SOMA whitepaper

#Blockchain #ecommerce marketplace releases September 1, 2019 whitepaper

Published in

SOMAbusiness

3 min readAug 31, 2018

Whitepaper PDF found at https://soma.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SOMA_Whitepaper.pdf

SOMA’s new whitepaper is far more comprehensive than anything that’s preceeded it. It covers everything from our tokeneconomics model to our Q1 2019 pilot program to our patent-pending Heimdall Protocol (a digitized tracking, authentication, and provenance-validation protocol). Some key sections include:

Social media functionality in ecommerce

We articulate our fundamental value proposition re: the need for more interpersonal connection in financial transactions.

Disintermediation for value preservation

We want buyers to get the best deal possible. At the same time, we want sellers to get the best price possible. You know what we don’t want? Unnecessary intermediaries soaking up disproportionate value.

2019 pilot program

Also detailed in our Pilot Program pdf, our pilot program involves the acquisition of retailers and merchants. And of consumers in key demographics. We’ll be ramping up to this, and we already have one retailer committed.

Watchmaker use case study

As with the pilot program, this document exists as a separate PDF and is also included as its own section in our whitepaper. The watchmaker use case study attempts to envision how SOMA’s platform and protocol could transform the way a watchmaking company does business. Naturally, the same benefits can be extrapolated out to other use cases.

Updated SOMA roadmap

The roadmap has some big changes over our previous iteration. There are new initiatives added; some initiatives have been moved back on the timeline; other milestones have been canceled. In every case, SOMA leadership had a valid reason for the modification: the roadmap is our best attempt at charting a course.

As the landscape becomes clearer, we often have good reason to rethink earlier assumptions. This is a good thing. Startups have to be agile and able to easily pivot. In a nascent and rapidly-evolving space, that’s even more the case. We’re charting new territory here. No other company has achieved what we’re trying to achieve. We don’t want to hang the anchor of bad ideas around our neck to sink the company just because those ideas seemed good once upon a time.

Remember, there is only one criterion here: survival. And after that, profitability. A tiny percentage of startups make it, and we will pivot however we need to in order to be one of that minority.

Some of the changes are as follows:

· We’ve pivoted away from Singapore as our pilot arena. Instead, we’ll be operating in the US and Europe, with a larger emphasis on US markets.

· In our previous whitepaper, we had considered a ‘loyalty airdrop’ which would reward SOMA token holders. After having a bad experience with our most recent airdrop — and extensive community feedback in opposition to airdrops — we’ve taken that off the table.

Having received Round 1 funding from Business Finland, our priorities have realigned somewhat to meeting the benchmarks they have established for SOMA to qualify for Round 2. Many of the other reorganizations to the roadmap arise from this new focus.

Without further ado, get on to the whitepaper: https://soma.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SOMA_Whitepaper.pdf

About SOMA

On legacy ecommerce platforms, anonymous usernames and depersonalized storefronts strip trade interactions of an important social element. Additionally, buyers lack a definitive way to ensure the authenticity of items. Enter SOMA. Our Heimdall Protocol stops forgeries and counterfeiting by validating ownership and provenance history on the blockchain. Social media elements bring personalization and interaction to trade, and allow users to monetize social influence, while a rewards system incentivizes beneficial collaboration and ensures that value-adding services are compensated. Soma is a free-market ecosystem — free of market manipulation, price-fixing, gouging, and bloat.