Coming Soon: A Global Decentralized Marketplace Powered by Ink Protocol’s Blockchain-Based Reputation System

Consumers Will Soon be Able to Safely Buy and Sell with Their Existing PayPal Account Across Multiple Marketplaces While Earning Public, Transferable Reputation

Sneak Peek

Happy New Year from Ink Protocol and Listia! Our team has been working hard for the last month on our exciting new mobile apps and fiat integration. We gave a sneak peek last month, talked about our approach to building a decentralized marketplace here, and are now ready to share some more details :-)

Today, we are announcing a collaboration with PayPal and their APIs to build revolutionary, new marketplace app that allows sellers to sell goods and services on any marketplace, while earning public, transferable reputation and transaction history. Buyers will also be able to leave feedback for every transaction, while sellers can carry over their hard-earned reputation across platforms. Unlike current systems, reputation and feedback data will be stored via Ink Protocol — a decentralized, blockchain-based reputation system — so no centralized third-party owns all the seller’s data.

This is NOT just another dApp!

We are building a mainstream consumer app that will finally bring real consumer blockchain adoption to the masses. It is built on top of our existing Ink Protocol reputation system, the Ethereum blockchain, and Ink Pay’s infrastructure, but with a completely redesigned front end that is easy to use. No plugins, wallets or cryptocurrency knowledge required. We think full featured dApps are coming, but still a few more years away.

Prototype screenshot

Fully decentralized reputation for everyone

Conventional online P2P marketplaces store only the reputation and feedback of their own users, making it very difficult for sellers to branch out to other marketplaces to find new buyers. With this PayPal integration, payments happen directly via PayPal, so buyers and sellers will have a very familiar way to pay, with all the backing of PayPal’s trusted payment network. All of the associated feedback, reputation and transaction history will be completely decentralized and stored via Ink Protocol, so that it is publicly available, transferable between marketplaces, permanent and viewable by everyone.

Prospective buyers will soon be able to easily look up any seller’s public reputation on every marketplace before deciding whether to buy from them. This creates a global trust and reputation network that works across all kinds of marketplaces, eradicating uncertainty and reducing the risk associated with P2P online shopping.

Sample review

Our vision is to build a universal marketplace layer to give buyers and sellers the freedom to use all of their favorite marketplaces together, regardless of what goods or services they are selling. Additionally, sellers will always have the option to move to new marketplaces without rebuilding their entire profile and reputation.

The new marketplace app will be available both as a web app as well as a native app on iOS and Android devices. It is anticipated to launch in the middle of Q1 2019. To learn more about Listia and Ink Protocol, please visit www.listia.com and paywithink.com.

About Listia Inc. and Ink Protocol

Founded in 2009, Listia has raised over $11 million in venture capital from prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists and investors including ​General Catalyst, A16Z, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Founder Collective, Max Levchin, Naval Ravikant and others. With a devoted following of ten million members across web and mobile platforms, it is the world’s premier online trading peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace for new and used goods.

After nearly a decade of growing its P2P marketplace and processing more than 100 million transactions, the Listia team developed and brought to market Ink Protocol. Powered by the Ethereum blockchain and the XNK token, Ink Protocol is a new decentralized reputation and payment system. The technology is designed specifically for P2P marketplace transactions where trust between the buyer and seller may be limited. Due to its decentralized nature, sellers can carry their reputation with them across multiple marketplaces, including Listia.