Short answer: Escrow is a hold on payment until a condition is met. On a market it usually means the platform holds coins, not a court. That protects you from a vendor only while the platform itself stays honest and online.
This is a catalog explainer, not a shopping walkthrough. We do not publish market onions and we do not tell you how to place an order.
Three designs you will see in public write-ups
| Design | Who can release funds | Typical claim | Typical failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional escrow | The market operators | Fast disputes | Exit scam or seizure drains the pot |
| Multisig (often 2-of-3) | Buyer, vendor, and a third key | Operators cannot walk away alone | Complex UX; few 2026 shops run it at scale |
| Finalize early (FE) | Buyer releases before delivery | Faster for trusted vendors | No remaining hold if the parcel never arrives |
Public directories, including TorWiki’s market table, still list traditional escrow on most English-language names we track. Multisig is the exception, not the default. White House Market (retired 2021) is the usual historical example of a shop that treated multisig as normal and later wound down without an exit.
What “dispute” actually decides
A dispute is an internal ticket, not a legal process. Moderators look at whatever evidence the shop’s rules allow — tracking text, PGP mail, photos. Speed varies. Nexus is often described as fast; that is a community reputation claim, not a measurement we run.
If the operators disappear, the ticket queue disappears with them. Escrow does not survive an exit scam.
Finalize early is a privilege, not a feature
FE means the buyer marks the order complete before they can verify the goods. Public reviews of Torzon and DrugHub say FE is limited to high-tier vendors. That reduces some vendor risk for the platform. It increases buyer risk. Treat FE as “the hold is already gone.”
How to read our tags
When a TorBible card shows Escrow, it means our file records that the name is described as using an escrow hold. It is not a guarantee that coins are safe, that disputes are fair, or that the shop will exist next month. Pair the tag with OPSEC and phishing detection — and never treat a directory as a wallet.
See also: multisig, exit scam, crypto privacy.