Quote from: crypto2generation on March 11, 2018, 08:14:35 PM

Trust in this technological age forms an integral part of our daily lives in the sense that what we put online, we are entrusting the service or platform with our content, whether it be private or public. We here about it constantly that companies are getting hacked and holding them to ransom otherwise they will release personal information. Since the rise of cryptocurrencies, we have seen the emergence of a new technology which can help establish absolute trust without the need for third parties to get in the way.

Cryptocurrencies have given way for the rise of blockchain technology which is a new platform on which we can handle and store data.
The traditional way of handling and storing data is to save it in a database that is housed in one central location, now imagine the problems you could face if you had very important documents saved in that one central location, and there was a fire and everything was lost. There would be no way to retrieve the lost data that was stored in that database, because there wasnt a copy of it elsewhere and it was only accessible from that location.

Whereas with blockchain and the introduction of decentralization, you can safely store information without the threat of it being lost in a fire for example, as it has no single point of failure. What this means is that if one point of the network fails (because information is spread across a network of connected nodes) then it will still be accessible to everyone.

More and more companies and services are adopting this decentralised way of operating, because of its obvious benefits with data and not to mention the cost benefits blockchain technology offer. By implementing this database structure, it can potentially save companies huge sums of money in the long run.

Some companies are looking to adopt a decentralised method when it comes to escrow services. Escrow is a legal concept in which financial instruments or assets are held by a third party on behalf of two other parties that are in the process of completing a transaction. The funds or appropriate assets are held by an escrow agent until they receive instructions or until contractual obligations have been met. Most of the time, it is money or funds that are held in escrow.

An example of using an escrow service is when a company that sells goods internationally, wants to be certain that it will get paid when the goods reach their intended destination. Furthermore, the buyer wants to pay for these goods, but only if they arrive in adequate condition. The escrow service can be used by the buyer to place the funds with an agent and give instructions that are unable to be changed, to pay the seller once the goods. This way, both the buyer and seller are safe and the transaction can proceed. Moreover, if the buyer isnt happy with the condition of the goods that have arrived, the money doesnt have to be paid to the seller.

How will a decentralized escrow work?

In terms of how a decentralized escrow service would work, it would deviate from a centralized version to a decentralized version. Even though escrow is a third party which handles money, funds and securities etc, there is still an element of risk involved, such as human error in the form of collusion, mistakes or negligence.

A decentralized escrow would be an independent mechanism that would remove the need for human interaction, or at least cut it down to a minimum. That is main reason why decentralized escrow will be the core part of simpledex.org platform. By doing this, it would eliminate the risks associated with the way fraud is conducted on many levels of business. One of the major advantages of using a decentralized escrow service would be that it makes the process a lot easier, more effective, more efficient and objective.

Decentralized escrow can be used for ICO where a Descrow platform for ICO investments would come with all the necessary applications for investors to control their money. This type of platform would completely remove the need for a middleman, which in this case is the escrow agent. It enables the investor to become part of a startup by entrusting their money in the platform, and if the overall majority of token holders choose that the company or project hasnt fulfill its obligations, then they can elect not to continue. Upon making the decision not to invest in the startup, the money would simply go back to the original investor.

This is a great article. Indeed we really need escrow in this anonymous market. Talking about Descrow, would their utility token DES would be that useful? I mean with their price of 0.001 ETH on ICO, and they are not still on the coinmarketcap, how could we be so sure that this could be a great investment?