So why did some people not use escrow? What was the reason for it?
Escrow fees.
How much it was btw? 1% right?
5$ to keep 500$ safe is not bad at all and I'm not sure why investors were paying escrow fees, they should have demanded escrow service from dev on his own expense.
In
H2O Coin's IPO Dev paid escrow fees.
i think ppl just be lazy and not familiar with escrow.
I will have to agree. Anon and escrow.ms you might be turning some people away with your requiring private keys. Some people are noobs and don't understand how things work. It's also a moot point, because we are not talking about shitloads of money per person here. So the chances of someone hacking their bitcointalk account just for that .1 to 2 BTC is rather low.
Requiring a PM with the tx id and a receiving wallet address should be more than enough security.
You could also let people opt-in to withdrawal only by private key proof. That way those who are investing more can choose a hightened security (and pay a higher fee).
You might consider adjusting your terms.