Ink Protocol is more than just a reputation system or just a way to buy and sell goods on Listia. It is designed primarily as an open peer-to-peer transaction system and platform. This means that anyone can build marketplaces on top of Ink Protocol to leverage payments, escrow, dispute resolution, feedback, and reputation. Additionally, it can be used directly between any two people for both goods and services, without the need for a marketplace integration.

This week, we tested the very first full peer-to-peer transaction on Ink Protocol between two members of the team. It worked flawlessly and shows that the future of decentralized payments and reputation is very bright indeed! We were able to check reputation, buy safely, and then leave a feedback rating for the seller, all without any centralized marketplace.

Here is what the listing could have looked like on a site like Craigslist or FB:

For Sale

One gently used “Listia” drinking glass. Perfect for drinking water, juice, or beer.

Price

50.00 XNK

Seller

Tom — you can check my Ink reputation and pay me here: 0x168fEe49.….dB47b966

Terms

Pick up in person, or I’ll ship it and we can use Ink’s escrow and mediator contract.

This is a great example of how Ink can be used everywhere!

Check Reputation and Pay to the Same Address

An interesting thing you might notice is that you can check a seller’s reputation AND pay to that same address (it would be the entire address of course.. we shortened it only for formatting reasons in this blog post). In fact, Ink was designed this way in order to ensure that the seller is who they say they are! Just paste your address into any listing.

The Transaction

Now on to the actual transactions!

First, here is the Etherscan link to the CreateTransaction call, which we did via MyEtherWallet. Here, the buyer is telling the seller, “I want to buy this!” The item in question is a “Listia Glass.” The XNK is then moved into the Ink Protocol smart contract for safe keeping.

Second, here is the Etherscan link to the AcceptTransaction call, which we did via MetaMask on another computer. Here, the seller is saying “OK, I will sell this to you” and received payment. It could also go into escrow if the users had chosen to do so.

And lastly, we have the ProvideTransactionFeedback call, via MyEtherWallet again. Here, the buyer is leaving feedback for the seller. In our case, the rating was a 5 out of 5 and the comment was “A+++ Awesome Seller!”, which is hashed and stored.

And there you have it… the very first Ink Protocol transaction. Now, the next time our seller wants to sell something online, everyone will be able to see his reputation. As of today, that reputation would show a 100% 5/5 positive review :)

Extra Credit: We know not everyone knows how to execute contract functions via MyEtherWaller and MetaMask (which is what we did), so more tools and apps are coming soon. If you want to build something, please let us know as well! Thanks!