🔐 EscrowLink: A Next-Gen Ethereum Escrow Protocol

EscrowLink is an advanced, decentralized escrow system built on the Ethereum blockchain. Designed for the modern digital economy, it enables secure, transparent, and trustless transactions between untrusted parties. By leveraging smart contracts, optional decentralized dispute resolution, and privacy-preserving tools, EscrowLink introduces a new standard for escrow services across freelance platforms, peer-to-peer marketplaces, DAOs, and digital commerce.

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📜 Abstract

Escrow services are critical for facilitating trust in online transactions, especially in peer-to-peer environments where centralized platforms introduce high fees, custodial risks, and opaque dispute resolution processes.

EscrowLink eliminates these issues by providing a fully decentralized escrow system, augmented with multi-party support, modular dispute resolution, and time-bound programmable contracts. It integrates optional AI + human juror arbitration, privacy-preserving metadata validation via zero-knowledge proofs, and on-chain reputation tracking for enhanced security and accountability.

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🚀 Key Features

• Trustless Smart Contract Escrow
  Funds are locked and managed by verifiable, immutable smart contracts.

• AI + Juror-Based Dispute Resolution
  Layered arbitration using juror voting with fallback AI-based mediation to reduce costs and bias.

• Multi-Party Escrow
  Supports scenarios involving more than two participants (e.g., buyer-seller-broker).

• Time-Locked Transactions
  Automatically trigger refunds, releases, or disputes if deadlines are missed.

• Zero-Knowledge Metadata Proofs
  Prove transaction metadata without revealing sensitive data on-chain.

• Tokenized Escrow Receipts (ERC-1155)
  Represent escrow agreements as transferable NFTs with embedded metadata.

• Mobile-Optimized DApp UI
  Built for usability on low-bandwidth and mobile-first environments.

• Cross-Chain Compatibility (Planned)
  Deployable across EVM chains and L2s like Arbitrum, Base, and zkSync.

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🧠 How It Works

1. Create Escrow Agreement

   • Parties agree on terms: payment amount, conditions, milestones, dispute flow, etc.
   • Smart contract is deployed via the factory contract.

2. Deposit Funds

   • Buyer or funder deposits ETH or supported ERC-20 into the escrow contract.

3. Action or Delivery

   • Seller completes task or milestone and submits proof via DApp.

4. Approval or Dispute

   • Buyer approves for release OR opens a dispute.
   • Arbitration can be automated, community-based, or both.

5. Release or Refund

   • Funds are released to the seller or returned to buyer, depending on resolution.

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🔐 Security Features

• ✅ Audited Smart Contracts (Audit in progress by [Auditor TBD])
• ✅ Non-Custodial: Funds are never held by any third party.
• ✅ Re-entrancy Guarded
• ✅ Fail-Safe Timeout Logic
• ✅ Admin-Free Deployment
• ✅ Modular Permissioning for DAO governance

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🧰 Tech Stack

• Blockchain: Ethereum Mainnet + Sepolia (testnet)
• Smart Contracts: Solidity
• Frontend: Next.js + Wagmi + Rainbow kit
• Optional Oracles: Chainlink (for external time/event data)

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🧱 Smart Contract Architecture

+------------------------+
|   EscrowFactory.sol    | <- Deploys and manages individual contracts
+------------------------+
            |
            v
+------------------------+
|  EscrowContract.sol    | <- Manages logic for one transaction
+------------------------+
            |
      +-----------+------------+
      |                        |
+------------------+   +---------------------+
| DisputeModule.sol|   | ReputationOracle.sol |
+------------------+   +---------------------+