[MUMEI] Portal Network Marketplace
Today, we are proudly announcing our Marketplace Mainnet launch. Users can now buy, bid and sell their domain names via marketplace platform. In this article, we will introduce the auction system at our marketplace, and walk through the process for getting your first Blockchain domain name. Let’s get started!
Please note that to provide a stable and reliable service to our users, we currently only support BNS (Blockchain Name Service) on Ethereum.
Wanchain and Ethereum Classic is still under constant testing.
Vickrey Auction Applied
Portal Network’s BNS (Blockchain Name Service) standard seeks to determine the true market value of domain names across multiple blockchain protocols before allowing registration. Hence, our BNS standard uses an auction system backed by smart contract to guarantee tamper-proof and transparency. Moreover, an auction system can potentially prevent ‘price sniping’ from domain squatter; it’s a blind second-price auction, also known as a ‘Vickrey Auction’.
With this second-price sealed-bid auction, Portal Network designed its marketplace for users to bid, buy, sell different blockchain domain names. In this article, we will discuss the underlying motivation for using the suchlike mechanism as well as our services provided at our marketplace.
Introducing Vickrey Auction
In a Vickrey Auction, a participant is only aware of their own bid. The bids are only revealed at the end of the auction when a winner is chosen. The winner has to pay the second highest bid instead of their highest bid.
The advantage of Vickrey Auction is that it eliminates the possibilities for others to force a higher bid. Since no one knows others’ bids, bidders are encouraged to bid the amount they are truly willing to pay.
Moreover, the second-price mechanism encourages everyone to bid truthfully. In other words, Vickrey auction incentivizes participators to bid the maximum value they are willing to pay in a single round, as opposed to highest-price auctions, where people can affect the opponents by raising the bid endlessly or lying about the value they are actually willing to put.
Introducing Portal Network Marketplace
Most of the blockchain projects that use Vickrey Auction for domain name bidding now involve a more cumbersome process - the unveil period. Participants are to reveal their bid during the revealing period otherwise would not be eligible for winning the auction. Therefore we slightly simplified and optimized this auction by eliminating the revealing process. At Portal Network’s marketplace, users are only required to execute the following steps to complete a bid:
- Bid commitment: Prepay the bid, so no one withholds payment during the 5-day timer. Bids are enclosed, thus no one knows your bidding price.
- Winner selection: Winner pays the second highest bid when the auction is finalized. Participants get refunds if they lose the auction, after a small amount of transaction fee is deducted.
Aside from the auction method, our marketplace supports cross-chain domain name services. We are currently offering ENS (Ethereum Name Service), ECNS (Ethereum Classic Name Service), WNS (Wanchain Name Service) and will be supporting more such as INS (ICON Name Service), QNS (Qtum Name Service), BCNS (Bitcoin Cash Name Service) and more, successively. Furthermore, marketplace also provides a user-orientated interface for different functions such as managing various wallet balance, setting up your domain addresses, selling your domain name, and tracking your bidding process.
[Tutorial] Getting your Blockchain Domain Name
STEP 1. Sign up at Portal Network’s marketplace
Sign up at our marketplace with your personal email. We will gift each signed up user a subdomain for free, which is automatically binded to your wallet address. This means that you may use your subdomain to easily transfer your Ethereum to your account later in STEP 4.
STEP 2. Confirm registration through email
Once received the confirmation email, click the link provided to confirm and finalize your registration.
STEP 3. Enter the invite code to activate account
*NOTE* To ensure that every function is operational, Marketplace will initially be invited only, meaning you will need an additional invite code in order to start bidding for domains. Get invite code by joining the official telegram channel.
STEP 4. Deposit your cryptocurrency to your marketplace wallet
Click the account logo on the top right corner, then go to wallet. Click deposit and copy your marketplace wallet address and transfer your cryptocurrency. If you don’t have any cryptocurrency, read How to get your own Cryptocurrency:
*NOTE* If you are using MetaMask, you may simply enter your subdomain, which will automatically resolve to your address.
STEP 5. Search for your favorite domain name at the marketplace
Type in the domain name in the search bar. The result will show availability of the name.
STEP 6. Start bidding your choice of domain name
If the name is available, you can start the auction by placing a bid. Different rules apply to different chains when placing a bid.
*NOTE* Domain names of each chain only supports its native token. For instance, if you are bidding for “example.eth”, you will need ETH. If you are bidding for “example.wan”, you will need WAN.
STEP 7. Place your bid and wait to be notified with the result in 5 days via email
Once you successfully placed a bid, everything is set. We will notify the final result via email in 5 days.
Other Services
The BNS provided by Portal Network has much more to come. Besides our marketplace, we developed two product suites — MUMEI and KAIZEN — that will further support various tools for our users to utilize their BNS bought at our marketplace.
For any additional questions, join our official telegram channel.
We hope you enjoy our service!
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