I think the idea has some merit, it is possible to develop an escrow app where the punter pays in the deposit and that is released when both parties agree and has GPS timing and co-ordinates are recorded to ensure both parties are more or less in the same place. There would be no need to have the real names or details of anyone involved. Those who didn't want to send money electronically could use Cash2App, obviously it would require a smart phone but I suspect for all the talk of burner phones most of us have an android punting phone capable of running apps.
Such an app might have wider reach for other face to face services although probably not much as real world reputation and recommendations are key for plumbers, etc.
There are problems though in that you need a neutral arbitrator to decide who is to be believed in what I think would be a commonly disputed scenario where punter and girl are in the same place according to each GPS but punter says he rang the bell and there was no answer and escort says no one rang the bell. Did he get cold feel or was she deposit scamming? Another common scenario: one party is on time the other is running late, you could invent rules around that, say booking has to be done within 15 minutes of the time booked, but whoever loses out is going to feel pissed off and possibly not use the app again.
There's the question of trusting the arbitrator, ideally you would have a trusted banking name behind it but that isn't going to happen. Gumtree/Ebay might see some value in this but I doubt it would be worth the hassle and risk. AW are really the only people who could do it but their tech development is very slow. If I set it up tomorrow would you trust me, I suspect not. You could get round this but every way of doing it adds cost.
Then there's the question of why is the deposit only payable by the punter and not by both parties? If the punter books a hotel for outcall and the girl doesn't show up he's lost out more than the escort who has one punter as a no show but others arrive. Would escorts pay a deposit? I suspect not, which gets us back to the much repeated point that punters shouldn't either so we are back to the start of this much gone over discussion.
Financially I don't think there would be the volume to make this work even if it was used more widely, according to this interesting article
External Link/Members OnlyThe escrow provider takes 5-10% of the transaction, on a deposit of £50 that would need a hell of alot of deposits to cover costs which would have to include human arbitration as well as app development, maintenance and security costs.
I don't think it will work but I would love to see someone try.
