ease.

So, I'm reaching out to the SN community: Given the opportunity, what would you build with an escrow API? How do you envision using this technology to solve existing problems, create new opportunities, or even disrupt traditional industries?

Looking forward to your creative ideas, insights, and perhaps even starting some collaborative projects!

Best idea gets 1000 sats.

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130 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 27 Mar

Escrow could solve the problem of cross border insurance of persons and things. There's no global standard as far as insurance is considered. Being a decentralized third party, escrow should definitely step foot into decentralized insurance services.

134 sats \ 3 replies \ @cascdr 27 Mar

My parents almost got stiffed on a huge real estate sale. I wonder how the incentives/behavior would have changed if they had to put up hard money as collateral they could only get back upon review of a private (cheaper) third party arbitrator instead of our joke of a civil court system.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Tristan OP 27 Mar

Man, I’m so sorry. I know that industry inside and out - I worked in construction and real estate for over 10 years.

The BitEscrow API is non-custodial and you can assign (and if you want to, multiple) third party agents, so the chance of this happening is much much lower.

It’s a real shame that we can’t even trust the court system to help us retrieve funds. That’s why BitEscrow is trustless, so you don’t have to rely on trust systems.

4 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 27 Mar

Key word is almost: everything's fine. But we're bitcoiners. We don't wait for the worst case scenario; we plan ahead.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 28 Mar

I think the biggest barrier to this outcome of BE soaking up significant market share here would be trust.

If you could demonstrate good track record of fair outcomes at a lower cost it's game over. I think as the older generations die off and their millenial and Gen Z kin are the ones that have to do the real estate deals, trust becomes more likely.

Rooting for you guys.

113 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 27 Mar

Escrow could solve tipping.

This is a bit of a pipe dream, but tipping culture in the US doesn't make any sense at all. Supposedly it exists to align incentives when business owners don't have good visibility into an interaction.

Instead of tips, we switch over to using micro-escrow as follows:

Customer plays role of third party.

Restaurant puts a small portion of employee's pay into an escrow for each interaction (in this case, a meal).

After the meal, customer either releases the funds to the employee or to the restaurant.

Customer isn't withholding funds in either case, so stingy tippers isn't an issue.

Restaurant isn't in charge of whether the employee gets the "tip" - so the employee is incentivized to provide good service.

This would align all three parties in the desired outcome: best cheapest service at the table.

The API allows something like this to happen in an app or tableside.

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 27 Mar

To apportion the tip the customer scans a QR on the receipt, opens a slider where the patron scores service 1-10

Lower the score more goes to the overall pot, higher the scale more to the specific server, boundaries are set at either extreme and default of 5 or no response

Lots of behavior changes implied there but it is well-aligned, patron still gets to feel good about themselves when sliding that puppy up to 10... its also an opportunity for the restaurant to link happy people to google reviews

140 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 27 Mar

It sounds lame compared to all the fake layer 2 and shitcoin psyops in Bitcoin rn, but blatantly custodial transaction batching with escrow is interesting.

A lot of inefficiency goes into making stuff sound trustless and atomic, but if you could use escrow to offset some blatant trust in transaction batching, we could have some really efficient LSPs and swaps between layers.

Example: A small-time Uncle Jim node wouldn't need the scale of say a Loop or SideShift, and instead could bond themselves with an escrow to opportunistically provide liquidity in a marketplace.

"Hey yo I'm making a chain TX in a few days, send sats if you want in"

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlueSlime 28 Mar

The most trustless use-case of the API will be coordinating anonymous coin joins via your own custom protocol. You can specify a single spending path with all the desired outputs, and have the contract settle immediately upon funding. The outputs can use any type of address or locking script.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @Ge 28 Mar

Interested into seeing where your path takes you u trail blazers extremely proud of all strides your making not only in bitcoin but as a man..u got this and just know all of us here in Texas got your back as far as building on top of I'd say I'm interested as to what new ideas your idea is to sprout up might be something that becomes a complete game change one we haven't seen or even thought of keep at it my brother and if u ever need anything u know where home is

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Tristan OP 28 Mar

Thanks man, really appreciate that

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @nickfostphone 28 Mar

Glad to see you're still at it Tristan

46 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b 27 Mar

My favorite of the ideas I've heard you discuss is reversible credit-card-like txs. I think giving bitcoin this ability will make it a lot more friendly to non-bitcoiners.

For an early product though, I'd focus on the places where fiat absolutely sucks at doing its job and so much so even non-bitcoiners would use a fledgling bitcoin escrow startup to solve their problems. That's the "disruption" I'd be seeking at least.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlueSlime 28 Mar

We have a few interesting things planned for this use case. :-)

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Tristan OP 28 Mar

Yeah we do. Making some really big moves behind the curtains

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlueSlime 28 Mar

Here are a few of my favorites that I am looking forward to:

Esports betting pools, with automated payouts based on the game's server API (looking at you DOTA2).
ACH transfers that settle a purchase of bitcoin using a banking API.
Collateralized pull requests on Github that payout upon a successful merge.
Anonymous crowd-funding campaigns that refund when they fail to meet their target by a certain deadline.
A loan contract that holds bitcoin and adjusts its payout over time.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 27 Mar

craigslist

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @random_ 29 Mar

Some kind of tool to facilitate in-person swap events, for example at conferences/meetups.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mensnathaniel5 27 Mar freebie