What is dCommerce?
Photo by Lily Banse on Unsplash
@dCommerce is a split or fork from the previous @dstors community. Apparently, there was some sort of leadership drama and other factors that lead to @dstors ending services and then @dCommerce to begin. Some people are a bit skeptical of these projects.
These are non-traditional ways of doing things in a still very new ecosystem of technology and social order. No matter what, mistakes are going to be made. The flip side of that of course though is that something new and transformative is here somewhere.
Open or Not?
@dstors was an open source project and @dCommerce claims they are not interested in being open source, but rather are trying to run like a standard "for-profit" business.
I would argue that an open source based business can certainly be used for profit, but either way, let's look more into the project. There is no doubt I'm biased.
The purpose stated by @dCommerce "is to match willing buyers and sellers through a crypto token rewards based, peer to peer, borderless shopping platform." The dCommerce Token (DCC) will first be launched on the Bitshares (BTS) exchange since SMTs are not ready yet.
How Does It Work?
Their motto is, "Monetize Your Shopping”, but I must admit that I haven't been able to wrap my mind around the paradigm yet. I haven't seen a working model or example of how this will work, so I can't decide what I think of it.
The project's website, dCommerce.live is just a GoDaddy landing page at the time of writing, although the latest post claims an updated timeline and stratagy plan is coming soon.
This is not a Steem specific app. That isn't a good or a bad thing, but simply something worth noting. Seller transactions and Seller Reputation System (SRS) will be held off chain. As mentioned earlier, their tokens are to be initially using the Bitshares blockchain. It is unclear if the plan is to switch to SMTs after they finally come out.
Buyer and Seller Protection?
There have been plenty of questions about escrow services and the response from the team is that there will be a focus on buyer and seller protections. I haven't found a white paper to describe this system.
This is among the most important of all the things that a trading platform needs. I have used [Purse.io](https://purse.io/) a lot of times to buy things with bitcoin, and a few of those times I did need the intervention of their moderating/ escrow services. Generally, the store itself is the moderator, with it's reputation at stake, but in a peer-to-peer model, the players don't generally have enough reputation to be safe to deal with unless there is also a trusted third party ready to offer a remedy for situations as they arrive.
Steem Isn't Very Big, Is There Enough To Support a Project Like This?
Every project I have seen so far needs a bigger audience than what Steem currently has. Any community building here should be planning to market outside of the Steem eco-sphere and bring users in. I believe that is inevitable for a growing business to survive.
dCommerce states that it is appointing staff and planning a considerable outside market pull. This will be using social media to attract people from the usual sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Clearly, this project has a lot of work to do, so I will be keeping an eye out for the future of dCommerce.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://trade.diggndeeper.com/what-is-dcommerce/
Didn't know the project wouldn't be open source... I consider that very bad, open sourcing projects should be the standard no matter what. They already lost some of my attention with that move, let's see where the project goes in the furute!
I've never used purse.io but heard about it, did you like the way it worked?
I am a bit suspicious of lots of things about this project, so I will be watching to see how things go. I strongly prefer open source and don't really support anything that isn't mostly open, though I don't stand against things for not being open source. There is a place for them... just not for me.
Purse is the greatest thing since sliced bread for me. It's like getting a raise. I use it very often and get things at 20-30% off all the time. Usually, the only reason its hard to get that kind of discount is that shipping is too slow and the buyer doesn't want to wait.
Yup, I love me some Purse.io!!
Suspicious @diggndeeper.com? So am I.
I honestly do not understand why are they collecting all those delegations in the first place. I seriously don't understand it.
somehow those delegations need to bring serious value to this project. because they are planning to pay with tokens for those delegations. so we will already have some serious selling pressure coming from all those people who would like to dump those tokens the moment they will receive them.
how will those delegations help to balance it out? I have no clue.
Yours
Piotr
Thx @teutonium for this comment.
I didnt even notice that this project wont be open source. Considering my previous unpleasant experience with dstors I would also stay away from dcommerce.
Yours
Piotr
a "d" store that is not open source... makes no sense imo, it's going against the whole point of decentralization
That is definitely a fair point. Can a thing actually be decentralized without also being open source? I don't see how that can be, because the entity controlling the code is the central authority.
Posted using Partiko Android
Dear @teutonium
I only had a chance to read your comment a moment ago. Somehow I've missed it before.
Appreciate the fact that you're always so responsive.
Cheers, Piotr
If only the people behind this project would put their energy into bridging that Steemit and OpenBazaar gap into something beautiful. While I know it wouldn't be as profitable for a company it would be better for all of us users. And boy I would love to see some more companies incorporating that "d" for Decentralized into their company or product name be actually decentralized and off any one single network or exchange. It feels with more things going off of things based off tokens on the Steem network is going backwards.
My biggest issue with the Brave Browser is their requirement to be using the Uphold exchange exclusively. How is this not just a centralized browser if you are only able to use your BAT on just one exchange. Just like all these decentralized tools that stick you to one coin and so the value of the project gets tied to the price of that single coin.
I have that feeling too. I don't understand the value yet, at least not for the vast majority of things.
Good point on the Brave browser too. I didn't know that. Maybe they will expand? Or are they planning to purposefully limit exchange options going forward?
Amazing @cryplectibles. Thx for sharing your thoughts on that particular topic.
Yours
Piotr
This post has been included in the latest edition of SoS Daily News - a digest of all the latest news on the Steem blockchain.
Dear @diggndeeper
I'm not sure if I we could trust @dCommerce if it's connected to @dstors.
Many people were heavily disappointed with that project and lack of communication and explanation when they decided to close down.
I noticed that @dCommerce managed to raise 1mln in SP delegations. What do they offer in return to those who delegated SP? Do they offer anything "real" or promise to receive tokens that do not exist yet? Any idea?
Yours
Piotr
I agree with you, as I have seen how the history has played out so far. There is some explanation of how they plan to use the SP if you are interested in looking at their feed, but the answer is kind of nebulous at best, in my opinion.
Thank you for your prompt reply @diggndeeper.com. Appreciate it.
I've seen their "blur" explanation but I still don't get it. It's pretty clear that dcommerce is "earning" solid rewards and this week alone it seem that they received around 1000 SP in form of rewards. That's a lot extra "juice". Even if (I'm not saying it will happend, just if ...) they would decide to close down (the way dstors did) then they will end up with huge amount of "earned" (and free) Steem Power. Worth thousands of $$$.
Cheers
Piotr