…It’s just a shame there’s nothing that can be done to mitigate malicious intent by offering to sell something, only to ‘burn’ the payment and never send the goods (assuming they even existed).
This would just be a case of spite but a very real threat none the less.
E.g.
A offers to sell laptop B offers to buy and escrows 2000 bitcoins A confirms that item is sent but never sends it B never receives it so never release the bitcoins A doesn’t care because their intent was to make B ‘spend’ their bitcoins with no recompense
How about this:
A offers to sell laptop for 2000 bitcoins, and escrows 2500 bitcoins as security B offers to buy and escrows 2500 bitcoins A confirms that item is sent but never sends it B never receives it so never release the bitcoins A now cares because he has 2500 bitcoins in escrow as security
In this scenario, it’s in A’s interest to send the laptop, otherwise he loses his BTC 2500 security. It’s also in B’s interest to confirm receipt of the laptop, otherwise he loses his BTC 500 “excess”.
The awkward situations are going to arise if both A and B are honest, but an uninsured delivery service loses or breaks the laptop, or if one of the participants dies before releasing the escrow.