A coordination-only escrow, with a real review window.
Money doesn't move on trust. Once a deal is agreed, payment is confirmed and coordinated in escrow, the seller submits transfer, and the buyer has a review window to confirm delivery before anything releases. TrafficNodes coordinates the state machine — it is not a custodial financial institution, and every dollar amount rendered is explicitly labeled Simulated until a real payment rail is connected.
The deal lifecycle
Order / Hold
The buyer places an offer or accepts a listing. TrafficNodes opens a hold — nothing has moved yet.
A dispute can be raised at Transfer or Review — it resolves to released, refunded, or split, never decided unilaterally by either side.
Coordination, not custody
TrafficNodes is not a bank, a payment processor, or a licensed escrow agent. The state machine above coordinates WHEN a deal moves forward — it doesn't itself hold or move money through a regulated custodial account. In this build, every dollar figure in the flow is explicitly labeled Simulated until a real payment rail is connected.
The review window is real leverage
The buyer review stage isn't a formality — it's the point where a buyer can actually inspect what was delivered against what was promised before release. That inspection window is what turns “trust the seller” into “verify, then release.”
Every transition is guarded
A deal can't skip from Hold straight to Completed, and a dispute can't be resolved by either side unilaterally. Each transition in lib/orders is a guarded state-machine step with its own precondition checks — not a free-form status field a support agent could hand-edit into an inconsistent state.
Capabilities
What this is backed by: Order state machine in lib/orders + supabase/migrations escrow-transition guards; docs/audit records the invariant tests.
On the Marketplace
Related Platform features