On Aug 29, 2018, Helsinki-based SOMA announced about receiving Round -1 funding worth €50,000 from Business Finland, which is a public funding agency within the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. As per the norms, SOMA is eligible in the future to gain funding up to €1 million in Round 2 and up to €20 million in Round 3.

These days where the majority of governments are sceptical about blockchain projects, It made me wonder why the Finnish government got interested in this project. I thought it would be interesting to review and discover what SOMA is offering, which attracted funding from Business Finland.

Introduction — The Problem

Online shopping has arguably changed the way we shop and live. It helped people to buy new or used products from any part of the world from the comfort of own homes. As per the latest reports, the global E-commerce market is anticipated to reach USD 7,724.8 billion by 2025. Currently, a handful of players such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba dominates the market which leads to market manipulation and brings in a host of centralization issues.

As the industry started to grow, it became evident that the world of online shopping is not all roses. Some of these problems include too much centralization, monopoly, supply chain management, payments issues, transparency, fees, personal data security, etc.

Irrespective of all comforts online shopping provides, a significant aspect an online shopper will be missing is the social interaction factor. If you look at the history of trading, social interaction was one key element that helped to build trust as well as give the shopper a unique experience about shopping.

Blockchain project SOMA is all set to bring the social interaction factor back

So what is SOMA?

Soma is a revolutionary decentralized platform that facilitates trade and social interaction powered by blockchain technology and a native cryptocurrency (Soma Community Token, or SCT) for liquidity within the Soma Community. By disintermediating the value chain, buyers and sellers can realize greater profits. At the same time, an innovative rewards system incentivizes beneficial collaboration and ensures that value-adding services are compensated — Jacob Andra, CMO@Soma

To put in simple words, SOMA is unarguable “first of a kind” decentralized marketplace wherein sellers, and buyers can securely and reliably trade with each other. Unlike the conventional online shopping portals which rely on product reviews or rating (a majority of them are fakes), SOMA harnesses the goodness of social interaction factor (Liking, Sharing, etc.) to help the buyer with decision making and provide him with genuine feedback.

For participating in the platform, SOMA encourages and rewards the users with SOMA tokens(SCT). Since all the interactions get paid, it will help to create more user engagement, which in turn helps the products to reach more audience. The SOMA Rewarding System also recognises active participants as core elements for promoting the products for the target audience and acting as an escrow agent to secure all transactions.

A peek into SOMA Ecosystem.

The core component of SOMA ecosystem will be the marketplace which is planned to launch in 2019. The blockchain based SOMA marketplace will be powered with Ethereum based smart contracts to enable its users to create patent-pending “Interactive Item Cards(ICC)”.

Sano di Pietro (1405–1481), The Madonna and Child, circa 1450. Sold for £170,500 in the Old Masters and British Paintings evening sale on 9 July 2015. Right: the reverse of the painting reveals dealers’ labels, exhibition labels, and old Christie’s stock numbers

Let’s try to understand “Interactive Item Cards(ICC)” based on the high-value Art market. Majority of the galleries will label the Artwork they buy and sell. A gallery label in the back panel can tell you a brief history, including which galleries have owned the painting, the year they bought it, year of restoration(if any) etc. It also can throw light on the chain of ownership (provenance) which is the most vital for the valuation of the artwork. If the chain of ownership includes a duke or a personality from a royal house, the price of the artwork skyrockets

Similar to labels above, the Interactive Item Cards provides with a digital label of the listed product. It will store all the data related to the item such as history, quality, price history, the condition of the product, damages etc. on the blockchain which cannot be tampered with. As time passes the social value of the card increases as all the transaction is captured and labelled which provide a clear provenance of the product. Since the item card is passed along with the product, It helps the buyer with clear provenance as well as to have a honest rating of the product.

As discussed in SOMA whitepaper, Interactive Item Cards are not only beneficial for the buyers and sellers but to the Community members as well. Any community members can promote IIC’s created by other users and earn SCT as a reward. As users can also receive SCT by acting as a trusted third party in a transaction between a seller and a buyer, securing the interests of both the parties. All Interactive Item Cards data is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, and the smart contracts govern the platform trades. This offers a very high level of transparency and eliminates the requirement for a trusted third party or central power.

Let’s have a look how SOMA is beneficial for both individuals and enterprise.