Could EOS Finally Enable A Truly Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Marketplace Such As OpenBrazaar To Achieve Adoption?

A decentralized P2P market place is one of the most powerful applications of blockchain technology, and could have a long term impact on individuals around the globe. 

While the initial idea of a peer-to-peer marketplace such as EBay or Amazon sounds feasible, the adoption of such a platform would likely prove to be very difficult. OpenBazaar has been developed over the past few years, and have a tangible and usable platform at the moment. While it's technically usable, the limited listings make it highly unlikely that it would offer advantages to everyday individuals over the current platforms. When we consider Amazon Prime 2 day shipping included for free, it seems very hard to imagine that users would have a strong desire to use a platform that doesn't offer the same features. Sellers would be very unlikely to list on a platform that brought them no sales, and users wouldn't use a platform if it didn't offer selection and variety of products that they desire. 

There are examples of these types of chicken or the egg scenarios throughout many different cryptocurrency platforms and projects, but EOS may finally be able to enable a decentralized p2p marketplace to have a realistic method of achieving adoption. While a truly decentralized Peer-to-Peer marketplace like Openbazaar could be implemented into the EOS platform, a business would also have the ability to host a marketplace and offer similar advantages to individuals that the traditional platforms do. A p2p marketplace that charged a low fee to cover a uniform shipping method could be significantly cheaper for buyers and sellers compared to a platform like Amazon, because centralized platforms have huge costs associated with operation that an application wouldn't encounter on the EOS platform. Not only could a marketplace on EOS prove to be more cost efficient, it could also prove to offer advantages of privacy and freedom to the users of the platform. They wouldn't have to worry about being targeted with advertising from all of the listings they viewed on the marketplace, and would likely be able to have a greater amount of control over their data. 

While the concept of a peer-to-peer marketplace may seems far fetched, it would likely be very achievable from a technical perspective. The technology is there, but because of the lack of revenue models there has been relatively few platforms that have presented themselves. Creating a marketplace on an application specific blockchain would be a huge task, and would require a very experienced developer in order to make it a reality. With the release of the EOS platform, developers will have the ability to write in a consistent language that many are likely much more familiar with (WebAssembly). This means that developers can focus directly on what makes their application different and useful, rather than having to figure out the underlying specifics of their blockchain, authentication methods, ect. This makes the costs associated with development much lower, and will enable a much wider range of individuals to have the ability to participate in application development. 

What other advantages would a decentralized P2P marketplace hold?

Another main advantage of a decentralized version of a marketplace would be its ability to offer these types of platforms to individuals in parts of the globe that have no access to these types of services currently. Individuals around the globe would have the ability to offer their goods for sale, and could even turn out to be a very effective platform for working directly with global distributors and manufacturers. Not only would the platform offer cost savings for both parties, but a trust-less escrow system could be implemented to enable a greater level of trust and security to all parties involved. While shipping single goods across the globe would likely turn out to be inefficient, wholesaling goods directly from the manufacturer could prove to be very lucrative for domestic re-sellers. 

In my opinion, the concept of a decentralized marketplace goes so far beyond any potential advantages that it could offer in specific circumstances, but rather the ability to offer a service to individuals that have had no access to such a platform in the past. Blockchain technology and the use-cases that it enables can truly change the lives of so many people around the world, and it's projects like the EOS platform that will likely make these use cases a reality. It has always been speculated that blockchain technology could provide advantages for individuals in underdeveloped countries, but a single platform hosting a wide range of applications could finally bring some of these use-cases to a more substantive format. Developing a unique application specific blockchain platform has proven to be a very costly and lengthy process, but EOS may change all of that. 

Individuals and businesses will have the ability to create their own applications with their own monetization strategies, but they will only need to focus on the aspects of their application that make them different. Integration to the EOS platform will be very easy, and most of the most tricky parts of development will be uniform across all applications on the platform. Individuals will use a uniform account for interaction with a wide variety of different applications, so users wouldn't have to deal with different keys, passwords, ect. for each application, so everyday individuals will have a greater ability to use the platform compared to most platforms today. 

Thinking about the variety and amount of use-cases that the upcoming EOS platform will likely make a reality makes me very optimistic and excited, but I don't think I even fully understand the true implications that come along with the EOS platform. Individuals will finally have a chance to use the same platform to interact with a wide variety of applications that hold advantages over their centralized counterparts, which is what will ultimately draw the users to the platform. The more applications that have advantages over traditional services that the EOS platform is able to present, the greater the chance of mainstream adoption the platform has. Individuals finally have the chance to achieve increased freedoms and rights on the internet, and judging by the initial distribution contract it seems like individuals are ready for the change. 

I really hope that you enjoyed this post, and as always I urge you to leave any comments, questions, input, ect. in the comments below! Thanks for reading!

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