11.6 Trade Rules and Escrow

Before any trade begins, the Platform verifies:

(a) Both parties are Verified Members with valid, unexpired credentials.

(b) Both parties have active Membership Plans.

(c) Both wallet addresses pass Nominis on-chain screening (checked against known mixers, hacked wallets, darknet markets, and sanctioned addresses).

If any check fails, the trade is blocked. The reason is shown to the affected party.

When a trade is initiated:

(a) A smart contract is deployed on the relevant blockchain.

(b) The seller deposits crypto into the escrow contract.

(c) From this point, neither party can cancel the trade without going through the Platform's resolution process.

(d) The buyer sends INR directly to the seller's bank account via UPI, IMPS, or NEFT.

The buyer has 30 minutes from trade initiation to submit payment and enter the UTR number. If this window expires without payment being marked, the trade is cancelled automatically and the crypto is returned to the seller.

Once the buyer marks "I have paid", the seller has 15 minutes to:

(a) Confirm receipt - the smart contract releases crypto to the buyer, and 0.75% is sent to the Member Protection Fund contract; or

(b) Raise a dispute - the trade enters dispute resolution.

If the seller does not respond within 15 minutes, the trade automatically escalates to dispute resolution.

Once the buyer has marked payment, the seller cannot cancel the trade. This is a deliberate design choice to protect buyers against the most common P2P fraud - a seller cancelling after receiving funds.