What is vendor escrow?

A second escrow opened by the seller on selected listings, in place of the platform dispute desk. Where it applies it usually holds only the two keys, so the platform arbitrates nothing and the seller's own refund window sets the conditions.

What is the difference between vendor escrow and multisig escrow?

Multisig escrow is a bitcoin output that needs two of three signatures, one belonging to the marketplace, applied to every order. Vendor escrow is a private arrangement between buyer and seller on one listing, and it can leave no third key at all.

Is vendor escrow better than the marketplace escrow?

It has one clear advantage, nobody who runs the platform holds a key over your coins, and one clear disadvantage, nobody arbitrates. For an order you intend to finalize early the third key matters less than the refund window; for a parcel still in transit the missing third key is the whole risk.

What does the Awazon Market vendor bond cover?

A fixed deposit per seller, $200, which acts as the ceiling of compensation for a dispute against a new seller who has posted it, and is what makes an unsecured promise survivable if the seller vanishes.

Do all Awazon Market orders have escrow?

The platform escrow is stated as applying to every order. Vendor escrow exists only where the seller enabled it, and it is worth checking on a specific listing before you pay rather than assuming either case.

Vendor escrow and market escrow, side by side

The marketplace holds a two signature wallet over your deposit. A seller can put another escrow on top of the same order, this one opened by the vendor rather than by the site. This page is about the difference, because the two pieces of software protect different things and fail in different ways.

TL;DR The platform escrow is a 2 of 3 multisig output where the market holds one of the three keys: the money moves only if you and the seller agree, or if the market agrees with one of you. Vendor escrow is a second layer opened by the seller, and on some listings it is the only escrow in play. Both are custodial in practice, because in each case one of the keys belongs to somebody you did not choose. The number that matters at Awazon Market is $200, the bond a new seller posts.

The same order, two protections

The platform escrow is a bitcoin transaction. When you pay, the coins do not move to the seller and do not stay yours. They move to an output that needs two of three signatures before anything can be spent again. The deposit address stays yours until the condition is met, and the condition is recorded on the chain rather than in a database.

Vendor escrow is a promise with an address attached. It appears on listings where the seller wants to offer something the platform default does not: a longer refund window, a partial refund, a warranty that runs for weeks. The seller opens it, the seller configures it, and on those listings the seller's escrow is the only escrow, which means the platform is out of the loop entirely.

One listing may run on one signature scheme and the next on another, and nothing in the storefront tells you which one you are looking at without opening the offer. That is the practical difference: one protection is a property of the platform and identical on every order, the other is a property of one seller and can differ between two sellers selling the same thing.

Side by side

What each protection is made of
Feature	Platform escrow	Vendor escrow
Who holds the third key	The market. One of the three keys is the operator's, which is why the market can release funds when the two of you disagree.	Nobody. A vendor escrow usually holds two keys, yours and the seller's, and no third party can move the coins.
What ends the hold	Two signatures: yours plus the seller's, or the market's plus one of you.	Whatever the seller wrote into the listing, usually a countdown that ends on its own.
What you can lose	The whole deposit on a release you did not want, and the argument is over once the coins move.	The whole deposit, with nobody to appeal to except the counterparty.
Where to check it	The raw transaction and a block explorer. The output script is public.	The listing text. There is no public register of vendor escrows.
When it is worth more	Orders where a stranger has to be persuaded to pay out.	Orders where the platform itself is the thing you do not want to trust.

The bond is the number you can actually verify

A vendor escrow is a promise, and promises are hard to compare. A bond is not a promise, it is a deposit, and the deposit is what makes an unsecured promise survivable. At Awazon Market the bond a new seller posts is $200, and the figure that matters to you is that this is a floor: it is the money that exists to compensate you if the seller disappears with an open dispute.

The same $200 is also the clearest illustration of why the model is not what it looks like. A seller is released from the bond at one hundred completed sales and ninety five percent positive feedback. So the protection a new customer has depends on the fact that the seller is new. The sellers with the longest record at Awazon Market are the ones carrying the smallest direct financial risk, because they have already outlived the deposit.

The two features that change what escrow means

Early finalize. You can release the escrow before delivery. The order becomes final, and your leverage becomes a review. On a two week post from a domestic warehouse that is a mild risk. On a seven to twenty one day post it is the whole of your protection, spent days before you know whether the parcel arrived.
Direct deal. The order skips the platform dispute desk and the negotiation happens between the parties. Whether a platform escrow still sits on top of the order on those listings is not stated anywhere, and it is the first question to ask before paying. If it does not, the seller holds a key and no third party holds one.
Both features are aimed at the same problem: a marketplace that has to adjudicate every misunderstanding is slow and expensive for itself. They move the argument from staff to software and to your own patience, which is cheaper for the platform and quicker for orders nobody complains about.

What to do when the two of you disagree

Open the dispute in the order before the countdown ends, and put the tracking number in the text on the first message rather than the third.
Screenshot the listing, including its delivery estimate. A listing that promises two weeks and a parcel that arrives in nineteen days is a different argument from a listing that says nothing.
Read whether that listing carries vendor escrow, because on those listings there is no third key and no desk to appeal to. Then read the refund window, which is the only number the seller wrote down.
If the order is already marked complete and you are relying on the review system instead of escrow, the dispute is a complaint, not a claim, and the money has already moved.

What a dispute at Awazon Market costs you

The honest number is the whole deposit. Platform escrow releases on a signature, and a signature does not come with a discount attached: a wrong item, a half empty bag and a missing parcel all end with you signing for the same release, after a discussion. Vendor escrow adds a window, which is a deadline, and a deadline is not a partial refund unless the seller wrote that word into the listing.

On top of that sits a dispute desk that has to read both messages and choose. It can only choose between what the two of you typed into a text box, and there is no open ledger of those decisions at Awazon Market, no published resolution rate and no queue time. That single absence is why a page like this one exists at all: a service whose whole promise is a third key and no published dispute history is asking you to take the third key on trust.