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.​

 

[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.

 

[satsdifference.com]

just food for thought

as i delved recently into crypto from domaining (now im back)

learned about chainlink/smart contracts & api

apparently the new escrow.com is the innovation whereby payments for work interoperable blockchains is held in collateral until finished.

an interesting future there thought i'd share..


-have a special day

 

[googli]

What was the need of bringing details of a private deal in progress on a public forum? Is it fair and ethical @Matt Barrie?

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

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Survival of the fittest.
This isnt a team sport boys and girls

 

[Rob Monster]

Survival of the fittest.
This isnt a team sport boys and girls

Thanks for the comment.

While there is some truth to that, I think this category has plenty of upside of multiple players. We are not an aspiring monopolist. There is definite value in being efficient and having low overhead. We'll sacrifice margin if it makes the industry as a whole more successful. This is also why we do interest-free domain loans, domain registrations/transfer at or below cost. It is also why we allow domain investors to use our domain asset management tools for FREE even if 100% of their domains are registered elsewhere.

Specific to clearing buy-sell transactions, the fact is that Epik can do a $1 million escrow transaction and not charge a fee. If the domain is at Epik registrar and the buyer pays via wire, we can do that transaction for free. Let's face it -- it is very hard for anyone to compete with free. However in our case, for a domain that is on Epik, where buyer and seller are known/verifiable, and where funds are non-recourse (i.e. no chargeback risk), it is literally possible to complete that transaction without a fee.

The economic thesis -- fully validated -- is that when someone sells a domain, odds are good they will be buying more domains soon thereafter. That is exactly what we seeing playing out in real life. A NamePros member this week sold a 4L.com domain for $70K in our marketplace at a 9% commission, and a few days later he bought a 3L.com domain using those deposited funds as escrow. These transactions are near frictionless because Epik is the registrar and because we often know all the stakeholders personally.

Our domain name asset management tools are pretty much industry benchmark now across the entire domain life cycle: acquire, build, manage and sell. We are improving daily through organic development and acquisition, in part because we have demanding, sophisticated customers who give us continuous feedback, including a great comment today from @Bob Hawkes about his experience with Epik landers. Incidentally, the $70K 4L.com domain sale referenced above was done through one of those SSL landers.

I believe the evidence should be increasingly apparent to anyone paying attention that Epik is actively working as partners with domain investors to get their inventory sold or leased to retail end-users. Although I believe the PPC parking era is coming to a close, the demand for quality domains is strong. Domain name leasing, financing and sale offers plenty of upside, and with reasonable risk-adjusted returns. The recent example of $0.99 .CO domains is a case in point where folks have seen great ROI already.

 

[Internet.Domains]

Disclosing details of a private conversation.... NOT COOL!

 

[Gregr]

Cool thread! I wish there could be a trusted Escrow.com competitor. They do some stuff that annoys me. I set a 2 day inspection period. That inspection period should start the second I submit that I have pushed the name. It does not. I've had a transaction sit there for 2 months (holding my money) after I pushed because the buyer has no incentive to acknowledge the push. The buyer has the name and that's all they wanted. Escrow.com forces me to jump through hoops to get paid. The other annoyance is that I sometimes get people creating an escrow from my marketplace and never do anything beyond that. I've told Escrow.com to automatically cancel and remove those after 2 weeks of inaction but I'm forced to jump through hoops to get those removed.

The problem is Escrow.com is like Ebay is to auctions for domain name escrows. People try to compete but eventually fail. Maybe if Google jumped into this space it might be successful.

 

[Mister Funsky]

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.

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.

 

[Internet.Domains]

Congratulations @Rob Monster!

You are able to get multiple replies from two reps from Escrow.com while the owner of CQD.com could not get one reply. Not one!

To this day we have no idea what happened with the funds Escrow.com held. Who did they pay? Was KYC applied? Did they pay out? How did an escrow license help the person who was defrauded? Again, NOT ONE REPLY as of yet!

The money trail stops with Escrow.com. They claim to have KYC procedures, so there should be an easy answer here.

The person who was defrauded is still awaiting an answer from Escrow.com.

Her last post she tagged @Jackson Elsegood asking, "who has the money?"

So @Jackson Elsegood and @Matt Barrie:

Who has the money?



https://www.namepros.com/threads/resolved-domainer-loses-26k-on-a-stolen-domain.1068888/page-51

 

[mAd MaX]

Her last post she tagged @Jackson Elsegood asking, "who has the money?"

So @Jackson Elsegood and @Matt Barrie:

Who has the money?



https://www.namepros.com/threads/resolved-domainer-loses-26k-on-a-stolen-domain.1068888/page-51

The thread is [Resolved], I noticed. Is it still pending?

 

[Internet.Domains]

The thread is [Resolved], I noticed. Is it still pending?

She got her name back so that part is resolved.

The money trail stopped at Escrow.com and she is still awaiting an answer. That is not resolved.

Until Escrow cooperates she has no idea who defrauded her. Escrow.com would have the details of the person they paid out (if they did pay out).

Again, the money trail ends at escrow and she deserves an answer after an attempt to defraud her tens of thousands.

 

[TCK]

This is a fascinating educational read. Glad I came across it thanks to the post above by @Internet.Domains, albeit I arrive late. But I have read most of the posts.

It seems like the biggest issue is of advertising "escrow" service by Epik. I am not a lawyer so can't comment on the legality of that marketing strategy, but I know that when buyers think of "escrow" they are thinking of implied protections. That is the only reason why someone would use an escrow service.

One particular quote that jumped at me after reading one of the posts by @jberryhill, is the legal requirement for an escrow service to have at least $1,000,000 in a trust to compensate clients in case the company is strained, facing bankruptcy, etc. I am paraphrasing here.

So my question to @Rob Monster is whether Epik has such a trust and how much is in it?

Also, I've read posts comparing what Epik is doing with their escrow service to GoDaddy, Flippa, Uniregistry, and other marketplaces, which is no doubt the case. However, some of those marketplaces don't use the word escrow and the others use it but not so overtly. IMO, the overt usage of the word escrow in this thread and advertising is what set off this thread.

Obviously free escrow sounds great. But as some have experienced here, nothing is really free.

 

[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.

 

[TCK]

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

Thanks for putting that to rest. I know we can trust your personal analysis.

 

[Silentptnr]

Thanks for putting that to rest. I know we can trust your personal analysis.

I didn't ask for trust in case you meant that sarcastically. If not, then I still suggest independent research.

 

[Larion]

I actually love the philosophy of @Rob Monster and I also loved the 2 recent interviews of @Matt Barrie at DomainSherpa.

Instead of making arguments on a public forum, I think those 2 companies should cooperate.
I think Matt should just buy EPIK.com and also DAN.com and create a competitor to SEDO and Afternic.

Operating a Domain-Registrar and also creating a Domain-Marketplace will enhance the business of Freelancer.com and Escrow.com

It's a WIN-WIN.

 

[bludex]

Epik.com is an ICANN accredited registrar, which implies much more regulation and diligence than a usual online-shopping platform is undertaking, and on the other side Escrow.com is a "Fully licensed and accredited online Escrow". Escrow.com has the best brand value, but which of the accreditations is more relevant for the buyer of a domain? On the financial side counterparty risk also exists through the payment processors and payment providers, as well as the digital implementation. Still no mandatory TFA at Escrow.com BTW.
An interesting example of an online shopping platform with super high ticket prices is thebillionaireshop.com ( I know it because I own the prior registration of the dotcom without "the"). While mainly a publicity stunt for selling lottery tickets, they claim they really are able to sell and did sell some of their items that range from perfume to luxury yachts for nine figures. My analysis of their strategy found they are transfering counterparty risk and KYC duties to Shopify as payment provider.

 

[xynames]

What was the need of bringing details of a private deal in progress on a public forum? Is it fair and ethical @Matt Barrie?

I don't think the point had anything to do with a "private deal" it had to do with whether Epik is solvent enough to cover potential losses in an escrow transaction. Whether this was the right way to broach that issue, is another matter.

But still....

I know that when buyers think of "escrow" they are thinking of implied protections. That is the only reason why someone would use an escrow service.

This is similar to what I brought up regarding how UNDeveloped / DAN doesn't consider itself an escrow, and detaches its escrow business from its domain brokering business by separating it and branding it as a "non-profit" to insulate its assets from liability in the event of "escrow" transactional liability.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/undeveloped-com-experience.893201/page-73#post-7095727

These are sophisticated business shell games that if you can't comprehend them fully, you'd be hard pressed to understand why they might be shady or provide inadequate indemnification.

What all this boils down to...is the question of how an entity that handles "escrows" but is not licensed/bonded, would handle liability in the event of catastrophic loss.

1) How UNDeveloped / DAN says it handles the issue...is by claiming that it is not an escrow, and by having its "escrow" division be a non-profit with no assets. That's fine and dandy as far as playing the shell game of avoiding liability if sued, but where does that leave an UNDeveloped escrow customer who is left with a loss - Nowhere - left suing an empty shell non-profit, that's where.

2) How does Epik handle the issue? It's not a licensed bonded escrow like escrow.com so it would have to handle any potential loss out of pocket, which gets back to the relevance of Matt Barie's claim that Epik might have insufficient liquid assets to cover a large escrow transaction related loss claim.

 

[Lox]

"Escrow means a deposit or fund held by a third party. In this case, the deposit or fund is a sum of money belonging to ICEPAY clients. These funds are managed by Stichting ICEPAY (Foundation ICEPAY) for ICEPAY as the Payment Service Provider." ... (example- Dutch way)

- icepay.com/payment-via-icepay/

 

[Rob Monster]

I
2) How does Epik handle the issue? It's not a licensed bonded escrow like escrow.com so it would have to handle any potential loss out of pocket, which gets back to the relevance of Matt Barie's claim that Epik might have insufficient liquid assets to cover a large escrow transaction related loss claim.

First of all, the odds of a botched domain transaction on Epik's integrated platform are relatively low. In the event of a truly botched transaction that could not be otherwise cured, I expect our first port of call for a material event would be to invoke our Errors and Omissions insurance policy. Depending on the nature of the event, there is also General Liability and Directors and Officers insurance coverage.

As for Escrow.com, just for calibration, my reading from their public filings is that there is a $455,000 surety bond, which is included in the cash. Even in the absence of a run on deposits, there appears to be a liquidity shortfall. If you net out the surety bond, that shortfall is even bigger. The point is that the bond is not all that material. More important would be fiscal controls, balance sheet strength and access to capital markets.

As for being licensed, this is not a light matter that the domain industry should consider. To the contrary, the domain industry should be running in the other direction. Setting aside the implied overhead, consider for a moment that the licensing entity can now abruptly revoke a license or can arbitrarily move the goal posts. For example, the State of California is introducing stricter liquidity covenants.

The licensing requirements applied in some states are rightfully onerous for escrowing multi-million dollar homes where there can be 90 day closing windows. However, this is not the same as a typical domain name transaction, typically worth just a few thousand dollars, with most closings capable of being done in hours or days and where there is no physical good to be inspected or transported.

 

[Silentptnr]

Escrowing funds is not quite the same as being an escrow company.

Working with a registrar that sincerely protects "both" parties is what is important. GD for example, has been quite shady at times. They do nothing to protect either buyer or seller. They dont care if a buyer buys a stolen domain and loses their money. Epik seems to want to provide that added protection.

Most "escrow companies" do everything to avoid liability to the buyer and seller. There should be little comfort in using them for protection from stolen domains.

The concept that Rob describes where a registrar escrow (middleman) acts as a safeguard against losses due to stolen domains is what we should have. It's what the likes of GD should be doing and are not. Escrow.com should absolutely cover any losses from transactions involving stolen domains, and they dont as far as I know. They leave it up to the buyer.

Buyers need to know if a domain is stolen. Most need help in this regard. Even experienced domainers get duped. This is what we need.

Call it whatever name you want.

Just my opinion.

 

[TCK]

I certainly don’t mind when a registrar handles the details of a few thousand dollars transaction.

However, if the transaction is into tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands or more, I think that a third party regulated intermediary makes practical sense. Otherwise it would be like a real estate agency or car dealership offering their own escrow on their own sales transactions. For this reason I think Escrow.com is smart not getting into the registrar business.

The registrar is always bound by ICANN regulations and is responsible to ensure that domains are not stolen and that transfers or account changes are properly authorized. That won’t change no matter who is the escrow provider.

In the end, escrow is for the peace of mind of the buyer more than anything. If the buyer is uncomfortable using a particular escrow provider then the deal falls through.

It comes down to trust and buyer confidence.

 

[Silentptnr]

The registrar is always bound by ICANN regulations and is responsible to ensure that domains are not stolen and that transfers or account changes are properly authorized. That won’t change no matter who is the escrow provider.

I wish GoDaddy would recognize that.

 

[TCK]

I wish GoDaddy would recognize that.

PM me details. I’d like to learn more about what prompted your post.

 

[Silentptnr]

PM me details. I’d like to learn more about what prompted your post.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/bo...os-just-got-repossessed.1144688/#post-7308144