Is this a decentralized privacy platform? I mean is the platform data distributed (or decentralized) around the world? I looked through your post for the word decentralized or decentralization but didn't see any. I wonder what the word Dapp stand for in your own case: "Decentralized" Applications? What currency/currencies will be used on the platform/dapps?
Well, I think crypto applications should be properly built to prevent all kinds of abuses or misuses. Alot of really important decentralization-friendly features need to be put in place first to keep the platform and users very safe.
So the platform is a blockchain, very close to the Bitcoin. On top of this is a decentralsied messaging system (smsg) based on Bitmessage. At some point in the near future their will be a software library to allow users to build all kinds of services on this platform.
The first implementation the particl team have built (as a kind of proof of concept for the platform) is a decentralised p2p market. In the client (
Particl Desktop) you can create a special wallet that lets you view listings people have posted (via smsg). If you bid on an item and the seller accepts, a contract is created on the blockchain. You can see a web portal view of the listings here:
https://www.demarkets.io/particl/explorerThe contract that is created has its own inbuilt escrow called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) Escrow. The current alpha system requires both the buyer and seller to put 100% in on top of the sale price to ensure they cooperate to complete the traction. So for example if the buyer pays 200 particl, the seller pays 100 particl and also holds the item. Once the buyer receives the item and is happy they release the contract. The buyer gets back their deposit of 100 particl. The seller receives 300 particl. This process is designed so that there is no need to trust an intermediary escrow and improves privacy. Later versions of the market will have adjustable MAD escrow values of 100 - 0%.
Infographic of all possible MAD escrow states:
Video of buy/sell walk through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVdwav2lzXQSo to answer your initial question each client stores a complete copy of all the auctions (smsg messages) and the blockchain (contracts and balances).
Hence decentralised. Sales agreed between buyer and seller are complemented anonymously - they are both blinded for the amount and use ring signatures to obfuscate the sender.
So they are anonymous. And only the two parties involved can tell who’s involved in a MAD escrow contract,
hence P2P, with no intermediary.
I’ve been having a play with the client and looking over the architecture; for a dapp I’m happy to say this actually works very smoothly, and I can’t see any security issues with the architecture or problems with the incentivisation and game theory aspects.
Payment is always made in the particl currency as the contract needs to be on the local particl blockchain. But there are plans to let you pay in other cryptocurrencies via an intermediary process from the wallet and this is then executed on the particl blockchain, so in the future you should be able to pay with other currencies. There is also currently a bot built into the wallet to let you swap BTC for PART.