Building a Decentralized Reputation Ecosystem for Marketplaces

Our multi-channel approach to growing decentralized reputation powered by Ink Protocol across all marketplaces.

First, a quick update on our new marketplace reputation app.

The team has been working hard to put the finishing touches on our new app! While the app is pretty much finished and working great in our local test environment, we are still finalizing things with our partners, such as the final payment integration walk through, choosing an ideal launch date with our PR team, app store approvals, etc. The timing on those is taking a bit longer than expected since they depend on mostly external factors, but the plan is still to try and release the app to our early access users by the end of this month and do an official public launch soon after. Make sure to sign up on our early access list if you want to be one of the first to use the app!

Screenshots from internal testing :)

Demo Mobile Payment Screenshot

Demo Web Seller Account Screenshot

One Reputation System, Multiple Channels

With our new decentralized marketplace payment app on the horizon, we wanted to take some time to talk about how all the various apps that support Ink Protocol will fit together longer term.

Listia

We see Listia as the most user-friendly way for users to start buying and selling via cryptocurrency. There is no technical knowledge required and users can start earning XNK as soon as they register. For years, Listia has been the best marketplace to buy and sell without using money, and we are continuing to position Listia as the consumer-friendly way to get into crypto. It won’t be fully decentralized in the near term, because we feel the community needs a centralized version to reach a broader audience. This is analogous to the centralized exchange models that we see today.

Ink Pay

The launch of Ink Pay was a huge step towards truly decentralized marketplace transactions. Ink Pay is a full featured dApp, which means you have complete control over your wallet and funds. It also allows you to easily buy and sell using multiple cryptocurrencies, without the need for a centralized third party. This is amazing when you look at the technology behind it, with every transaction flowing over Ink Protocol. But as we have seen throughout the last year, dApps are simply too hard to use right now. We think it will take a couple years before consumers feel comfortable using dApps, but Ink Pay is ready to take full advantage when the time comes.

Reputation & Payment App for Any Marketplace powered by PayPal

This app will truly open up the world of Ink Protocol and decentralized reputation to a mass audience. It requires no cryptocurrency knowledge, since payments are handled via PayPal, but all transactions and subsequent feedback ratings are still written directly to the Ethereum blockchain via Ink Protocol. This app is meant to be used across all kinds of marketplaces, allowing users to build up a single, public reputation that they can take anywhere. Users will no longer be at the whim of huge centralized marketplaces, and can start selling wherever they like. We see this app as the gateway to real consumer adoption of blockchain tech.

Direct Integration

Once users and marketplaces see the power of Ink Protocol-powered reputation, we should start seeing direct integration within marketplaces. Up until now, direct integration have been extremely difficult, because the general public is simply not ready for dApps, crypto wallets, and blockchain tech. This is probably still a couple years away, but our goal in the meantime is to show the world that the benefits of blockchain tech do not require the end user to know anything about blockchain tech :)