Frequently asked questions about escrow deals

A guarantor-deal service on a smart contract. The buyer pays neither the seller nor us but a contract on the blockchain. The money stays there until the deal finishes under rules known in advance. If the sides disagree, a dispute is settled by a guarantor - someone you chose in advance.

In ordinary escrow a middleman - a company or a person - holds the money and you have to take their word. Here the money is held by a program whose code is the same for everyone and does not depend on our mood. We physically cannot take the deal's money or change its terms after the fact. The guarantor stays a human, but has no access to the money: they can only split it between the sides.

No. No email, password or documents. You connect a crypto wallet and it serves as your "account". Each action is confirmed by a signature in the wallet.

The smart contract. Its address is the same on all networks: 0x6462DDDc0a3D893A7C17f94410e2d27162a390aD. A deal's money is available only under that deal's rules.

No. The platform fee is hard-coded as a constant (1%) and cannot be raised. The contract administrator can only pause the creation and acceptance of new deals and withdraw accumulated fees - this does not affect deals already running: confirming, cancelling and disputing them works as usual. The administrator cannot withdraw other people's money: the contract keeps it separate from the free remainder.

The platform takes 1% of the deal amount. In addition the guarantor is owed a rate you set yourselves at creation: base (up to 10%) and dispute (up to 30%). You also pay a network fee for your signatures - it goes to blockchain validators, not to us.

If an offer is withdrawn before it is accepted, 100% of the amount is returned with no fees at all. In every other case the platform takes 1%.

The base rate is payment for readiness to take the deal. The guarantor receives it if no dispute was needed: the buyer confirmed receipt, the sides cancelled or the term expired. The dispute rate is higher than or equal to the base and is paid if the guarantor really resolved a dispute. It replaces the base rate and is not added to it. If the guarantor stays silent for 30 days they earn nothing.

A 1,000 USDT deal, guarantor base rate 1%, dispute 10%:

The guarantor's rate is calculated on the amount after the platform fee.

The contract only requires the amount to be above zero. But mind the network fee: on a very small amount it can eat a noticeable share. Ethereum fees are the highest; Base, Polygon and BNB Chain cost cents.

The network's main coin (ETH, POL, BNB) and the stablecoins USDT, USDC, DAI - depending on the network. Only currencies the contract actually accepts on the selected network are shown.

It is your money currently held in the contract for active deals where you are the buyer: not yet given to the seller and not yet returned to you.

7 days. If the other side has not accepted by then, the offer expires and the money can be returned in full. Either side can withdraw an unaccepted offer earlier.

You choose 1, 7, 30 or 90 days. The clock starts when the other side accepts the offer, not when it is created.

If the buyer did not confirm receipt and no dispute is open, either side can press "Return the money to the buyer". The amount returns minus the 1% platform fee and the guarantor's base rate. The seller is protected by being able to open a dispute before the deadline.

While the offer is not accepted - "Withdraw the offer", 100% refund. When the deal is already active - "Propose cancellation": it cancels once both sides agree. The money returns to the buyer minus fees.

"Offer" - waiting for the other side. "Active" - money in the contract, the term running. "Dispute" - the guarantor decides. "Settled" - payouts made, nothing can be changed.

When you cannot agree: the goods did not arrive or do not match the description and the seller does not answer. First try proposing a mutual cancellation - it is cheaper: the guarantor receives the base rate, not the higher one.

The guarantor studies the sides' positions and sets the split of the money, from "everything to the buyer" to "everything to the seller". They cannot take the money for themselves, change the terms or intervene without a dispute. The guarantor's rate is their only reward.

Pick someone both sides trust: not the buyer, not the seller and not their relatives. Agree the rate beforehand and make sure the person is ready to handle disputes and knows how to check a document against the fingerprint. The guarantor's address cannot be changed after the deal is created - check it twice.

The address is in the platform's registry, maintained by the contract. It is not a guarantee of honesty, only a mark that the platform knows this guarantor. An address without the badge is allowed too - but then the whole responsibility for the choice is yours.

30 days after a dispute opens, either side can press "Take 50% - the guarantor is silent". The remainder is split in half and the guarantor receives nothing. The money does not hang forever.

No. The ruling is final: the payout happens in the same transaction. That is why choosing a guarantor is the most important decision in a deal.

A short signature of the terms document - a hash. It is recorded in the deal, the document itself is not. Change a single character in the text and you get a completely different fingerprint. This way you can prove a document is the one, without revealing its contents.

No. Only the fingerprint reaches the blockchain, the text stays with you and the other side. We do not see it either: the computation happens in your browser.

Not required, but strongly recommended. Without a document the guarantor decides on the sides' words and a dispute turns into "word against word". With a document they have something to rely on.

Ask the other side for a copy. If the document matches the fingerprint in the deal it is confirmed and a copy is saved in this browser. The service does not store documents, so save the file at once when creating - that is the only copy we can remind you to download.

Most likely invisible details differ: extra spaces, line breaks, non-breaking spaces after copying from Word or a messenger. The service normalises the text, but if the document has real edits the fingerprint changes. Compare the texts line by line.

Any Ethereum-compatible one: MetaMask, Rabby, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow and others. To connect a mobile wallet to a computer use WalletConnect - a QR code appears.

Ethereum, Base, Polygon and BNB Chain. The contract on each network is separate in state, but has one address.

No. Each network is a separate world, a deal exists only where it was created. The deal link carries the network, so it opens correctly. If your wallet is on another network the service offers to switch.

ERC-20 tokens (USDT, USDC, DAI) cannot just be "sent to a contract" with one signature: first you allow the contract to take the needed amount, then it takes it. The approval is a separate signature and spends nothing. You can approve exactly the deal amount (safer) or without limit (more convenient but riskier).

Wait a minute or two and refresh the page: the network may not have confirmed the transaction yet. If there is no error, everything is usually fine. You can check any transaction's status in the block explorer via the link in the notification.

No. Sometimes a transfer fails: for example the address is blocked by the token issuer. The deal still closes and the amount stays in the contract. A "Withdraw" button appears on the deal page to pull it out manually.

Check you are on coin-trust.net and that you sign exactly what you intended in your wallet. Do not send money outside the service "to speed things up". Do not accept a guarantor insistently pushed on you by the other side. More in the article on red flags in P2P deals.

No, never. Neither we, nor the guarantor, nor wallet support ask for it. Anyone who asks for a seed phrase is a scammer.

Compare the contract address on the home page with the one in this answer and open it in your network's block explorer - the bytecode and operations are public there. The contract address is the same on every network.