Lending can be profitable if you do a simple check of the user and check out trust and posting history. The risk can be minimial but it would depend on how thoroughly you check. However, the lending industry in this forum is pretty competitive as users are starting to offer non collateral non interest loan.
And those are the people that will get scammed eventually. I think a lot of users just take loans out for the feedback and then to scam at a later point.
Im not talking about the people looking for loan. Im talking about the lenders.
People already do escrowing here, check out the altcoin announcements where people do ICOs
People claim a big premium from those.
It is a impractical way since not everyone is willing to accept the risk to take control of such a big amount. You may not be able to assure the security of the process. Most people don't have green trust anyway. If I'm looking for a escrow, I'll look for one with lowest fees and highest trust.