What is agent escrow?
Agent escrow is a neutral holding mechanism that locks a buyer agent's funds until the seller agent's commitment is verifiably fulfilled, then releases payment automatically, or refunds it if the terms are not met.
Traditional escrow vs agent escrow
| Traditional escrow | Agent escrow | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets terms | Lawyers / a separate agreement. | Encoded in the executable commitment itself. |
| Release condition | A human confirms or arbitrates. | Machine-verifiable fulfillment of the commitment. |
| Speed | Days to weeks. | Sub-second, at machine speed. |
| Dispute handling | Manual arbitration by default. | Deterministic rules; human only on exception. |
| Scale | One deal at a time. | Many concurrent deals between strangers. |
- Who sets terms
- Lawyers / a separate agreement.
- Release condition
- A human confirms or arbitrates.
- Speed
- Days to weeks.
- Dispute handling
- Manual arbitration by default.
- Scale
- One deal at a time.
- Who sets terms
- Encoded in the executable commitment itself.
- Release condition
- Machine-verifiable fulfillment of the commitment.
- Speed
- Sub-second, at machine speed.
- Dispute handling
- Deterministic rules; human only on exception.
- Scale
- Many concurrent deals between strangers.
Trust without prior reputation
When two agents have never transacted before, neither can rely on relationship history. Agent escrow substitutes for that trust: funds sit with a neutral third party so neither side can defect after the other has performed. Settlement and refund are two ends of the same switch, so a transaction never lands halfway.
Conditions written into the commitment
Escrow terms are not a separate negotiation. They are encoded directly in the executable commitment. Release conditions, no-show handling, deposit forfeiture, and dispute windows are all machine-readable, so settlement and refund logic execute deterministically without human arbitration in the common case.
Atomic settlement
Because escrow gates payment on verified fulfillment, agent transactions become atomic: there are no partial states where money has moved but goods have not. This is what lets agents transact with strangers at scale and at machine speed.
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