How Has the Marketplace Evolved Since Launch?

Not only has the marketplace consistently been pushing its all-time high number of listings higher and higher, but the number of mainnet transactions on the Particl network has also seen a dramatic rise, now averaging more than 200 transactions per day. These transactions include listed items, escrow transactions, the flagging of items, created and votes on community proposals, balance transfers, and regular currency transactions.

Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, the Particl network has been getting much more private! Indeed, the network’s “anon set”, the number of RingCT outputs available to anonymize transactions, has been growing exponentially since the launch of the Open Marketplace, averaging a steady 30% or more increase per month. The anon set currently stands at 5232 , a whopping 149% increase since August 2019. To observe that value goes up and down by yourself, just open up your Particl Desktop wallet and type anonoutput in the console window. As the Open Marketplace and the Particl network gets more adoption, you can expect that number to keep rising, meaning RingCT transactions will keep on getting more private.

More Tools and Features Made Available

Particl’s Open Marketplace is still Beta software, meaning it is still very much a work-in-progress and under heavy development. As such, it is normal that some of the intended features for its first “final” version are still missing to this day. The good thing, though, is that these features and improvements are coming up quite quickly!

Ever since the mainnet release of the Open Marketplace on the 12th of August, 2019, we’ve seen these improvements go live…

Import products (bulk listing)

This feature allows sellers to import products from outside sources such as .csv files and WooCommerce stores. It is particularly useful to manage large inventories and list items in bulk. This feature is ultimately designed to reach its full potential when used in combination with the upcoming Market Management and Inventory Management tools.

Public comments (Q&A)

This feature allows anyone to leave a comment, review, feedback, or question on any listing posted on the Open Marketplace. Leaving a post notifies the seller of the item which can then respond. Posts made by the seller of an item are clearly identified as such. This feature is intended to better help you make better shopping decisions and know more about the items you’re looking to buy. Public comments will tie in nicely with future reputation models intended to be implemented at a later stage during the Beta stage of development.

Cancel bids

It used to be impossible to cancel an order before the seller accepted it, meaning funds could get stuck in limbo when sellers were inactive and not processing orders. While it was possible to manually unlock these coins, it did require a fair bit of technical knowledge about the Particl platform itself. Far from ideal! This is why an update was made to the marketplace to add this important functionality.

Settings page

The first iteration of the Settings page has been added a few weeks after the launch of the Open Marketplace Beta. While it currently only contains basic settings such as notification management and wallet backup options, the Settings page will play a bigger role once Market Management and other future major features are integrated.

In-wallet Bitcoin exchange

This major and exciting update to Particl Desktop added the ability to swap Bitcoin for Particl right inside the wallet. This means anyone can now “top up” their Open Marketplace account using Bitcoin. No need to register on an exchange or give away your personal information (i.e. KYC, IP address, etc), and it works everywhere, even in the US!

This exchange module is currently powered by the SMSG network and connects directly to the SimpleSwap exchange, but is built in such a way that it can integrate almost any exchange or service provider as long as the required APIs are provided by the third-party. This update was very important as it opens the door for Particl to be adopted outside of its own community by accepting a varied list of currencies.

Bot Management

The Bot Management feature was introduced at the same time as the Bitcoin Exchange module was. It is, in fact, what powers it. The Bot Management feature allows you to use and list SMSG bots that provide added third-party services to Particl Desktop. These added services can be bridges to crypto exchanges or fiat payment gateways, as well as many other sorts of services.

However, because this is the first iteration of the feature, it is currently not possible to manually add your bot to the list of available bots. That’s because security measures still need to be put in place to make sure people do not push malicious bots on the network. The Bot Management tool is planned to be an integral part of the upcoming developer SDK.

SMSG improvements

SMSG is the P2P network that powers the Open Marketplace. It securely and privately hosts data (i.e. listing images and descriptions) and makes several processes possible such as displaying listings, flagging items, exchanging Bitcoin for Particl, and etc. It is the backbone of the entire Particl ecosystem.

Since the marketplace’s mainnet launch, the SMSG network has seen its performance vastly improved, notably with how effectively it displays listings and communicates between peers. Improving SMSG will be an ongoing process as we move forward through the Beta phase of development.

Significantly reduced listing fees

One of the big updates that were made to the SMSG network is the ability for stakers to signal lower listing fees to the network. What that means is that anyone staking on the Particl network can have a say on how much the network charges users for publishing listings on the Open Marketplace.

As a result, ever since the launch of the Beta, listing fees have been reduced by a big fat 53%! This is already great, making it much cheaper for sellers to list items, but fees are also expected to go down even more, by at least 80%, in the next SMSG update. That’s what near-zero cost eCommerce means!

Various improvements, tweaks, and fixes based on user suggestions

On top of everything mentioned above, a LOT of tweaks, fixes, and improvements have been made to both the code and the user experience of Particl Desktop and the Open Marketplace. A lot of these changes have been made based on user feedback, and it is the one reason why the “Report bug” button has been added at the bottom left of the Particl Desktop client. All user feedback is very important and really makes it easier for Particl developers to see what areas need to be improved or tweaked. The more feedback is received, the faster issues can be addressed. For this reason, it is highly recommended to be pro-active in reporting issues and making suggestions on Github.