The new peer-to-peer market platform DarkMarket has been named the winner of Toronto Bitcoin Expo Hackathon, which has brought $20,000 in bitcoin to its developers.
The DarkMarket team said that it would spend the awarded money on libbitcoin development and other projects.
The group behind the innovative startup is known for another promising project – the Airbitz wallet. It is a cloud-based technology, which also features client-side encryption to increase the level of security, and is already available as a web solution and a mobile application for Android and iOS.
Unlimited marketplace
Open source pioneer Amir Taaki has teamed up with Airbitz developer William Swanson to present the idea and basic functions of DarkMarket. The video of the speech is available on YouTube and the homepage of the company.
DarkMarket aims to be a marketplace without borders – no one can terminate its work as it is based on the P2P and decentralization principles. Participation is open to everyone. Identity and reputation rankings, seller pages, multisig escrow, private messaging and privacy features are soe of the features.
To some observers, the name of the project is reminiscent of illegal trade. Yet DarkMarket’s stated aims are the support emerging markets and merchants, and market stability, not dealing in illegal products.
A global perspective
The appearance of DarkMarket, a pioneering P2P merchant platform, could play an important part in global economy and finance. According to World Bank research, a strong correlation between formal account penetration and GDP per capita exists and determines important conditions.
Simply put, this means that wealthier countries mostly rely on banks.
Matthew Slater criticizes the existing system:
“When paid economists talk about a 'free' market what they mean is a 'rigged' market. When they say 'dark' they assume that national government is the only source of 'light'. Ironic considering how little government is actually visible to the governed. So we must see beyond the language.”
According to Slater, P2P markets are promising due to the lack of complicated regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Units entering that kind of market can concentrate on their main goals reducing costs and improving performance.
However:
“The catch is that free markets do not exist on a large scale. The means of exchange itself is heavily regulated. In order to trade freely one must either accept unreasonable risk by lugging around piles of cash or join the heavily regulated financial system, with all of its various financial and privacy costs. [Crypto-currency] is disrupting this model by enabling trade that does not rely on ‘formal accounts’. People can trade in cash on a larger scale.”
Taaki, meanwhile, has provided the audience in Toronto with his own manifesto on finance and freedom:
“Technology is power, and a new front has opened in the struggle for freedom. These tools are for resource management, digital governance and new finance. Technology is not, and never will be neutral. Software is art.”
Andrew Wagner: "Colored coins" and the P2P marketplace are a foregone conclusion, and I think will eventually be ubiquitous across all major platforms. The ability to automatically store and transmit contracts, property deeds, and commodities across the blockchain will obsolete many lawyers, executives, accountants and bureaucrats, while significantly reducing corruption. It's an extremely complex subject, but that's a good summary."
Andrew Wagner: "Colored coins" and the P2P marketplace are a foregone conclusion, and I think will eventually be ubiquitous across all major platforms. The ability to automatically store and transmit contracts, property deeds, and commodities across the blockchain will obsolete many lawyers, executives, accountants and bureaucrats, while significantly reducing corruption. It's an extremely complex subject, but that's a good summary."