2-of-3 multisig

Escrow on Nexus Market

Escrow here is not a store guarantee. It is a mechanism: three keys, two votes, and your funds sitting in a contract until the votes are collected. Nothing about it is a promise of good service. It is a set of conditions that decide when the money moves, and who has to agree.

The three keys

Three parties each hold one key to the same contract: the buyer, the vendor, and the platform. Moving the funds out of escrow needs two of the three. No single party, including the platform, holds two keys, and no one holds all three. That is the whole shape of it.

A normal order closes with the vendor shipping and the buyer confirming receipt. That is two votes, vendor and buyer, and the funds release to the vendor. A refund closes differently: buyer and platform agree, two votes, and the funds go back to the buyer. The platform is one of the three, but it is never the deciding two by itself.

Where the money actually sits

Be precise here, because the vague version hides the real one. Your funds sit in the market's wallet, under the contract, until a release. The 2 of 3 rule means that no single side can walk them off alone, the platform included. But the rule is enforced by the market's software, not by hardware that sits outside the market. It is a guarantee that holds as long as the software and the operator behind it hold. So "the market is up" is itself part of the guarantee, and a market that goes quiet takes the escrow with it. There is no off switch you can reach that the operator cannot.

No panic required, but keep the shape straight. Two votes out of three, and you are one of those three until you press confirm. While you have not confirmed, the vendor cannot release the funds to itself. That is the protection, and it is real, and it ends the moment you click.

The dispute path

Here is the spoiler: a dispute works while you have not confirmed receipt. Once you confirm, the funds are out and the process is over. A dispute is the buyer saying "the item did not arrive as ordered" before the confirm, backed by the in market chat, the tracking number, and photos of what actually arrived. The market weighs those, and a resolution is measured in days, not minutes, and the outcome is the market's call, not a neutral court.

A dispute filed after you confirmed receipt is no longer a process. It is a request. The funds already moved on the vendor plus buyer vote, and asking for them back is a favor the platform may or may not grant. The confirm button is the line between a dispute you can win and one you have already lost.

What escrow does not cover

• A vendor that was never there in the first place. Escrow protects the transaction; the vendor's existence is protected by feedback and history, which you read before the order on the categories page.
• Volatility during a dispute. A refund comes back in the coin you paid with, at the value the market holds, not at the value you paid. A price that moved while you argued is on you.
• Shipping "somewhere in the world" on a parcel that moves without a tracking number. If nothing can be pointed at, there is no evidence to weigh, and the dispute rests on chat alone.
• Promises made in chat that were not written in chat. A guarantee that lives only in your memory is not in the record the market reads.

How the deposit gets into escrow in the first place is on the payments page. The wider set of habits that keep an account safe is on the security page.