The platform is in live mode. Anyone can register right now and trade or buy items of their choice.
Actually, you may even try some of your stuff to sell to someone you know to test the platform.
How do we know the other party is reliable? The reputation system only works after people shared their experience. That means the first people to start trading have to take a gamble. As far as I can see it is trivial for a fraud to pretend to be a company selling products. How did eBay and Alibaba pull this off?
No gamble starting from the first trade. Once the buyer accepts the proposal he sends money to the smart-contract that keeps the funds locked till the goods are delivered to the buyer. So if the seller fails to send the goods, money are released back to the buyer without any escalation automatically.
ok, thats a nice concept against fraud. so the smart contract works like an escrow for both side partners of the deal. nice
We must not forget that the buyer must confirm receipt of the goods. I wonder if there is any time for this confirmation in a smart contract? For example, if the buyer does not confirm receipt of the goods at all or confirms after a long time. The seller will not receive money all this waiting period.
there are surely some situations where it can get complicated. For example, a parcel gets lost or delayed. I assume that can be solved by just initiatiing the exchange once again.
Another problem could be that the buyer and seller don't agree on the quality so one party wants to get payed while the other wants a new delivery or a refund. In the real world you would end up in front of a court but maybe ther's some smart way to solve it on the blockchain as well.