Eliminating the risk of peer-to-peer transactions.

Watches, cars, and collectibles worth thousands of dollars change hands every day between strangers on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Reddit. Those platforms introduce people, but they were never designed with the security measures or enforceable policies needed to protect both parties and ensure a transaction actually completes the way it was agreed.

So, one side has to move first. Send the wire or hand over the item, and hope. That asymmetry is what nearly every scam in this market is built on—and it doesn’t go away in person, where counterfeit cash can pass inspection and a cashier's check can clear and reverse a week later. It doesn't go away when shipping either, where a self-supplied tracking number can point any parcel to any address.

Bastion removes the requirement that anyone go first. Payment is held by a licensed escrow service from the moment a deal opens. Participants are identity-verified. When meeting in person, the buyer releases funds with a code only the seller holds. For shipping, the label is issued by Bastion, a signature is required on delivery, and the package is documented at both ends. Funds move only when the buyer confirms the item is in hand.

Bastion does not authenticate merchandise. It ensures that payment, item, and record move in the correct order—and that both parties leave with proof of exactly what happened.

The problem with most P2P marketplaces

Conventional peer-to-peer trade requires one party to act first: the buyer releases payment before receiving the item, or the seller surrenders the item before payment clears. Whichever party moves first bears the entire risk of the transaction, and that structural asymmetry is what fraud in this market depends on.

• Fake payment screenshots — a buyer claims they sent a wire that never actually arrives.
• Non-delivery — a seller takes payment and never ships, or ships something else entirely.
• Counterfeit or misrepresented items — what arrives isn't what was listed.
• No neutral third party — when something goes wrong, it's your word against theirs.
• Face-to-face risk — meetups arranged with no real safeguards, where a trade can turn into a robbery, a bad check, or worse, with the meetup itself used as the setup.

How we actually protect both sides

Bastion isn't a payment processor — we partner with Escrow.com, a licensed money transmitter that's held funds securely for over two decades. When a buyer pays, the money goes into a real, regulated escrow account — not to the seller, not to Bastion. It only moves once both sides are protected:

• The buyer's payment must be verified as actually received — not just claimed — before a seller is ever told to hand off the item.
• The seller only releases the item once real funds are confirmed secured.
• The buyer inspects (in person or on arrival) before releasing funds to the seller.
• Every account is identity-verified by Escrow.com before it can send or receive money — a real compliance step, not a formality.
• If something goes wrong, a real dispute process exists — funds stay held until it's resolved, instead of just disappearing.

What this means for you

A transaction marked funded on Bastion reflects confirmation from a licensed escrow provider holding the payment. It is a verified status, not a representation made by the platform.

Bastion is designed to preserve the directness of private trade — agreeing terms with a counterparty and completing the exchange — while removing the requirement that either side extend unsecured trust to complete it.