Marketplace Update 12th Jan — https://alpha.lockchain.co

This post is to update everyone on our significant progress with the development of the LockChain marketplace.

As already mentioned in our previous update, we are doing heavy development on the platform through weekly sprints, and scheduling features releases for every Friday (or in case Friday is skipped, the Monday that follows).

Our official announcement for the marketplace launch is scheduled for next week, when we make the next deployment. We will try to make it mid-week, but in worst case scenario will schedule for 19th.

This week we made a major update on our alpha marketplace through which we unlocked key functionality for hosts.

Here is a list with the major features that the https://alpha.lockchain.co has.

General Features

• User Login/Registration with Re-Captcha integration
• Forgot password/password recovery via security token generation
• Profile details management
• Personal LOC/ETH wallet linking to profile
• Real-time Multi-currency (GBP, USD , EUR) support via API connectivity
• HTML5 Mobile Responsive design via React JS— still some polishing to be done, so please don’t worry if you see some ux flaw on your mobile
• Integration with 600+ bookable properties

Marketplace Storefront Features

• Dynamic homes search with real time availability and pricing check- Currently with a selector for countries based on available inventory. We will soon be switching this to city based search with autocomplete for city specific searches.
• Dynamic calculation of LOC/FIAT rate through averaged LOC price from Coinmarketcap API — Meaning that rates for properties are configured by hosts in fiat, and the price shown in LOC is automatically adjusted to current LOC rate, so that it will always match the fiat equivalent at time of booking
• Property page with integrated Gallery and Cover photo
• Property integration with Google maps
• Booking Request — In case a traveler initiates a booking request, the host will get a notification with the details of the booking, and will be able to initiate communication, and change status to “Cancelled” or “Completed” upon verifying payment.
• LOC Payment instructions via e-mail upon initiation of a booking request
• Property calendar with availability and rates — you can browse up to 90 days ahead and see the specific rates a property has. This way you can choose the best possible rates if you have a flexible travel window ahead.

Dashboard/Log-in user area

• Login area with “My Trips” dashboard for travelers to keep track on their bookings.
• “My Reservations” dashboard for hosts to keep track of their bookings
• Bookings request management with possibility to Cancel/Confirm
• Integrated links to etherscan.io to verify if payment has been sent/received on both “My Trips” and “My Reservations” dashboards under the specific bookings.
• Individual payment instructions in “My trips” dashboard for travelers with email confirmation. Unless you specifically request, hosts will send out booking payment instructions by default to travelers.
• Display of current LOC rate in EUR (soon to be added for USD and GBP/ depending on user currency preference)
• Property Listing with possibility to choose amenities, location, photos, area, description etc. — you can add and delete properties. Editing will be enabled with next week’s release
• Default daily rate for properties — when you add a property you can choose a default rate. It will automatically populate the calendar for your property for this rate.
• Custom rates and availability management through calendar editing — you can set custom rates for specific dates, based on the market demand, that won’t change your default rate

Bug fixes

• Hundreds of UX bug fixes for Mozilla and Chrome.
• Hundreds of security fixes and system stability fixes

Important things planned for next week

• Built-in user messaging — until we release this features, hosts and travelers can communicate via emails directly (email link is embedded into dashboard for easier reference)
• Property Editing
• Improvement in the add property interface
• Mandatory LOC address linking to property
• Property Image upload optimization (ratio / quality optimizer)
• Possibility to set Security Deposit rate for each property, which will be displayed in payment instructions
• Autocomplete for Countries and cities on property adding interface
• Error messages to users improvement in case anything goes wrong on the site

Important things planned for after next week (according to chronology)

• 100k Hotels integration with -15% lower pricing compared to current OTAs (scheduled for Feb 2018)
• DAPP initial integration on bookings Q1 2018 — we will begin from the bookings management, confirmation and security deposit release/dispute. Once we get through that we will connect the rates and availability management and the more complex tasks until we fully integrated the marketplace into the blockchain
• Built-in LOC/ETH wallet support for user friendly payment management
• Mobile Apps launch for Android and iOS Mar/April 2018

After we deploy the next week’s planned features we will make an official announcement of the marketplace launch, and will invite all hosts to register their vacation rentals.

Thank you for your continuous support and stay close as we are very near the official launch of the alpha marketplace.