You did not need to create another thread in Dev & technical discussion board - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5343800.msg57233080#msg57233080
Multi posting is against the forum rules, and this is the appropriate section for your post, the other is wrongly placed.

I like the idea of an escrow service, to mediate transactions, especially if it's trustless, as that's one of the major objectives of Bitcoin.

You mentioned a smart contract being one of your long term goals; what should users trust on till then, before putting your funds at stake one needs a certain level of assurance or some sort of collateral.