censoring the user because i massively respect them as a cryptographer and they design algorithms and theoretically research i could only dream of...
but this isn't exactly a good argument for cryptocurrencies.
if your basis of a future decentralized protocol is based on various different assets that are interchanged, but a major issue for users is that they can't be reversed... and you can only implement this with centralized trust? well, it undermines the core idea.
It doesn't have to be implemented with centralized trust. For example, a merchant could give you a choice of payment arbitrators. Even Bitcoin can do this with multisig and time locks. It's how Lightning works where your Lightning node force closes if the other end misbehaves.
Ah, I get it now.
What I meant is not really escrow but rather having a time lock where merchant can spend it once that's over but there's a way for customer + arbitrator to block that via 2-of-2 multisig where arbitrator then decides if the merchant or customer can spend it.