Glossary
Escrow
Escrow places something consequential — funds, a cryptographic key, a credential — in the custody of a neutral third party pending a defined condition, rather than leaving it in the sole control of either the original holder or the intended eventual recipient. Neither party can unilaterally access or withhold what's held in escrow; release depends on the condition actually being satisfied, verified by the neutral holder rather than asserted by either interested party.
This is useful specifically where neither original party can be fully trusted to hold something alone until the right moment arrives — a buyer shouldn't release funds before receiving what they paid for, and a seller shouldn't have to hand over the goods before being paid, so a neutral party holding the funds in between resolves that mutual mistrust structurally, without requiring either side to simply trust the other outright.