We can technically do this right now. But as the saying goes “don’t trust verify”. I don’t want to trust, I want a guarantee that I won’t get scammed and that I get what I paid for. Most people out there will want the same otherwise they’ll keep doing business on eBay and amazon
Discussion
I totally get what you mean. But we need to get out of the trap of inserting a third party (big brother). Maybe start small, geographically, or by community, where the community would know who’s trustworthy and bad people get voted off the island.
A review system could totally help with this. But I don’t think we need big brother at all. I’m suggesting something similar to how bitcoin peer2peer exchanges hold form of paymentand bitcoin in escrow until the exchange is ready. No trusted 3rd party involved. Just slightly morphed to be instead of fiat payment, the Bitcoin is held in a multisig escrow until goods are confirmed to be shipped
The problem is, it doesn’t really help anyway. Because the dispute can happen after it shipped. After received, or not as promised, or broken etc. we should separate adjudication from the monetary transaction. Again, trust is a social value. And can not be superimposed on money. Anyway, cafe’s could start using Nostr now to charge clients. Since they are right there, for example.
I think you’re absolutely correct. Escrow wouldn’t help with any issues after the product shipped anyway. Definitely something to think deeply about.
Thanks for bouncing these thoughts off with each other! Today I caught myself in fiat thinking. I was pealing an “organic” orange. My wife said, how do you know it’s really “organic”? I said, you’re right, it needs a lot more regulation. My wife said, why would you trust it when the government says it’s organic? She’s right, I should trust the farmer who produces the orange. Bitcoin will bring us back to peer to peer trust. In communities. Somehow….