I would like to propose a project, decentralized "Craigslist" on Cardano Blockchain

Decentralized Ledger does a great job of persistent of trustless & valid data.

What if this was used to store what users have to sell and which users are willing to buy.

I used “Craigslist” as an example, and this is because it is the most basic level of online-market that is functional (and very popular at that). If the base level is secured, further functionality can be built on top of it.

I had played with this concept in my head for some months now, but I wanted to share this with the community. I was hoping to build this project, but the security & legal aspects were concerning.

This is more of an idea I would like to spread with the community.

With the certainty of blockchain and the fair & equal nature of decentralized ledgers, I believe this project would not only allow Cardano to shine, I believe it would change the world.

I have come across several layers of concern…

  1. If users want to only use Fiat, how can we handle this? (Possible temporary currency exchange to ADA and back?)
  2. Legally, how would we handle frauds, scams, or god forbid, a trap
  3. Legally, would we need admins to oversee transactions to be valid?
  4. Would admins also need to oversee the legal-validity of the items being sold?
  5. How would different jurisdictional laws apply & how can we enforce?
  6. While the protocol is trustless, if we use Admins, how do we trust the admins?
  7. How would we handle future development? (0.5% tax on all transaction for a project fund?)
  8. How would this handle City, County, State/Province, Country level tax? (or not)
  9. For illicit activities, how to ensure that the scammers can be found and be avoided for everyone’s safety when they can make new accounts? Would this require address-to-address tracking to flag? What if a group of malicious people decided to flag an innocent person’s address?

If all things go as planned, can this project be expanded upon, where the underlying function of ‘someone providing a good/service’ and ‘someone purchasing the said good’ is taken to the less formal level…

  1. Uber Eats, except without the middle man taking 30% percent of profits
  2. Temp 1-action jobs hirable by businesses (aka Restaurants can “Rent” a currier for a single meal delivery + tip)
  3. Tinder… for business, offer goods and services and then swiping right matches buyers and sellers

I hope such project takes on traction. I would love to be a part of a world changing technology.

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Dear @Cardazo ,

Thank you for sharing your idea and your layers of concern. I do find it interesting (if not humorous) that you brought up an idea and provided all the questions for the reader to tackle. I wish you had “brought something to the table” with your concerns - I would have loved to have seen what kind of solutions you had in mind - if any at all.

I am not a developer nor formally connected with Cardano, but I’d love to give you my thoughts!
My overall impression is: Adding an existing idea to crypto doesn’t necessarily make a better mousetrap. Also, the “average joe” may not be ready for such an idea.

Legally, how would we handle frauds, scams, or god forbid, a trap? How would different jurisdictional laws apply & how can we enforce? For illicit activities, how to ensure that the scammers can be found and be avoided for everyone’s safety when they can make new accounts? Would this require address-to-address tracking to flag? What if a group of malicious people decided to flag an innocent person’s address?

Amount of Space: My concern with these issues is the amount of information and space needed and the immutable environment of the blockchain. One scam or two is not too bad, but almost instantly or over time, there could be tens of thousands of scams posted in the decentralized ledger taking up tons of memory, bandwidth, space, etc. Also, the metadata and media (pictures or video) would also take up space. Also, when would information be removed from the ledger, if at all? Would anyone really want an advertisement on the chain which is several years old - how would you clear out old ads from new ads?

Authority and Multitude of Jurisdictional Questions: Would the marketplace entity be the authority or will they work in tandum with local law enforcement? AND, what would be considered “local” ? There may not be the appropriate regulations at the moment to provide an appropriate authority for scams and business dealings.

Literally Anyone, From Anywhere: When using Craiglist - picking a location or IP address helps guide users to the right marketplace. However, with Crypto - anyone could be from anywhere. If a scammer was found - how would you know who they are? how would you find them? If you find them, what can you do about it? Which court are you going to plead your case? When are penalties restricted to the marketplace or to law enforcement? Should or could one country’s authority arrest someone in another country’s jurisdiction?

People in crypto enjoy their anonimity - so that would have to balance with accountability.

Crypto Is Still Defining Itself:
I feel from my exposure that the crypto space may not be ready for such an idea because it appears governments, institutions, and organizations are still defining the scope and boundaries of crypto itself. Crypto technology has been around for a while but people are still socially adjusting to it. I do feel the division between decentralized maximalists and centralized entities, projects, or organizations.

It seems to me that the crypto field still needs to define who they are, what they want, and who that want to become - - - before taking an existing idea and adding crypto to it.

Finally: YOUR POST PROVIDED MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS. I appologize for doing the same. But, perhaps someone else could use this discussion for thought?

Thank you for sharing.

I’ve done significant discovery work on a web3 decentralized “vendor” marketplace.

Adding an existing idea to crypto doesn’t necessarily make a better mousetrap. Also, the “average joe” may not be ready for such an idea.

I’m unsure if @ True2me4you is trolling or mocking but the need for such a service is evident. As a blockchain developer I’ve seen the demand here.

Amount of space lol, entire posts or listings aren’t stored on chain. Just transactions. It’s wild to see discouraging remarks from people like yourself, consistently commenting on the internet or in person. Whom speak about “crypto” and “web3” when they are pretentious individuals, boasting that they know best about an incredibly diverse marketspace.

PayPal currently sits as a billion dollar business and it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Understand PayPal is basically a fiat blockchain. PayPal acts as an escrow type entity to ensure “digital” transactions are verified prior to releasing the funds and they act as an escrow agent of sorts if your goods and services aren’t up to the standard the seller claims.

So, in my personal opinion. A craigslist type listings/classified service is a wonderful business model but the escrow service (web3 PayPal) needs to be developed first to complement the platform.

PayPal enabled Ebay. Ebay gave Amazon a footprint which they took to the next level.

Realistically, if PayPal would offer peer to peer payments for tangible items and services in Ethereum or a layer 2 chain, I could produce a craigslist type marketplace in under a month. Building a new PayPal on the other hand is the beast of burden.

I have done a significant more amount of thinking into this, and I believe I have the answer.

Every entity exists on the blockchain with the ability to “give” credentials.

Let’s say Jordan Lee (can be any gender and ethnicity, please give me credit, I spent an entirety of 45 seconds into this name haha) is born on Jan 1, 2001. (Also, just to mess around, I’m making my new genderless pronouns, she/he/thee, her/his/ther, her/him/ther)

When Jordan is born, ther information can be stored on the blockchain as a “birth”. Then ther hospital can “register” the baby and give it a “credential” from a “hospital entity”.

Jordan then goes to highschool, gets a “credential” from an established “highschool entity”
Jordan gets ther drivers license, this registered by a “government entity”
Jordan dies, gets cremated, this is logged in the system.

What this does is create a web of intertwined validation that builds upon itself. One can avoid being tracked by the system, but ofc that makes their life harder as it already does now.

The federal government entities might have to be the “base” layer upon which everything else is built. Federal gov would have to be the entity that gives the state governments, military persons, etc their validity, who may then in return give further validations. The intertwined nature provides a built-in liability structure as someone who is interacting with any entity can be sure they are working with someone who claims to be themself.

What this intertwining web means is that every entity’s proof of identity can be backed up. For example, I might be way more willing to transact with an individual that has a accredited degree from university and is also validated by the local and federal government.

Is this “big brother”? yes, but you also have the very same data making the power distributed to everyone.

One potential benefit of this could be the concept of an “individual” online in the aspect of social networks.

With each of Jordan’s credentials, Jordan is automatically associated to all of ther classmates, teachers, etc.

Sorry this isn’t well written but I hope the point came across.