Decentralizing Marketplaces with Ink Protocol

Ink Protocol (https://paywithink.com/) aims to facilitate decentralized P2P marketplaces through its reputation and payment systems. It allows for trusted peer-to-peer transactions by creating a system for decentralized reputation and escrow. Ink Protocol is being developed by Listia, which is an existing P2P marketplace for used items. It was created in 2009, and currently boasts over 10 million users. Listia has raised over $10 million from well-known venture capital firms such as Y Combinator. Ink’s protocol will be integrated with Listia, as well as several other popular marketplaces, such as Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and OfferUp, through the use of the Ink Pay App.

As said before, the Ink protocol project has two main components: a decentralized reputation and feedback system, and a third-party mediation and escrow system.

Reputation and Feedback

Ink aims to solve many of the current issues that online marketplaces face through its platform for decentralized reputation and feedback. After any Ink transaction on a marketplace, buyers can leave feedback on sellers. Each seller then builds up a history of buyer feedback, which represents the reputation of that seller on various marketplaces. This history will be rich with specific information on each transaction, so buyers can see the specific details behind how the seller’s reputation was formed.

Sellers can use their built-up reputation across the various marketplaces that they are active on, since Ink’s solution allows for portable reputation and feedback. This eliminates the cold-start problem that new marketplaces and new sellers face. Sellers with experience on one marketplace can seamlessly move to other marketplaces, taking their accumulated reputation with them. Conversely, new exchanges can grow quickly, since buyers will immediately be able to view seller reputation upon launch, rather than having to wait for sellers to build up reputation within that specific marketplace. The Ink Pay App will be one easy way to track seller reputation across marketplaces.

Third-party Mediation and Escrow

Ink’s platform will provide a decentralized escrow service to make the platform safe. After a buyer pays for an item, the tokens are held in a smart contract until the buyer has indicated that they have received the item. Only after that point are the tokens finally released to the seller.

If there is a dispute, such as if the item is damaged or does not arrive as specified, Ink’s platform will allow for third-party mediation through a third-party smart contract. Both the buyer and seller must agree upon the use of a mediator. In order to incentivize mediator participation, Ink’s protocol will allow mediators to take a fee, which is specified in the third-party mediation smart contract by the buyer and seller.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to be investment advice, and is purely information. This article was written as part of a Bounty0x bounty.

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