[bisq-network/proposals] Replace the role of Refund Agent with a new team of Arbitrators that can together publish one of several pre-signed 2 of 2 multisig timelocked payout transactions as proposed by a Mediator (#220)

[sqrrm]

This proposal reintroduces a trusted third party (TTP) into the trade protocol. While it looks possible to implement all this it also makes the whole complexity of the refund agent and burning man pointless. I think it would also be possible to do this as a multisig structure and return to the previous way.

However, I see a trusted third party as a critical flaw in a distributed system and I don't think it's a good idea to reintroduce it, at least not as a core concept. It's an existential threat to Bisq.

The idea of having several presigned payout transactions sounds like it could be a useful mechanism though. Perhaps adding this as an optional feature could work. That would possibly avoid a lot of the friction in current trades while anyone not wanting to use it could opt out, on both the trader and TTP side. There is a legal risk for anyone partaking in the TTP group but there might not be an existential risk to Bisq. The problem is the implicit requirement users could put on using this feature meaning it could become a basically forced feature.

I agree there is a need to make the trade process smoother and I welcome the discussion but I'm not convinced this proposal is the way to go.

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