Escrow

Escrow models, in plain language

You have read "2-of-3 multisig" a hundred times. Here is what it actually does, why it protects you, and how a walletless market reaches the same goal another way without holding your coins at all.

Escrow is the structural piece that separates a market you can use with some confidence from one where the operator can vanish with the money. The three markets here all solve it, just not identically. Get this one concept straight and most of the worry around using a darknet market falls away, because you will be able to tell at a glance whether a marketplace is built so that no single party can run off with the pot.

What escrow is for

The problem escrow solves is old and simple: the buyer does not want to pay before the goods arrive, and the vendor does not want to ship before being paid. Escrow puts the funds somewhere neither party fully controls until the order completes. The question that matters is who that somewhere is, and whether they can betray you. A single-key market answers badly: the operator holds everything and can leave with all of it. The three markets here answer well, in two different ways.

What 2-of-3 multisig means

Anubis and Nexus run 2-of-3 multisig. Every order has three keys: yours, the vendor's, and the platform's. Funds only move when any two of the three sign the release. In the normal case you sign on receipt and the vendor counter-signs, and the platform never touches it. In a dispute the platform's key sides with whoever the desk rules for. The protective bit: to run off with escrowed funds, an operator would have to get the bulk of vendors to actively sign away their own money, which is a very different thing from a single decision. The maths, not a promise, is what protects you.

How walletless escrow gets there

Osiris takes a different road. It is walletless, meaning there is no central account wallet sitting on everyone's deposits. When you order, the money goes straight into direct buyer-to-vendor escrow for that order. There is no big central pot to scoop up, because the funds were never pooled in one place to begin with. Osiris pairs that with Monero-first privacy, mirror rotation, an active dispute process and a vendor rating system. The end goal is the same as multisig: no single party gets to quietly hold and walk off with your coins. The difference is that multisig protects a pooled balance with cryptography, while walletless escrow avoids creating the pool at all.

Which model is better

Neither is strictly better; they are different answers to the same question. Multisig is well understood and the protection is visible in the signing flow. Walletless escrow removes the central honeypot entirely, which is appealing precisely because there is nothing to steal in bulk. What matters for you as a buyer is that all three markets in this directory pass the test that the single-key markets failed: the operator cannot simply leave with everyone's funds. The short list page explains why that test is the line we draw.

What changes for you

Very little in day-to-day use. You browse and order the same way; the escrow mechanism sits in the background. The place you notice it is a dispute, where the model is what makes a ruling stick. When you open a ticket, the funds are frozen, the desk reads both sides, and the model releases the money according to the ruling: the platform's key on a multisig market, the direct escrow process on a walletless one.

Frequently asked

What does 2-of-3 mean exactly?
Three keys exist, and any two of them together can release the funds. No single key, including the operator's, can move money alone.

Is walletless escrow safe if there is no central wallet?
That is the point. With no pooled wallet there is nothing for an operator to abscond with in bulk; each order's escrow is direct between buyer and vendor.

Who decides a dispute?
The market's dispute desk reads the evidence and rules. The escrow model then enforces that ruling. Read the FAQ for how to open one.

Do I have to do anything special at checkout?
No. The escrow forms automatically. You just confirm receipt when your order arrives so the funds release to the vendor.