What are "routine escrow mechanisms"? The original Nakamoto paper states


  routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers


What is meant by "routine escrow mechanisms"?
There are certain sorts of escrow that are very difficult to implement without a trusted party. For example, an escrow system that only sends along the payment when the seller has provided proof of shipping would be impossible without a trusted third party.

However, if we change the escrow system a little bit, then we can implement it without a third party. For example, suppose we say that the buyer and the seller merely need to agree about where the bitcoins are sent. That is something that a decentralized network can check for.