Exploring Africa's e-commerce market, the Potentials, challenges, and the Phore Blockchain solution part 2
“Emerging economies with developing infrastructures offer massive opportunities for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.”
In our previous article Exploring Africa e-commerce market, the Potentials, challenges and the Phore Blockchain solution part 1, we explored the Africas consumer market, its vast opportunities and the few challenges facing the growth of e-commerce in that region. In this article, we talk about how distributed ledger technologies (DLT) such as the Phore blockchain is set on revolutionizing online commerce and ushering in a new phase of blockchain services with real-world applications. focusing on the Phore marketplace, some of its key features and the advantages a global adoption of the Phore marketplace possess over traditional centralized e-commerce platforms.
The Rise of E-Commerce
E-commerce is the exchange of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer(C2C) or consumer-to-business(C2B). The inception of e-commerce can be traced to the 1960s when businesses started using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to share business documents with other companies. After the number of individual users sharing electronic documents grew in the 1980s, the rise of eBay and Amazon in the 1990s, revolutionized the e-commerce industry. Consumers can now purchase infinite amounts of items online, from e-tailers, regular brick and mortar stores with e-commerce capabilities and one another.
Today, top marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, etc. have grown to dominate the global e-commerce market with joint revenue reaching trillions of dollars, while smaller marketplaces like Konga, Jumia, and mall of Africa holds more dominance in the African scene. the stratospheric rise in e-commerce in recent years leaves many debating whether the online B2C market will soon abolish physical, brick and mortar stores. There is no argument that online shopping is growing at a significant rate worldwide. from our analysis in our previous article, global e-retail sales amounted to US$2.8 trillion and projections show a growth rate of up to US$4.9 trillion by 2021, Making e-commerce one of the most lucrative venture of the 21st century.
Adoption of advanced technologies has assisted the e-commerce industry in redefining global day-to-day commerce over the years, however, the e-commerce sector is not without a few challenges especially in developing economies where most of these challenges are more prevalent such as Africa, resulting to a slowed paced growth of e-commerce in such regions. Although, much efforts are being put in to overcome a lot of these challenges through technological innovations not just in Africa but all over the world.
The e-commerce industry is continuously expanding, incorporating advanced methods, and adopting modern technological advancements into itself to boost productivity, sales and enhance the customer experience. These technologies include Ai, Blockchain, Robotics, virtual/augmented reality, amongst others. One major technology that is set to greatly improve the e-commerce sector is Blockchain technology.
Blockchain and the Phore Marketplace solution
The blockchain technology is a distributed ledger system that stores specific data in the form of blocks, all chronologically connected in a chain-like manner over a network of decentralized computers or nodes running the blockchain software. Each node has an identical copy of every block stored on the blockchain network, block data cannot be altered or added by an independent node or group of nodes without verification and authorization from the remaining nodes on the network. This makes the blockchain extremely secured and suitable for handling e-commerce systems.
“Phore blockchain features its own decentralized Marketplace and Crowdfunding applications, various blockchain service business ventures, and blockchain technology platforms such as the Phore cryptocurrency PHR”
However, all blockchains are not created equal, a lot of research and advancement has gone into the blockchain technology over the years, the technology keeps evolving and improving resulting in faster, more secure and scalable blockchains being created such as the Phore Blockchain. The Phore Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) geared towards providing real-world applications to enable private commerce and advanced privacy-enabled business models globally.
Phore blockchain features a decentralized Marketplace and Crowdfunding applications, various blockchain service business ventures, and blockchain technology platforms such as the Phore cryptocurrency PHR. all running on a super-fast and secured proof-of-stake sharding architecture built completely from scratch called Synapse. Built on and decentralized Governance System, with blockchain investment features such as the Phore Masternodes.
The Phore Blockchain is an ecosystem built with decentralized commerce in mind, the new architecture is set to be a major upgrade and game-changer to the blockchain industry, with faster and improved transaction speed features due to its new sharding technology and a host of other advanced functionality built into the architecture, you can read all about it here. The Phore Blockchain capitalizes on the several barriers faced by conventional e-commerce platforms by creating a completely decentralized Marketplace on top of the Phore blockchain to provide real-world blockchain solutions to the e-commerce sector.
How it works
The Phore Marketplace is a decentralized peer-to-peer e-commerce system built on the Phore blockchain, which provides a fully advanced platform where you can buy and sell anything from anywhere worldwide in a completely secured, fast and private manner, there is no platform fees, no listing fees, and no personal data stored or collected. The Phore Marketplace is built to facilitate global decentralized commerce giving you complete control over the way you trade.
Phore Marketplace uses an IPFS (interplanetary file system) as the underlying file storage protocol for storing and sharing listing information. When a user creates a Store and adds a new listing, the data is published on the IPFS network and all connected nodes use the IPFS protocol to access that data. Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol and network designed to create a content-addressable, peer-to-peer method of storing and sharing hypermedia in a distributed file system. As opposed to a centrally located server, IPFS is built around a decentralized system of operator-nodes that holds portions of the overall data, this creates a powerful system of file storage and sharing, connecting all computing devices with the same system of files.
All listing information on the Phore Marketplace is stored on an IPFS network each having a unique Cryptographic hash which serves as the unique identifier for each listing. listing information on the Phore Marketplace can be uniquely identified and referenced via their distinct hash, therefore, data are completely tamper-proof because any attempt to alter it would change the hash. User data on the Phore Marketplace are secured, private and not controlled or monitored by anyone as each Store’s unique identifier (cryptographic hash) is stored privately on the underlying distributed ledger of the Phore Blockchain and not accessible, while listing information remains on the distributed IPFS network. This ensures total privacy of user data on the Phore marketplace since no data is stored, collected or monitored giving the user complete autonomy over their data.
Anyone can create a store and add listings on the Phore marketplace. The Phore Marketplace uses a Bayesian filter algorithm to handle spam listing from appearing on its search engine, although users can create custom search engines on the marketplace and make their own rules on what to include or exclude. the Bayesian filter algorithm is a method of spam filtering that has a learning ability to reduce the number of false positives or false negatives when wrong judgments are found, this filtration process is highly effective and used by almost all email providers to handle spam.
The Phore marketplace search engine store an IPFS pointer to each listing on the marketplace so in the case where a store goes offline listings are cached on the Phore Marketplace search engine for one week and remains accessible for that period of which it later becomes inaccessible after a week elapses. however, when a store comes back online, the store listings are once again published back on the network.
Although, during this one week, buyers can still access listings of offline stores and make purchases using the “offline-purchase” method. If the seller doesn’t come back online to accept payments, the buyer can issue themselves a refund. if the buyer used the “moderated-payment” method, and the seller doesn’t come online, the buyer can open a dispute and a moderator would evaluate and refund the buyer.
Phore marketplace Moderation system
Another key feature of the Phore marketplace is the ability to use verified moderators in resolving disputes. Payments on the Phore marketplace are “escrowed “by making use of multi-signature addresses, To protect users, the Phore Marketplace makes use of 2-of-3 multi-signature addresses for moderated payments, meaning when using the Phore Marketplace Moderation system, the buyer sends the payment to the multi-signature account instead of directly to the seller. The buyer and seller both have access to this account alongside a trusted third party ‘Verified Moderator’. How are these funds released from the multi-signature address? There are five possible ways in which these funds can be released from multi-signature addresses:
1. Both the buyer and seller are satisfied with the transaction and together they release the funds.
Buyer + Seller satisfied = Funds unlocked
2. Both buyer and seller make a mutual decision to put a stop to the transaction. Possible reasons include the seller not being able to ship product as agreed / buyer becoming unhappy with listing etc. In this situation, the buyer and seller come together to refund the buyer.
Buyer + Seller unsatisfied = Funds refunded
3. The buyer and seller are unable to agree. The moderator listens to both sides and decides the seller is at fault. The moderator and buyer come together to issue a refund to the buyer.
Buyer + Seller dispute > Moderator sides with Buyer > Moderator + Buyer issue a refund to Buyer.
4. The buyer and seller are unable to agree. The moderator listens to both sides and decides the buyer is at fault. The moderator and seller come together to release the funds to the seller.
Buyer + Seller dispute > Moderator sides with Seller > Moderator + Seller issue refund to Seller.
5. The buyer and seller are unable to agree. The moderators listen to both sides and decide neither or both parties are at fault. The moderator joins either party to release funds split between buyer and seller.
Buyer + Seller dispute > Neither/Both at fault > Moderator + Buyer/Seller release funds split between the two parties.
Each of the scenarios above serves to protect users who opt to use the Phore Marketplace Moderation system, A Verified Moderator is an individual who has been vetted either by the Phore Blockchain team or (eventually) by having earned a reputation in the Marketplace for being an honest actor. To become a Verified Moderator, proof of a real identity must be submitted to the Phore Blockchain team via a Keybase ID.
You can identify when a store has a Verified Moderator assigned to it when you see the following icon on a vendor’s page:
However, it should be noted that although Moderators offer protection in the majority of cases, they are still a third party and could be prone to errors. moderators should be chosen extremely carefully when using the Phore Marketplace Moderation system. Payments can be ‘escrowed’ by making use of multi-signature addresses (using a third-party moderator). This could be instant (if the buyer and seller agree) or could take some time (if there is a dispute). Payments can also be instant if the buyer doesn’t require the services of a moderator (if they trust the seller, etc.).
the new version of the Phore Market place will only allow users to BUY Phore with BTC. This works by the buyer creating a listing to SELL BTC in return for Phore. The buyer puts up the amount of BTC he wishes to spend on PHR. The PHR/BTC rate information is pulled in in real-time from Coingecko
Conclusion
E-Commerce in Africa and the rest of the world, has seen tremendous growth and improvements over the years, although some level of challenges still lingers especially in developing economies, the adoption of modern technologies such as the Phore blockchain and Phore marketplace, will greatly impact the way we trade online.
the Phore market place offers a decentralized worldwide marketplace, where you can shop anything from anywhere in a complete fast, secure and private manner. There are no platform fees, no listing fees and the chance of optional privacy. the Phore team is endlessly working and improving on the Phore Blockchain technology with the sole purpose of creating sophisticated, advanced blockchain solutions with real-world applications.
the new release of the Phore marketplace would be available for download on the Phore website: www.phore.io from July 22nd.
Learn more at www.phore.io
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