Particl: anonymous e-commerce in the square?
Particl is a decentralised platform using both blockchain and peer-to-peer systems. The goal of Particl is to offer an application where everyone creates and participates in the marketplaces of their choice, allowing the purchase and sale of goods and services in cryptos. This project puts the emphasis on privacy, as we will see together. The mainnet version of Particl was made available to the public on Monday.
The Particl platform
The Particl platform aims first and foremost to enable the creation and use of a decentralised marketplace. In order to function, but also to carry out transactions on the platform, it will first be necessary to use the crypto underlying the protocol, the RTAP.
It should be noted that the objective is in the near future to enable the almost native use of Bitcoin or other cryptos, via atomic swaps. These atomic swaps are currently functional, but not yet deployed for widespread use at the heart of the platform.
Particl uses a modified version of the Proof-of-stake protocol, the Particl Proof-of-Stake, as a consensus mechanism. Note that the protocol is the result of a Bitcoin fork. Transactions on the Particl blockchain therefore currently use the Segregated Witness protocol by default, and de facto the platform is compatible with the Lightning Network.
The actual peer-to-peer system is based on a known P2P messaging system, the SMSG (Secure Messaging) derived from Bitmessage.
The Open Marketplace
After two years of testing, the Open Marketplace was made available on the mainnet on Monday. But another marketplace, even if it would have a crypto-compatible name like Particl, why?
Particl's primary goal is to respect the privacy of users. The project stands in opposition to the giants of the net whose business model is based on the marketing of user data. The Open Marketplace will allow to buy and sell goods and services in a decentralized and private framework. Technically, the Open Marketplace is based on an implementation of the Open Market Protocol (OMP).
Which protocol arrangement?
While some information is shared publicly (e.g. a seller's listing, asking prices, product descriptions or photos), others are by nature kept private from other platform users (e.g. contractors' identities, conversations between seller and buyer). Moreover, even if it is necessary to configure this particularity yourself, it is possible to use Particl under the umbrella of the TOR network.
Finally, payments take place via Particl, as the project developers have implemented a system based on both Confidential Transactions (CT) and RingCT.
The MAD Escrow
The escrow system will operate according to an architecture known as "MAD Escrow", which is a little curious and may raise questions: in fact, both the seller and the buyer will have to sequestrate via smart-contracts twice the value of the good or service negotiated.
If everything goes well, everyone is happy and recovers his sequestered funds, the seller gets his sale, and the buyer gets his property back. If this is not the case, the situation becomes more tense: the escrowed funds remain escrowed ad vitam aeternam, causing both the buyer and the seller to lose this escrowed value. A risky definition of an escrow, to say the least.
The novelty of this escrow is that it is supposed to be fully automated and peer-to-peer, unlike OpenBazaar, for example, where escrows are based on the decisions of human moderators.
Anonymity: flip a coin?
The last particularity of Particl resides in its organization in the form of simili-DAO: if open marketplaces will necessarily be available, it will also be possible to create one's own private markeplaces... Which can augur well for the possible emergence of black markets equivalent to those existing on the Dark Net. An opportunity to see the real degree of anonymization allegedly allowed by the protocol? Only time will tell.
We will therefore monitor the launch of the Open Marketplace, and give you our opinion on Particl and its marketplace in the coming weeks.
It seems that the market is growing at its own pace in any case Particl is a unique project it is a leader in the B2B B2G B2C field I use myself for some shopping and it's very efficient. I strongly recommend. whether you are an individual, a passionate person or an institution Particl is the Amazon of the blockchain, but you know what to do