Time To Disrupt The Way We Buy From Each Other
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Rex Storey, and I am the CEO and co-founder of the startup, LetsBidLocal.com. We aim at not only changing the way that people can buy and sell with each other, within your local community or metropolitan area, but to introduce to the global marketplace a new method to sell your wares in a safe, easy, and fraud free manner.
Our problem statement for our project is that sites like Kijiji and Craigslist are a risky endeavor to use. There have been incidents that are well reported worldwide of buyers and sellers either being defrauded, or risking personal injury, and sometimes death in dealing with face to face transactions for good with persons you potentially do not know. This is unacceptable to us, and it made us think long and hard about ways to solve this.
So here we are today.. I’m here to introduce you to our proposed solution, LetsBidLocal.com. We are developing a true next-generation person to person (P2P) marketplace system that is run via the Stellar blockchain, and provides solid solutions to the core problems outlined above. The first problem, being defrauded, can be solved using blockchain technology and smart contracts. Our token provides security in the bid/buy process by using our own escrow system, designed to hold a winning bid, or an offer to purchase on the blockchain via escrow until the buyer and seller coordinate a time and place to meet.
Oh, and we also provide a recommended list of safe, monitored, meet up locations throughout the world to help facilitate an easy exchange between the buyer and seller of the good in question.
Once the buyer and seller meet, our mobile app will ask the buyer whether they have received the good as described in the listing. If they confirm, we ask the seller whether the good was delivered as promised. If both parties confirm these parameters, the payment is released, and the seller is paid. LetsBidLocal takes a small transaction fee from the seller, and the transaction is marked as successful and feedback options and ratings are presented to both buyer and seller.
If when you (buyer) meet with the seller, and the item is not as described, you would simply walk away from the in person exchange and mark the transaction on the mobile app as having an issue. We will ask you several questions to help determine why this transaction was unsuccessful. Was the seller sketchy, or not who was presented on the site as the verified identity? Did the seller not show up? Was the item not as described? Regardless, the bid amount is returned to the buyer, and the listing is marked as unsuccessful. Again, feedback options and ratings are available for this scenario as well, and the seller and buyer will have their status on the site marked accordingly.
To ensure that buyers and sellers know who you are dealing with, we take a few steps to achieve this. The first step, is that you need to have a Facebook account, and your primary photo needs to be a clear photo of yourself. You also need to have a Facebook account that has been active for more than 90 days. If the account is 90–365 days old, we will ask you to vet your account with a friend on Facebook. We provide the mechanism for this within the user profile/security area on our site. If you begin to start gathering negative ratings where your identity is in question, you will not be allowed to transact on our site until you are vetted, and you may be asked to submit KYC documents to formally confirm your identity.
Our progression in terms of features we want to roll into our site will look like this:
Core Site — All of the above
Phase Two — Commercial storefronts
Phase Three — Ability to choose shipping options to open up the marketplace to a much larger audience
Phase Four — A built in front end exchange for the buying and selling of our token
Since we are using Stellar, the added benefit is that our token is immediately available via the Stellar decentralized exchange. This allows immediate liquidity, and allows us to build and grow our token value as we build and grow, and we expect to build and grow very quickly!
I hope this gives you a quick, easy, and personal introduction to LetsBidLocal, and our goals and mission. If you would like any information, or to get in touch with us, email us at info@seedblocktech.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Slack, and Reddit.
Sincerely,
Rex Storey
CEO, Co-Founder of LetsBidLocal.com
