Today, Public Market takes an important step in its journey to build a global open protocol for eCommerce. This morning we opened up access to our flagship storefront for the first cohort of users and influencers in our early access program.

This marks a key moment for us. In addition to being the first time real users get to interact with software we’ve spent more than a year building, it represents a transition from theory to practice.

In the long run, if we do our job well, the vast majority of users who interact with a storefront built on the Public Market protocol won’t have to care or even really know that they’re supporting an open, decentralized model. They won’t need to consider things like intermediary fees, deadweight loss and the economic and social costs of monopoly. They’ll simply be shopping for the things they want to buy from the stores they want to buy from — raking in rewards and enjoying a higher value experience.

Of course, for those who want to dig deeper, we’ve spent the last few months articulating why we’re building the tools that begin to come to life today, and how. We thought it a good moment to recap and summarize:

Why We’re Building Public Market

Our belief is that today’s technology giants have leveraged network effects to grow so large that they now have an “Extraction Imperative” to increase the revenue and data they extract from their members far beyond what those members would bear if there was real competition. The impact of the Extraction Imperative is particular harmful in the case of Amazon, where seller margins are pressed to almost nothing and end buyers have to bear increased prices to cover growing Amazon marketplace commissions. At the same time, we don’t believe that Amazon is invulnerable. In fact, it is one of the network giants most poised for disruption by a decentralized alternative.

How We’re Building Public Market

The Public Market protocol is an open protocol for eCommerce, and Public.Market launching into closed beta today is the first and flagship storefront application built on top of that protocol. These pieces articulate more about how we’re opening up parts of core eCommerce infrastructure including inventory, reputation and protection that were previously used to build competitive moats.

The Partners Who Are Helping Us

From the very beginning, Public Market is intended to build a network of aligned partners creating a newly open era for eCommerce. We’ve announced three of those partners so far.

For those of you who have been following along so far, thank you. For those just joining, welcome to the journey. For everyone who wants to see a more fair and open eCommerce — an eCommerce that works for buyers and sellers — you can request early access and we’ll invite you as soon as we can.