That's really too bad, I was going to start selling stuff using clearcoin.

Escrow operated by someone trusted by community, is really important for bitcoin economy development.
Open sourcing the escrow would be a great contribution to community. But even with the open source, building users' trust will take time.

this was a great idea and a service...i did my first transaction with clearcoin and it makes the newbie feel so much more secure...

Sell the business at flippa.com

When all set up, email the auction link to interested parties.

I may be interested to create an alternative.

Sounds like something that can be coded in a week...

Is there anywhere any docs about its architecture and how it works so I don't have to reinvent the wheel ?

I love FOSS, but I feel that this is a situation where it's better not to allow just anyone to open up an escrow service. I'd like to know that whoever ClearCoin is being sold to is a trustworthy individual.

This is how I intended to make it :


Buyer registers on escrow
He has an option to create new transaction.
When he wants to create new transaction he enters following information:
1)Release address
2)Transaction length (1m, 6m, 1y..)


Then he created transaction witch has its url and can be viewed by anybody.
Transaction page has following info:
1)Release address
2) Transaction length
3) Transaction creation date
4) BTC amount in it
5) Status - Current, Released
If buyer is logged in he also sees:
1)Option to increase transaction length
2) Option to release funds
3) He can see transaction address  (address to witch he sends BTC to be added to transaction)
4) He can see incoming transactions (to above address)


Buyers also have public profile pages where there is some basic information about buyer and number of transactions created by him and number of them released (like reputation)
Thay can also enter return address. (where to send BTC if transactions are not released)


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Am I missing something here ?

I am interested in having such a service  available again.

If someone really wanted an escrow service, I bet one of the trusted senior members of this site would be glad to do it, informally, for a small fee.  For example, I would trust Atlas much more than some stranger.  If I wanted to buy something expensive, I would ask him to act as the escrow.  I would send him the Bitcoin payment, and once I confirm that I got the purchased item, he would release the funds, minus a fee, to the seller.

There are 2 hard problems to solve with an escrow service:

1) making sure that both the buyer and seller do not have to trust the mediator (it's not possible for the mediator to run off with the coins)
2) the mediator making sure that he cannot be corrupted by outside forces (he does not have the keys to the safe)

The above can be solved with Bitcoin contracts. These are coming soon to a client near you. Then it's really going to be a lot of fun in the Bitcoin economy.

Not at all. If a transaction goes well then the escrow process can be conducted automatically by the Bitcoin network (good for everyone). If it goes badly then people may have to step in and mediate. However, the actions of the people will be limited to paying either the buyer or the seller no other destination will be possible.