"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."
Earlier today /u/GrandWizardsLair analyzed the various state of decentralized marketplaces and it was a candid look at the shittyness of the current situation. Openbazaar is most likely not going to solve anything for us anytime soon, Bitbay is a joke and is not decentralized, Shadow is promising but upon further inspection demands too much of the user and has the potential for an EVO style exit scam ala Bernie Madoff ponzie mechanism... So what is the solution? NXT.
Vendors post listings inside the wallet of a decentralized cryptocurrency called NXT, in addition you can:
- Send automatically encrypted messages that self-delete after 15 days (not a replacement for PGP)
- Participate in the rating/review system (in addition you can write 'graffiti' on anyone's account)
- Create and edit your profile with contact and sales information that can never be seized or altered
- Create marketplace listings which have a public rating/review/feedback system
- Issue gift codes or redeemables that can be transferred to anyone
Now how do we solve the escrow problem? Well it's actually quite simple. Multisig is the solution, but electrum is too complicated for most people and learning the tutorial gets ignored by most because it's intimidating (and most don't want to risk their money with an experiment in learning). I know you've clicked that sidebar link and thought "holy fucking shit, I'll come back to this..." So here is how it works:
- Buyer browses listings and chooses something they want on freemarket* app or freemarketlite (website, no login required)
- Buyer either initiates a purchase ORDER through the freemarket app/site or contacts vendor via email/bitmessage
- Seller confirms and sends buyer a Coinkite** multisig invitation
- Buyer accepts multisig invitation and funds it with the purchase amount
- Seller confirms funding and ships order
- Buyer receives order and finalizes
* Freemarket is a decentralized marketplace application that runs on top of the NXT cryptocurrency blockchain.
* Freemarketlite is a passthrough website which allows you to view listings without using the application.
** Coinkite is a multisig bitcoin web-wallet which has a hidden onion site, they've been active for several years now.
In the event the buyer and the seller have a dispute they must come to resolution before the transaction can be completed with a 2/2 multisig. For this reason it is anticipated in the future we will slowly migrate to use 2/3 multisig transactions with a third party as a moderator. Moderators can also advertise their services via reddit/nxt/forums.
Markets and wallets are like church and state, you should never combine them.
So Who wants to give it a try? I really want to demonstrate how this works so I'm giving away an ounce of Blue Dream to test this method with me. Even better, instead of you paying me for it, I am going to be the one to fund it with $5; which the "buyer" can RECEIVE (for testing purposes). To get started head over to freemarketlite, click "consumables". From there it's pretty self explanatory! I'm sure I will have a few haters in response to this post, but please keep in mind I am proposing this idea for the betterment of the community.
Cheers,
NXTLEVEL
EDIT: I would like to point out I did not create NXT. It's an alt-currency similar to Dogecoin or Litecoin that has existed for several years now, you can find it on coinmarketcap.
EDIT2: For the past several weeks I have been successfully doing transactions with a small group of my customers with the outlined system on NXT and Coinkite and, as a vendor, I couldn't be fucking happier.
The real solution is coming soon