Ink Protocol is a decentralized reputation and payment protocol looking to bring transferable reputation to P2P marketplaces. It is currently live on the Listia platform and plans to expand to other P2P marketplaces where the lack of reputation is a major driver for centralization and monopolistic practices.
For 9 years, the team was operating Listia, a web and mobile marketplace where users exchange goods, trading unwanted items for credits that can be used to purchase goods offered by other users. They have built Ink Protocol and launched it on their marketplace with a corresponding token called XNK, designed to take over the role of Listia Credits.
By adopting a blockchain based system, Listia will benefit from decentralization as well as more security and transparency in their operations. Any marketplace that supports Ink Protocol will benefit from improved trust and security for their platforms. Even brand-new marketplaces can launch with instant trust and user feedback in place due to Ink Protocol and the XNK token.
Self-sovereign reputation frees sellers from the confines of any specific centralized or decentralized marketplace, and allows them to sell on any platform they want, such as managed online marketplaces, classifieds style online marketplaces, social media, decentralized marketplaces, offline marketplaces (such as farmers markets and flea markets), and service marketplaces.
The Universal, Decentralized Transaction System For Any Marketplace
This is the way Ink Protocol disrupts centralized marketplace monopolies: First, the smart contract will feature a decentralized feedback mechanism, where buyers can leave feedback for the seller about each transaction. This feedback will consist of a rating and comment about the transaction, stored as public data on the Ethereum blockchain.
Second, as more third-party marketplaces adopt Ink Protocol, this feedback will be stored for each marketplace and aggregated together between all markets to form a decentralized reputation for each user, identified by their Ethereum address.
Building on their years of experience and learning from over 100M items traded on Listia, the team has launched a decentralized transaction system that can be used on any marketplace that includes self-sovereign reputation, decentralized escrow, and dispute resolution.
Ink Protocol endeavors to take away the monopolistic power from marketplaces which have the ability to modify your reputation, censor, or otherwise filter out your feedback, and most importantly, they are able to charge extremely high fees (20–30% in some cases) because they own your reputation data and you are now locked into their platform. The only way for sellers to use and benefit from this hard earned reputation is to continue selling in that marketplace.
As designed, Ink Protocol enables buyers to have full control over the content of each individual feedback rating, and feedback will only be tied to a verified transaction. This way, Ink Protocol continues to incentivize sellers to work hard on customer service, fulfillment, and quality while it allows the seller to be the main beneficiary of all this hard work.
For more information, visit Ink Protocol.
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