If you are not using Epik.com for escrow, you are wasting time and money!

[Rob Monster]

Special Program for NamePros members only: Process your escrow transaction via Epik.com using bank transfer or major crypto, with a domain name registered at Epik.com and we'll waive the escrow fee completely! No escrow fee. No cashout fee. No kidding.

NamePros members are switching to Epik.com for Domain Name Escrow. Here's why:

- Lowest Fees: NamePros members pay no minimum fees. For domains registered at Epik.com, escrow is FREE when your buyer pays via bank transfer or major crypto. Otherwise, escrow is as low as 1.5%!

- Fast closing: Escrow transactions with domains registered at Epik, paid with major crypto or bank deposit can typically be closed within hours. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- Secure Transactions: Epik.com is the only full-service escrow agent that is also a full-service accredited registrar. Transfer in and out within minutes. If a transaction is cancelled, your domain is not in limbo-land!

- Flexible payment solutions: Pay or get paid via wire transfer, ACH, major crypto, credit card, PayPal, Transferwise or Western Union. We support all major currencies, domain swaps and scheduled payments.

There has never been a better time to move your domains to Epik.com and to choose our integrated solutions for domain marketplace and escrow services.

To get started on your escrow transaction, simply go here:

https://www.epik.com/services/escrow/

To discuss your portfolio or escrow transaction, contact us at [email protected], visit us Epik.com or phone us at +1.425-366-8810 or US toll-free at +1.888-894-9026.

This is a sponsored post.​

 

[jberryhill]

In the US, the practice is typically referred to as a Section 1031 like for like exchange.

Well I guess Rob's not going to answer. My question is not about your escrow service, but about your shifting characterization of the transaction structure as a 1031 exchange.

First, the potato farming thing is not analogous to a 1031 like-kind exchange. The potatoes all belong to the farmer, and the farmer is not exchanging his potatoes for someone else's potatoes.

Be that as it may, there are a number of steps and timelines to qualify as a 1031 exchange for the IRS. Saying "there's never been a challenge" is kind of silly, given the relatively low probability of the IRS catching all manner of shenanigans, given the decimation of their ability to enforce the law in the last few years. It's like a bank robber saying "we've never been challenged" in a large city with two cops.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/business/economy/irs-tax-fraud-audit.html

Starting in 2011, Republicans in Congress repeatedly cut the I.R.S.’s budget, forcing the agency to reduce its enforcement staff by a third. But that drop doesn’t entirely explain the reduction in tax fraud cases.
...

“Due to budget cuts, attrition and a shift in focus, there’s been a collapse in the commitment to take on tax fraud,” said Chuck Pine, who used to be the third-ranking criminal enforcement officer at the I.R.S. and is now a managing director at BDO Consulting. “I believe there are thousands of individuals who have U.S. tax obligations and are not complying with U.S. tax laws.”

So, "there's never been a challenge" is a foolish argument.

But you have to make up your mind whether these are escrow transactions or 1031 like-kind exchanges.

The other stupid argument here is saying that "escrow only applies to real or personal property and domain names are not". Well, sure, you can say that if you want to, but if you are saying that domain names are not some form of "personal property", then domain transactions NEVER qualified for 1031 like-kind treatment in the first place - and they certainly don't after the 2017 tax act.

Rob's not paying attention to the revised IRS rules on 1031 exchanges, and his vague reference to unidentified "precedent" is irrelevant to the current IRS rules.

Anyone who thinks they are doing a 1031 exchange with domain names had better read what the IRS has to say, and not what Rob is peddling:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/smal...oyed/like-kind-exchanges-real-estate-tax-tips

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Section 1031 now applies only to exchanges of real property and not to exchanges of personal or intangible property. An exchange of real property held primarily for sale still does not qualify as a like-kind exchange. A transition rule in the new law provides that Section 1031 applies to a qualifying exchange of personal or intangible property if the taxpayer disposed of the exchanged property on or before December 31, 2017, or received replacement property on or before that date.

The ship on 1031 exchanges on domain names has sailed, and it sailed more than a year ago. Rob's understanding of 1031 exchanges is out of date and extremely bad advice. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you rely on Rob's statement that domain name trades can qualify for 1031 exchange treatment by the IRS, you can end up IN PRISON.

So, please, make up your mind. Either domain names are (or rather "were" until the code changed) "real property or personal property" subject to 1031 like-kind exchanges, or they are not. You can't say, for the purpose of 1031 exchanges that they are personal property, and for escrow transactions they are not personal property. But, again, it doesn't matter anyway, since domain names are certainly not real property, so anything Rob has to say about domain names and 1031 exchanges is completely wrong and misguided, and has been since December 2017.

And, finally, even if Epik was providing Qualified Intermediary services for 1031 exchanges, the State of Washington has the following laws which apply to 1031 exchange facilitators:

https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=19.310&full=true

19.310.040
Duties of exchange facilitator—Fidelity bonds.
(1) A person who engages in business as an exchange facilitator must:
(a)(i) Maintain a fidelity bond or bonds in an amount of not less than one million dollars executed by an insurer authorized to do business in this state for the benefit of a client of the exchange facilitator that suffers a direct financial loss as a result of the exchange facilitator's covered dishonest act. Such fidelity bond must cover the acts of employees of an exchange facilitator and owners of a nonpublicly traded exchange facilitator; or
(ii) Deposit all exchange funds in a qualified escrow account or qualified trust, as both terms are defined under treasury regulation section 1.1031(k)-1(g)(3), with a financial institution. If an exchange facilitator deposits exchange funds in a qualified escrow account or qualified trust:
(A) A withdrawal of exchange funds requires the exchange facilitator and the client to independently authenticate a record, as defined under RCW 62A.9A-102, of the transaction; and
(B) The client of the exchange facilitator must receive independently from the depository financial institution, by any commercially reasonable means, a current statement for verification of the deposited exchange funds; and
(b) Disclose on the company web site and contractual agreement the following statement in large, bold, or otherwise conspicuous typeface calculated to draw the eye: "Washington state law, RCW 19.310.040, requires an exchange facilitator to either maintain a fidelity bond in an amount of not less than one million dollars that protects clients against losses caused by criminal acts of the exchange facilitator, or to hold all client funds in a qualified escrow account or qualified trust that requires your consent for withdrawals. All exchange funds must be deposited in a separately identified account using your taxpayer identification number. You must receive written notification of how your exchange funds have been deposited. Your exchange facilitator is required to provide you with written directions of how to independently verify the deposit of the exchange funds. Exchange facilitation services are not regulated by any agency of the state of Washington or of the United States government. It is your responsibility to determine that your exchange funds will be held in a safe manner." If recommending other products or services, the exchange facilitator must disclose to the client that the exchange facilitator may receive a financial benefit, such as a commission or referral fee, as a result of such recommendation. The exchange facilitator must not recommend or suggest to a client the use of services of another organization or business entity in which the exchange facilitator has a direct or indirect interest without full disclosure of such interest at the time of recommendation or suggestion.
(2) An exchange facilitator must provide evidence to each client that the requirements of this section are satisfied before entering into an exchange agreement.
(3) Upon request of a current or prospective client, or the attorney general under chapter 19.86 RCW, the exchange facilitator must offer evidence proving that the requirements of this section are satisfied at the time of the request.

...

19.310.090
Administration of places of business—Direct management.
A person who engages in business as an exchange facilitator must administer each of his, her, or its places of business under the direct management of an officer or an employee who is either:
(1) An attorney or certified public accountant admitted to practice in any state or territory of the United States; or
(2) A person who has passed a test specific to the subject matter of exchange facilitation.

...

19.310.120
Prima facie evidence of fraud—Violations—Penalty—Cure for violations.
(1) Failure to fulfill the requirements under RCW 19.310.040 constitutes prima facie evidence that the exchange facilitator intended to defraud a client who suffered a subsequent loss of the asset entrusted to the exchange facilitator.
(2) A person who engages in business as an exchange facilitator and who knowingly violates RCW 19.310.100 (1) through (9) or fails to comply with the requirements under RCW 19.310.040 is guilty of a class B felony under chapter 9A.20 RCW. However, an exchange facilitator is not guilty of a class B felony for failure to comply with the requirements under RCW 19.310.040 if: (a) Failure to comply is due to the cancellation or amendment of the fidelity bond by the bond issuer; and (b) the exchange facilitator:
(i) Within thirty days, takes all reasonable steps to comply with the requirements under RCW 19.310.040; and
(ii) Deposits any new exchange funds into a qualified escrow account or qualified trust until a fidelity bond is obtained that meets the requirements under RCW 19.310.040(1)(a)(i).

-----------

Again, since domain names are not real property, and ONLY real property qualifies for 1031 like-kind exchange treatment, then it is somewhat academic to point out that if Epik is purporting to provide intermediary services for 1031 exchanges (and they certainly are performing the steps of selling the first property, holding the proceeds, and buying the second property), then if they had been doing so without complying with the requirements of Washington law, then Epik has been engaged in the commission of a felony under the relevant Washington law.

So, Rob, I have to ask you: Do you now or have you ever provided intermediary services for IRS 1031 exchanges in the State of Washington?

It's not a hard question, since you have made several references to transactions on the Epik platform qualifying as 1031 exchanges under the IRS code.

 

[equity78]

If it walks like a duck quacks like a duck it is...an escrow! and should be licensed regulated bonded all that.

This goes for UNDeveloped
https://dan.com/legal/terms-of-use
where the "Contractor" (UNDeveloped / DAN) is defined in their Terms of Service as the party that handles the transfer of the domain from the Provider (seller) to the Transferee (buyer) via Contractor's "escrow account"

and Epik "Escrow"

flat out mentions that it is an escrow too.

As far as the argument of "what could go wrong," I'd agree that the risk is small, but then so is the risk of your house burning down, so why bother with home insurance then is what the Monster appears to be saying here:

because Errors and Omissions and Directors and Officers insurance cover negligence only, and only negligence by Epik, not intentional acts of fraud by anyone, and might not cover the sorts of issues that might arise in an escrow, such as if a stolen domain were sold to a party, and then later retrieved via ICANN, leaving the buyer out the funds paid, unless Monster is saying that he'd step in and say "this is all our fault we should have screened the domain better" because absent such an admission, their insurance will not cover!

This is getting a little ridiculous here, either you're a licensed and bonded escrow, or you're grasping at straws at how you might cover a claim. I will agree that at least Epik is musing on how they might cover a claim, I can respect that, --- while UNDeveloped's game plan is to leave zero assets in their "escrow like" non-profit entity to avoid liability entirely - can't squeeze blood out of an UNDeveloped turnip is DAN's defense.

Fair points XY but to the point of stolen domain names, Escrow.com did not reimburse @BoothDomains Sedo does not protect you either, I have been talking about this for awhile and need to finish an article I have been working on but this whole industry is a joke, where every marketplace or escrow company, license bonded, etc... Says if you bought a name hypothetically for $30,000 and then down the road it's taken from you by ICANN, A court, Verisign and given back to the person who proved it was stolen, "SORRY we can't reimburse you, but please know we frown on this and again are really sorry" Take your sorry and shove it straight up your ass.

 

[Rob Monster]

Jackson,

Interesting article. I am not sure what it has to do with this thread, but good to hear from you.

So, yes, you are fully right there: domain owners should be mindful of the fiscal status and ethics of their critical vendors where they entrust their assets whether that be funds, or domains, or both.

As Escrow.com is not a registrar, there is an automatic leap of faith that escrow.com will be able to verify that the domain is owned by the registrant. As you are not an actual registrar, or even a reseller, you depend on others to hold the domain and verify chain of title. That is classic counter-party risk.

As was covered recently in the context of the Alex69 thread here on NamePros, it is precisely because Epik.com is a registrar (IANA # is 617) that we were able to quickly catch a fraud in the act.

At Epik, we only do domains - not collectibles, not cars, or other non-technical items. When it comes to clearing transactions, we deal only in domains. That's it. We are specialists. We wrote our own software from end to end. We don't lose domains. Ever.

As for fiscal strength, since the parent company of Escrow.com, Freelancer is a public company, anyone and everyone can review your public filings like this one from 2018 which is also attached to this post.

From an investment perspective, I think it is worth noting that the pattern of Freelancer has more current liabilities than current assets. This does not inspire a ton of confidence. Your auditors did not cite any going concern issue. I think a larger auditor might have concluded differently.

This in particular looks like a company operating paycheck to paycheck:

Did I get that wrong? Please enlighten the good people of NamePros with your on the record response about the fiscal state of Freelancer and practices for management of customer escrow deposits.

At the end of the day, escrow.com is a subsidiary of a public company. There is significant overhead associated with being public. There is also overhead of maintaining a vast number of local licenses.

As for liquidity, I noted that daily trading volume of less than $100,000 based on ASD to USD exchange of $0.69:

Well, having run a public company myself, I realy don't envy your situation -- being a publicly traded company with a lightly traded stock trading on a regulated exchange a price per share of less than $1. Although the market cap looks theoretically impressive, let's face it, there is not much float when 2 guys own almost the entire company, right?

Personally, I am too busy being productive running Epik to spend time figuring out how to short the FLN stock. I imagine others might explore that scenario as this business does not look recession-proof at all.

Anecdotally, I understand that the industry is already reporting that escrow.com is paying out more slowly, and applying more friction to the payout process. Gee, I wonder why.

When it comes to paying out customers, let's talk facts about Epik. We do our best to pay out promptly.
Earlier today there was 3L.com transaction where we wired out a$ $70K wire, without any fee, for a domain that arrived about an hour earlier. There was no verification needed because the seller had funds at Epik and the buyer and broker are both known to Epik. Can Escrow.com do that?

Yesterday, a seller had a marketplace domain sale which closed late the night before. The seller was unbanked and urgently needed funds. Western Union was going to charge them a 10% money processing fee. We arranged for the seller to get physical cash that day and with no additional fee. Can escrow do that?

As for management ethics, people should absolutely make a careful review of the values of management. Most people who know me will tell you that I am an open book and a pretty nice guy too. I try to help people where I can, and I believe the domain industry offers fantastic opportunities for hard-working people to make a living.

As for licensing, as you know, domain marketplaces are not regulated. With Epik, registrants get a marketplace that is fully and tightly integrated with an accredited registrar. It happens to be led by a buck-stops-here CEO who is highly accessible and who does not suffer fools.

As for cryptocurrencies, they are a perfectly viable medium of exchange. The domain market is rapidly adopting cryptos for clearing domain transactions. I see that as a positive development. If buyer or seller wants to transact in crypto, we accommodate that, including the option of converting seller proceeds which we do through established cryptocurrency brokers who we know well and have low fees.

So what was your point Jackson?

 

[Rob Monster]

As @xynames explains, Epik.com is now the obvious choice for the large transactions. I agree.

For the small transactions, sub $5000, which are often done via credit card or PayPal, it is possible that other options are comparable.

The point here is to empower customers who do get a large domain sale to be able to use proceeds from their sale to fund their Epik account tax-free and commission-free for future registrations and transfers.

As more customers hold their high value domains at Epik, their domains will be held securely in an accredited registrar that can instantly complete a risk-free and commission-free escrow on a 24/7 basis.

By way of parallel, people routinely $15-25 to have documents notarized. However, if they go to their local full-service bank, they will do it for free. Same here. We consider risk-free escrow to be a customer benefit.

Regards,
Rob

 

[Addison]

Rob,

Your efforts to innovate and move the industry forward are exemplary. Seriously, please don't stop.

Superb work!

 

[Silentptnr]

Wow...surprising to see a 'professional' make a post sharing the confidential information you refer to. Just goes to show, even if you make (pay yourself) over a half a mil a year, you can still be void of any class.

I can say personally that Rob Monster is open about his business and has disclosed many financial details to me over the course of our meetings.

Without being asked I would never reveal information about Epik or our dealings. Non disclosure was mutually understood.

Let me add that based on my analysis, Epik is well positioned for long term stability and growth.

 

[Rob Monster]

For anyone doing structured payments or leases, here are a few very good reasons why you will want to use Epik.

1. The domain is secure during the lease.
Epik is the registrar for the domain during any lease which means the domain is completely secure with no accidental risk of domain hijack by the person that you have given DNS control over your domain. This is not to be underestimated as DNS control is one of the primary ways to prove "Ownership" for a domain that is listed with WHOIS privacy.

2. You make money in your sleep
Epik is 24/7. We help customers to succeed with their domain, regardless of whether they own the domain or lease the domain. Your lessee can login at Epik anytime and start using their domain. If they need technical support to change DNS, edit host records, add hosting, get a SSL, or diagnose why something is not working with their site, they contact Epik, not you.

3. No transaction is too small -- even $5 monthly leases add up.
Some customers are participating opportunistically in domain promos like Epik's recent $0.99 .CO promo. These are domain that should be sold or leased within a year or the registrant has to contend with a $20 .CO renewal fee. With Epik there is minimum escrow fee. As such, even a $5/month lease is a money-maker. It is a self-serve operation and even all of the re-billing is handled by Epik. It is painless!

4. No front-loaded fees. No minimum fees.
The competition wants to charge you a front-loaded escrow fee for managing a transaction with staged payments. At Epik we don't do that. Your commission is charged as you get paid and you can use those funds immediately 24/7. As for the fees, if your buyer flakes out, the domain owner is not left holding the drippy bag! NamePros also pay no minimum fees.

5. We help you convert leases into exits
Sometimes customers who are financing a purchase have challenges. Our job is to get transactions done. For larger transactions this sometimes means advising the buyer and making risk assessments as to whether to advise the seller to extend the buyer any accommodation in order to keep a transaction on track to get to the big payday: the exit..

For folks who are new to leasing and structured payments, there has never been a better time to master this pricing strategy. When someone wants your domains, leases and structured payments allow you to turn your domain expense into positive cashflow rather than waiting years for the next qualified buyer to come along!

Epik was the very first company to integrate leasing with self-service registrar. I would be surprised if we are not #1 in domain leasing right now. See here for how it all started.

And here is a helpful how-to:

https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/selling-and-leasing-domains-on-epik/

As a NamePros member you can also be approved to sell your domains at Epik even if your domains are registered elsewhere. And when you make a big sale, we hope you will use your proceeds to fund your transfers to Epik! Why? Because it is past time to move your domain assets to HIGHER GROUND.



Acquire. Build. Manage Sell -- all in one place.

Full Service. All-inclusive. No Nonsense.

 

[Domain boy]

UPDATE:

This promo doesn't seem to be valid anymore:

 

[bmugford]

Is it a fact that NamePro's members are switching to Epik's Escrow Services?

No.

Epik no longer offers escrow services after they scammed people like @Kathleen Kalaf and others.

They are also facing a RICO lawsuit regarding their unlicensed escrow services, where they allegedly took a $327,000 payment in May 2022 and never delivered the domain or a refund.

Brad

 

[Rob Monster]

The BBB is a fraud organization who engages in extortion and should be shut down or at least have it's non-profit status removed. You can google about them and you can also watch this 8 min video, paying particular attention to the last couple minutes

Escrow

Epik may not be a licensed escrow service, but it's still better than every single escrow service, imo.

Thanks Haris.

In the last 30 days, we have been responding to interrogatories from 4 state agencies. This is all courtesy of some self-serving correspondence from Mr. Elsegood at Escrow.com whose full correspondence we have.

Bottom line:

Epik Holdings is the parent company of an accredited registrar. We buy names. We sell names. If we choose to make no profit on those transactions because it is risk-free that is our prerogative to do so.

Just like Godaddy or Uniregistry, Epik is buying names and selling names. The difference with Epik is that as a customer benefit, we are prepared to do it at break-even while taking control of the domain as registrar.

We do this as a full-service product, often assisting sellers in closing their transaction while reassuring buyers that they will immediately be able to use their domains and can transfer out without a 60-day lock.

When it comes to clearing domain transactions between buyer and seller, the integrated Epik approach of full-service registrar and market-maker is a superior solution. Anyone who has used it, knows it to be true.

 

[Rob Monster]

Hello Rob

Great financial analysis.

While we are talking about financials, why don't you post a copy of Epik's so your customers know what they are getting into?

You sent me a copy a few months ago when you approached me to sell Epik, remember? I'm not sure what account you hold your escrows in given in December 2018 you had less than $50,000 cash between your bank and Paypal accounts. That's not enough to even pay out all those people that you got to buy Masterbucks.

Regards
Matt

Hey Matt,

Thanks for checking in.

First of all, I know you guys are going hard at it, and that's all cool. You are an entrepreneur, and I respect that. You are smart and you hustle. You have done a lot of deals, and you know your business. I think you will end up regretting not being a registrar, because your domain escrow business model is structurally flawed. I don't know much about your core freelancer business but I applaud anyone who empowers the little guy to get paid selling their time and talent. As such, I hope you guys continue and power through.

As for the Epik financials shared with you, it was actually shared in confidence. Even without an NDA, it is a well-known decorum to treat such data in confidence. The fact that you would share sensitive information, is perhaps indicative of your ethics. By my book, that would not ever pass the "Do unto others" test. I encourage you to use that test as a simple gut-test regardless of any guiding faith or spiritual practice. Even at age 45, you are old enough to know better.

As for Epik's fiscal strength, Epik is closely held. We have a recurring revenue model that is gaining momentum. As you well know, we invest very heavily in product development. The attached company overview outlines some of the various projects that we are working on beyond the Epik platform including registrar, hosting, domain marketplace, etc. These are mature products.

Worth noting we did also complete 2 acquisitions so far in 2019 -- BitMitigate.com and Sibyl Systems. This in turn allowed us to introduce new products like Anonymize VPN and Resilient Domains as well as incubate new projects like Us.Tv, WatchMask.com and Armored.net, all developed in the last few months.

As for our cash, as you saw, we put it to work. We fund development. We buy companies. In case you missed, it we also do interest-free domain loans -- we have hundreds of thousands of dollars loaned out at any given time to people who were at risk of losing their domains due to liquidity issues. We just did a loan a few hours ago, in fact and get loan inquiries daily. We also have significant sums on deposit with domain registries like Verisign that require pre-payment. We also do domain promos, like our recent $0.99 .CO promo at material loss but which yielded more than 30,000 .CO registrations so far in July.

As for domains, we own about 9,000 development-grade domains on our own accounts. Per GAAP, we keep those on the books at lower of cost or market -- which is about $4.78 million. For calibration, the appraised value of the domain portfolio alone is more than the shareholder equity of your entire company and that is even allowing for your $26.4 million in intangibles (my goodness) that your auditors probably would like you to write down but doing so would make it even harder to get a follow-on offering done.

As a seasoned entrepreneur, you know that it is always possible to do a capital call. I could do one at anytime, and our Board and investors know it. Our largest liability is deferred salary to me, the CEO and controlling shareholder. This might sound crazy but I actually pay myself last. I am sure you are worth every bit of the $569K salary you pay yourself but I prefer to hand out a few more domain loans, or do some development, or aggressive promo than pay myself a wage.

With all due respect, I actually don't doubt you work your ass off which is actually why I had the humility to reach out and explore a strategic cooperation. I enjoyed our phone conversation. I liked the geographic diversity of your location and I saw some obvious synergy in a market that is evolving. However, based on your remarks here in this thread, I conclude that a cooperation is not interesting, and that is fine.

Regards

Rob Monster
Founder and CEO
Epik Holdings Inc.

 

[Brandon Abbey]

Probably a little off-topic, but here are my thoughts.

I haven’t paid much attention to the escrow space since Payoneer closed their escrow operation and I left the company. Escrow software is available, but to do it the way I wanted it would have cost $1.5 million and taken close to two years. I do have a history with both Epik and Escrow.com. Here are some of my observations. While at Escrow.com we had a good relationship with Rob Monster and Epik. It was a form of coopetition, sure we competed at times, but we also worked together. That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Rob and I have kept in touch, not so with Matt Barrie.

When Escrow.com started there wasn’t a significant aftermarket for domain names. We kind of fell into it with encouragement from many of the top individuals in the business. After attending my first TRAFFIC conference I knew this was where we could make an impact. My thanks to many names you will see here - https://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2006/february.htm, especially Ron Jackson. The original plan was to provide escrow for vehicles and it never took off the way we had hoped. eBay Motors and AutoTrader were two of our first customers. When eBay bought PayPal in 2002 that relationship dwindled to a couple of transactions per month. At the time of the sale to Freelancer domain/website sales were about 75% of the business.

Escrow.com has certainly changed since I was there working with 15 very talented employees. From a recent article interviewing Barrie I noticed this - Today the company employs 72 people in five countries, mainly located in Australia but with its headquarters in San Francisco and offices in London, Buenos Aires and Manila. https://www.news.com.au/finance/bus...s/news-story/9f6a4d6951749db793bb49eebb46c920 That is some serious growth, congrats.

I can understand why Barrie is hot on the regulatory issues. From Freelancer 2018 annual report regarding Escrow.com - "as part of this process, in FY18 the division incurred one-off regulatory penalties of $0.8 million (FY17: $0.2 million) for unlicensed activity (substantially preacquisition). In addition the Company has further made provision of $0.4 million as an estimate of probable penalties." I wasn’t able to find the details of how transactions are handled on Freelancer’s own domain/website marketplace, Freemarket.com. I

Really off topic - Internet fraud was something of a hot button for me and I participated with the FBI and IC3 in their efforts to combat the fraudsters. Occasionally, I will send a note to Barrie when I see something that doesn’t look right - http://www.amazonautosales.us/ and https://paymentexchange.com/

 

[Rob Monster]

Rob Monster is incredibly hands-on and often answers within seconds to a PM or email. I know no other registrar CEO that does that. He offers excellent support, as does the rest of the Epik staff. I wonder if there is really three or four Rob Monsters? How can he be all over the place all the time?

The topic of human productivity deserves its own thread. I wrote this article. Althought it is off topic, some folks might appreciate it:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/startup-productivity-2018-robert-monster/

I turned 52 on August 3. My energy level is comparable to that of when I was in my 20's. My wife and I have 5 kids -- 4 are grown now and 1 at home.

My wife is a successful physician with a very busy medical practice. We work hard. However, we also enjoy life, traveling the world with our youngest daughter.

In general, people greatly underestimate what they can get done in a day. Lord-willing, I will continue to be productive and make a positive impact on others.

I am especially appreciative that Epik has amazing people who I trust. If you work with trustworthy people, you don't waste time checking them all the time, and can just empower them to be great.

 

[Rob Monster]

It's nice to see Epik go above and beyond for customers, such as extending grace periods. Life can have challenges at times and it's good to know someone has your back. Epik seems to have your back when you may need it most.

Exactly.

Compassion in action:

- Interest free domain loans for up to 1 year

- Domain layaway for customers who need a little extra time

- Commission-free escrow transactions

- Happy Hours with domain below cost. Check it out here.

- Free domain restores for domains that did not have a backorder and were not deleted.

- Bug bounties and welcome credits -- literally free money.

- Dispute resolution and ombudsman work all for free

Look at my post activity or ask industry folks, and you will see this is all deeds not cheap rhetoric. We help folks succeed. That is our mandate first and foremost.

If you can find me another registrar who is doing more to help out the little guy, I will surely kiss your feet and theirs.

 

[Rob Monster]

Quick heads-up.

If you are doing a sale involving a Purchase and Sale agreement, you are welcome to have Epik route the contract. We use Docusign and don't charge a fee to route, hold and enforce agreements between buyer and seller. This can be a handy service.

Also, we do have templates for agreements. I attach one here that you are welcome to use if you are using Epik as the clearing registrar. This template names Epik specifically. Of course feel free to hire counsel but for some transactions you can just fill in the blanks.

As for the template, for transactions done elsewhere, use the template at your own risk.

 

[DNabc]

I've been on the domain market for over 20 years now, many, but many of the biggest domain companies disappointed me... I even lost good $xx,xxx++ due to the failures of some of these.

If it's really a regulated escrow or not is something that on my day by day business hasn't affected me at all, the domain marketplace can easily replace that for me. I understand the discussion here, I leave that to the intervenients, but on reality that doesn't help me keep my business going.

I can tell that until this date Epik has been a quality exception on terms of reliability and support, and Rob is the most responsive CEO I've seen on this industry... always quick to reply to my emails, and I mean minutes or a couple hours at best.

 

[Rob Monster]

Here are my thoughts about Epik and their marketplace.

First og all, Epik has many cool features for investors: Estibot value for each domain and in total, number of whois lookups and marketplace visits with IP addresses and many ccTLD extensions that make it compelling to consolidate all your domains there.

Prices are certainly fair if you get the NamePros pricing, and their marketplace commission and often no-fee escrow is great. I love that you can choose between a lot of different payment and rental plans for your domains for sale and add interest as well. And they offer buyers many different payment types, including crypto.

Rob Monster is incredibly hands-on and often answers within seconds to a PM or email. I know no other registrar CEO that does that. He offers excellent support, as does the rest of the Epik staff. I wonder if there is really three or four Rob Monsters? How can he be all over the place all the time?

I was one party to a transaction Rob mentioned earlier in this thread worth high five figures. I was the seller, and Rob made sure buyer submitted payment in a timely manner. I was indeed grateful for this. So why didn't I praise Rob in this thread? Because what happened after the transaction had concluded did not impress me.

I immediately requested a payout by wire transfer because I needed the funds. After two days, it had not arrived and I began to wonder. Then suddenly there is an email from Rob saying that he has cancelled the wire and deposited my funds back into my Epik account... That's like your bank cancelling your wire transfer because they want to keep your money in their system.

I am sure I could have insisted on getting the payout and receiving it, but as s it happens, I was going to use the funds to purchase a name, and luckily the seller agreed to do the transaction at Epik. But I am still perplexed as to why Rob stopped my wire transfer without even asking me.

Another red flag is the "five star review" of Epik and "Verified by TrustRatings.com" applied to all landing pages (see laptopcomputers.com as an example). Sorry, but this is just ridiculous. TrustRatings is owned by... Epik ... and the site does not feature a single review. Really, visitors are not that stupid that they will not realize this. If I am going to use the landing pages again, this one needs to go.

As to the "forever registrations" and "forever hosting", I am sceptical, but since I have no intention of using them, I don't really have a problem with them. And to my surprise it actually seems that quite a few companies offer forever hosting. But of course they don't have to worry about ICANN fees so are more in control of future costs.

Finally, the whole issue of Rob's belief system. I disagree with many thing and agree with some things, but that is really not going to impact my use of Epik. But I do think it would be great if he would focus on the registrar business in public.

So, to sum up, there are indeed many great things about Epik and Rob Monster. But there are also a few things that worry me. Oh, and what if Rob sells and leaves Epik one day? Who is going to help us with our transactions as fast and efficiently as he does?

Thanks @Embrand.

We did a good job on your transaction. That is true.

As for your comments about payout, because of the offshore jurisdiction of buyer and seller being tax havens, I asked for a phone call to discuss method of disbursement. We had that phone call, and within hours of that call, funds were disbursed exactly in line with your instructions.

So, let's be factual about your transaction. It was a MARKETPLACE transaction and not an Escrow transaction. Since you have raised questions about chronology, you leave me no choice but to to recap with facts, particularly in light of mention of my "belief system", which is simply one of lawful civil liberty.

So with that as context, I will make the very rare exception of disclosing details of a customer transaction in order to allow readers to objectively evaluate whether or not Epik did a good job in every aspect of the 2 transactions that were completed on your behalf.

1. On 7/15/19, someone visited your domain name DOTO.COM which was powered by one of Epik's SSL Marketplace landers. After some back and forth, they accepted your counter-offer of $69,995 through the Epik Marketplace.

2. The buyer, who is domiciled in Cyprus, needs time to arranage funds. I was in regular contact with him from 7/15. His funds clear via wire on 7/24. This is all without a hitch. The marketplace transaction also clears on 7/24.

3. The funds are now in your account net of marketplace commission. I then asked you via email for a phone call. We had that phone call the next day, on 7/25. This is all documented via emails and you of course know this to be the case.

4. On 7/26/19, you purchased the domain name ONA.com using proceeds from your sale of DOTO.COM. The seller of ONA.COM is also domiciled offshore.

5. On 7/26/19, the seller of ONA.com delivered the domain ONA.com to Epik, and proceeds from their sale were wired to their offshore bank account in line with their instructions.

As should be obvious from the chronology, Epik held funds for 2 days, and during that time completed 2 5-figure transactions. The second was commission free and we did not even charge a wire fee as a courtesy!

By any objective standard, that is some heroic work as the buyers and sellers across these 2 transactions were operating across different time zones, and all of this was accomplished within a 3 day period. I hope we can agree there!

Regardless, I congratulate you on your 2 successful Epik transactions. I hope you will continue to hold domains at Epik and use Epik for future marketplace transactions. Repeat customers are often impressed with the speed that we execute.

As for TrustRatings.com, that is actually a very serious development. There is no open source starting framework, but it is intended to challenge TrustPilot.com. It has a dedicated engineering team moving apace.

In summary, I appreciate your endorsement of our professionalism in working to close transactions. I would appreciate your acknowledgement that I have factually represented the events as they happened.

 

[Rob Monster]

Some product news on Epik Escrow.

In your Epik control panel, you will now find a quick link to the brand new and very slick Epik Escrow Dashboard.

You can start a transaction right from the dashboard and track the progress in realtime from start to finish. Many of the steps are being automated so that we can maximally streamline each step.

The dashboard has an intuitive setup wizard:

Depending on your role, the dialog changes:

It supports multiple products, multiple currencies.

It then tracks the transaction through the lifecycle:

Right now the longest lag times are domain transfers from dinosaur registrars who wait 5 days to finish transfers. The easy solution is to just hold domains at Epik. That way, escrow can be closed in minutes.

 

[karmaco]

Most registrars have the option to hold people’s money in their accounts— this is not something new or nefarious and none of them are licensed escrow agents either. This whole license thing is not of importance to the average domainer. We care that the transaction goes smoothly and we get paid promptly and without hassle.

Escrow might be licensed but it is fraught with issues. The transactions I have done there were unpleasant because I had to chase my money down. Since then I deal with Undeveloped or a registrar as much as possible because I can count on them to pay me promptly.

PayPal is not licensed either as a financial institution and they hold people’s money all the time. Licenses don’t matter if service is poor.

 

[wwwweb]

I think we really need to tear down payment walls, instead of building them up. Rob & Epik have constantly been on the leading edge of payment options, lease programs, forever domains, and you have to give him, and his company credit as they are innovators in this space which is not always easy.

This whole notion of escrow this that, whatever a payment processor, most cases the domain gets locked down for 60 days at epik to protect the transaction from chargeback, or what not, so it is all circumstantial. You guys can argue for years back, and forth, same thing happens in Washington, nobody gets anywhere.

At the end of the day, we want easier payment options for legitimate buyers, and sellers so transactions can run more smoothly. All this other talk is just circumstantial, we need to open the door for innovators, and not shut them out.

The more walls that get put up, the more aftermarket commissions you are going to end up paying 20-30% is really extreme for transactions that do not take up any physical space, or offline marketing.

 

[Rob Monster]

Agreed...On that CQD scandal, it's amazing that the victim can't get a response from Escrow.com, yet there was hours of correspondence on this thread accusing EpiK of not being licensed. Compound that time with complaint letters to government agencies and that would equate to alot of wasted resources. Resources that should be used for customers and innovation. Again, the victim of the CQD scandal is still waiting for a response.

This is an example of one company (Escrow.com) ignoring innovation and customers, while the other (EpiK) is focused on customers and innovation.

Competition in business can be healthy, unfortunately when a company tirelessly tries to hurt the competition, it hurts innovation. Innovation is good. Fortunately Epik is sound and can overcome these obstacles with ease. Although, the attempt to hurt remains very unfortunate for all.

Some secular (and seasonal) wisdom might apply here:

“Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean.”

― confucius

As for CQD, we got involved with cleaning up the Gab.com escrow transaction. That was actually a success story and I had no problem working with Brian Tharp at Escrow.com on that one. If we can help on CQD, happy to do so and without fee. The industry does not need messy doorsteps, nor pissing matches.

 

[DanSanchez]

Rob and Epik Escrow just closed a sudden deal on SUNDAY fellas, meaning payment verified and domain delivered on the same day.

The Escrow service at Epik is truly EPIK! I am very impressed and will be moving my operations to Epik completely. This is the type of revolutionary action that moves us all forward, we all go the extra mile for our clients every day and everyone benefits when the company you hire to work for you does the same.

Happy Sunday everyone!

 

[pooky]

Just finished my first sale on the Epik marketplace (for $2k).

Truly legendary support throughout from @Rob Monster

The best part - I received the wire transfer proceeds here in India, five minutes after it was sent, with Rob personally monitoring every stage of the transaction.

I'm bringing in the rest of my domains to Epik.

 

[markosan]

I just finished a domain name sale (lower end of $XX,XXX). After Escrow.com couldn't do it because the buyer was in Asia and they seemed couldn't transfer money to Escrow.com (which I used in the past) I searched for an alternative.
And I found Epik.com. I knew about them as registrar since over 10 years but never used for escrow.
The process went as smooth as possible, for me as seller but also for the buyer. Rob Monster was very prompt in addressing everything I asked and very fast in responding on email as well.
I don't see any reason others wouldn't use Epik escrow service. Hope they maintain the same level of service in the future too.