Deterring Crime in a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace

OmniBazaar Inc.
Sep 6, 2018 · 3 min read

Peer-to-peer marketplaces are susceptible to illegal activities because they are community owned and operated. Buyers and sellers deal directly with each other, without an intermediary. With no central site or responsible authority monitoring the content of listings, such sites can become havens for criminal activities.

If no one is monitoring or censoring the contents of marketplace listings anyone can list anything with impunity. If there is no “sheriff” in town, a peer-to-peer marketplace can devolve to a “wild west” of anarchy.

For some “crypto-anarchists” and criminals, this might be the ideal scene. But, as cryptocurrencies enter the mainstream, the majority of users are regular, law-abiding citizens. These people tend to object to child pornography, murder-for-hire and weapons of mass destruction.

So, for any peer-to-peer marketplace to gain wide acceptance, there needs to be a way of weeding out illegal products and services. If the marketplace or the marketplace community can’t or won’t police the contents of listings, then governments will send in their own police to do the job.

OmniBazaar was designed and built for the average person who wants to buy and sell goods and services in the ‘white market’.

Some other distributed marketplaces enable ‘black market’ activity by providing tools for anonymity and IP obfuscation. With OmniBazaar we have gone in the opposite direction. We have developed a unique system that lets the OmniBazaar community police itself. We call this “community policing”.

The OmniBazaar community policing system allows marketplace users to flag a listing as illegal or objectionable. If enough users with enough community ranking object to the same listing, it will be removed from the marketplace. Listings by known and respected members of the community are harder to remove than listings by new or relatively unknown sellers. These rules make it harder for bad actors to thwart the system.

Community ranking, and the accompanying ability to “down-vote” a listing, is acquired by providing services to the community and developing a good reputation in the marketplace.

Community policing isn’t censorship by some central authority. Community policing is a positive way for the marketplace community to set and enforce its own standards. Those standards may be different in Cincinnati than they are in Copenhagen or Cairo. So, it only makes sense for members of those local communities to set and enforce their local standards.

“Community policing” is available in the latest public beta test version of the OmniBazaar software. Anyone can download the OmniBazaar software at http://download.omnibazaar.com/support/download?ref=social. Beta testers and early adopters receive free OmniCoins for use in the marketplace. The OmniBazaar marketplace is open and “live” during the beta test, and the public is encouraged to participate.

With “community policing” we are taking an active step to use our patented marketplace technology for the public good.

About OmniBazaar:

OmniBazaar is a community-owned, peer-to-peer, e-commerce marketplace. The OmniBazaar ecosystem includes its own built-in cryptocurrency (“OmniCoin”), an influencer marketing system, social messaging, reputation tracking, escrow agents, and bonuses to provide user incentives for participation and growth. With OmniBazaar, online sellers save 90%–100% of the fees they would pay Amazon or eBay. Online buyers benefit from lower prices, and escape from “big data” tracking and “push” marketing. Social influencers enjoy a simple referral system that allows them to monetize their social networks. Marketplace users can generate additional income by hosting listings for other user or providing escrow services in the marketplace. OmniBazaar provides a simple “gateway” to cryptocurrency by allowing users to barter for bitcoins℠.

OmniBazaar Inc.
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