Ink Protocol - An Introduction

Ink Protocol launched by Listia, a peer-to-peer online marketplace for used goods, aims to change the way buyers and sellers transact forever. It is developed to increase the trust between the buyer and seller in P2P marketplaces, where credibility is limited as such. It provides an Ethereum based decentralized reputation and payments system, where both parties can buy and sell more securely and seamlessly across multiple platforms.

An overview of how Ink Protocol solves P2P Marketplace Issues

Feedback mechanism for Buyers

The feedback given by the buyers will be stored on the blockchain along with the transaction id. It can be seen by anyone with access to public Ethereum blockchain and Ink Smart Contract. This helps anyone to look up the seller credibility across any platform.

Reputation for Sellers

Reputation will include all of the seller’s feedback and transaction history which can be read from the public data within the Smart Contract. It makes the reputation transferable across different platforms giving them the advantage of not having to rebuild reputation separately on each platform.

Decentralised Escrow

By having a third party guarantor between the buyer and seller, ink protocol has proven their seriousness in meeting the buyer needs. When the payment is made for a transaction, XNK tokens are held by the contract until the buyer indicates that the items have been received and only after that point, the tokens are released to the seller.

Third Party Dispute Resolution

When transactions are not smooth like in case of a damaged product, Ink provides the users with an option of assigning a third party mediator, which exists as Smart Contracts.

Transaction and Mediation Fees

Transaction and mediation fee can be taken in the form of XNK (Ink Protocol) Tokens. The third party themselves can design their fee structure for both transaction and mediation fee, using Smart Contracts. The users will have the advantage of choosing the best mediators they want based on the Smart Contracts and mediation histories which can be seen on the Ethereum blockchain.

How does transaction happen on Ink?

The transaction is initiated by the buyer, and the funds are kept in escrow until the seller agrees to the transaction. If the seller ignores the transaction, the buyer revokes the transaction to get the tokens back. If the seller agrees, he/she will ship the order, and the transaction is said to be in progress. A disputed deal may occur when the product is damaged, and the seller and buyer can negotiate amongst themselves or involve a mediator. If a mediator is involved, a fee is paid to that third party for settling the issue.

Road Ahead

Apart from all the above-decentralized ways to solve issues, Ink can be integrated with any marketplace or can even work without a marketplace as they can be used for any P2P transaction. Since the marketplace cannot monopolize the user data as they do now, the Ink Protocol will create an ecosystem, that will give rise to many marketplaces to pop up instantly, and payment apps and third-party mediators can flourish as well.

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