Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: A proposed method to facilitate p2p trading between fiat and cryptocurrencies
by
townf
on 24/05/2013, 00:54:47 UTC
I still can't get my head around one particular thing. Maybe it's a weak spot, or maybe (hopefully) I'm just not seeing it. Can you please explain:

He finds Alice through the crazy magical OT system and then he wires Alice 1001USD for 1000dUSD. He has now suddenly given his fiat money access to the entire global OT economy!
Except he needs to trust that Alice will acknowledge receiving his 1001 USD. Or Alice has to trust that Bob will actually wire the 1001 USD that he promises to send.

What prevents Alice from running away with Bob's 1001 USD, or claiming she never received it? (thus refusing to send him the 1000 dUSD)

Or vice versa, what prevents Bob from saying he wired his 1001 USD to Alice (thus claiming she should send him the 1000 dUSD), whereas he actually never did?

"The system" has no way of verifying whether a wire transaction between bank accounts actually took place or not.

Escrow(?) I'm half asking