Glossary · Yescrow

Escrow: Where the price is held during a deal. It has no owner and nobody can change it; it pays only the deal’s buyer, seller, fee and referrer, as the deal’s rules say.
Deal ID: A 66-character fingerprint of the deal’s terms. Changing any term gives a different deal ID, which is why an approval for one deal can’t be used for another.
Registrar: The company you rent a domain through (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun…). Each has an IANA Registrar ID.
Registry: The operator of a domain ending (Verisign for .com). Its record says which registrar holds each domain.
Registry record: The registry’s public record of each domain. Yescrow reads the registrar, nameservers, dates and status from it.
IANA Registrar ID: The number every accredited registrar has, for example 1068 for Namecheap. Deals name the buyer’s registrar by it.
Registry proof: A tamper-proof copy of the registry’s own record, showing it really came from the registry. Two independent services confirm each proof, one of them Yescrow’s, and the escrow checks both before anything is paid.
“Before” and “after” proofs: For a move between registrars, a proof at acceptance shows the domain at another registrar; a later one shows it at the buyer’s.
Move to another registrar: The usual deal: the domain leaves the seller’s registrar for the buyer’s. Its proof is the strongest.
Same-registrar push: Both use the same registrar and the seller pushes the domain between accounts. Its proof only shows the nameservers changed, so the buyer’s account check carries the deal.
Nameservers: The servers a domain’s DNS points to. In a same-registrar push, the buyer’s nameservers are part of the terms.
Transfer code: A secret from the seller’s registrar (also called auth or EPP code) that lets the buyer’s registrar take the domain. Share it privately.
Registrar lock: A setting that blocks transfers. The seller turns it off before a move between registrars.
60-day lock: Registrars refuse transfers within 60 days of registration, of a previous transfer, or (at some registrars) of an owner change.
Accept by: The deadline for the other party to accept a proposal. After it, the proposal can be cancelled and any locked money returned.
Transfer window: Time from acceptance until the proof is due. Without a proof by then, the buyer can be refunded.
Challenge window: Time after the proof for the buyer to check their account and challenge. Without a challenge, the seller is paid.
Fee deadline: After a dispute opens, the time the other side has to match the arbitration fee before losing by default.
Challenge: The buyer’s way to open a dispute after a proof, when the domain isn’t in their account.
Dispute court: An independent court whose jurors decide disputed deals. Deals up to $2,000 go to AI jurors, larger ones to human jurors. Yescrow doesn’t choose them.
Arbitration fee: What the court charges for a case: about $2 for deals up to $2,000, about $12 above, paid in ETH. Each side pays it once; the winner gets theirs back.
Ruling: The court’s decision: the seller delivered (paid), didn’t deliver (refunded), or no decision (split 50/50).
Yescrow’s judge: Decides a dispute only when the court refuses the case or gives no final ruling within 90 days: within 14 days, between the buyer and the seller, without a fee. Otherwise the deal is split 50/50.
Settlement: A split both parties sign during a dispute. The seller gets the agreed amount less the 1% fee and the buyer the rest. Arbitration fees go back to whoever paid them if the court has not been asked yet; after that, the held fee is split in half.
Concede: Give in during a deal or a dispute: the buyer pays the seller, or the seller refunds the buyer.
Automatic steps: Anyone can trigger a step whose deadline has passed, such as paying the seller after the challenge window. Yescrow does it automatically.
Free to use: You approve each step in your wallet and Yescrow submits it for you, paying the network costs. It can’t change anything you approved.
Deposit address: Each deal’s own address for paying from an exchange: send the price there in the deal’s coin (USDC or USDT), on Arbitrum One only. Nobody holds a key to it; it can only fund that deal or send its contents back to the buyer.
Approving a step: Your wallet asks you to approve readable fields (deal, domain, parties, price, deadline). Yescrow shows every field before your wallet opens.
Withdraw: Closing a deal credits balances; each party withdraws their own. A freeze on one side can’t trap the other side’s money.
Digital dollars (USDC and USDT): What a deal holds: dollar coins worth $1 each, USDC issued by Circle and USDT by Tether. Each issuer can freeze its coin at any address. Exchanges sell them and pay them out to your bank.
Test version: This version of Yescrow uses test dollars. Nothing here has real value.
TDRP and UDRP: ICANN procedures that can take a domain back after a sale: a transfer dispute (up to 12 months later) and trademark disputes. Yescrow doesn’t cover them.