Syscoin, a cryptocurrency built for online merchants and marketplaces, has implemented DirectBTC as part of Syscoin 2.0 which builds on the features established on earlier versions. DirectBTC allows Bitcoin users to participate on the currency’s marketplace, which previously required ownership of the coin.
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New Syscoin 2.0 Features
The new features allow for a decentralized marketplace where buyers and sellers can use Bitcoin for their transactions. These features will allow buyers and sellers to transact with one another with almost no fees, chargebacks, or middlemen involved in trade. More advanced users will be able to create merchant accounts with Syscoin which will allow them to utilize escrow, digital certificates, and many other features.
To find out more about Syscoin 2.0 and its features,we interviewed Dan Wasyluk, Syscoin Team Manager and Developer.
What improvements does Syscoin 2.0 bring over the previous version?
We have added an escrow function. Buyers can now buy with confidence using the arbitrated escrow feature. If there is problem with the transaction a mutually trusted third party can ensure that the buyer receives their goods or is refunded.
Digital certificates have also been greatly enhanced in 2.0. They can now be tied to offers, encrypted using the public key tied to the user’s wallet address, and transferred between users on the blockchain.
Encrypted messaging has been added in 2.0 using the same encryption method used for digital certificates. With so much going on between buyer, seller, and arbiter it was important to add a messaging feature to compliment these transactional relationships.
Bitcoin is now a payment option in Syscoin 2.0. Our directBTC feature enables merchants to sell items directly for BTC without needing to exchange Syscoin. This makes it easy for merchants to leverage the decentralized marketplace feature within Syscoin with minimal overhead.
We are also now merge-mined with Bitcoin so that our network is far more secure and scalable into the future.
What are the practical applications of Syscoin?
Buying and selling with no additional charges. No middlemen. No borders.
Due to the increased feature set, there are many practical applications for Syscoin. The most obvious is using it for the sale of goods and services. Users can list items for sale or services for sale and they can be purchased by other users on the network. Because there is an RPC API for all of these services they can also be easily integrated into larger e-commerce platforms or custom web experiences to provide merchants with a more traditional user interface when interacting with the marketplace services. The team is building its own application using these APIs called “Blockmarket”.
Our affiliate system allows reselling of items with a commission or mark-up. Merchants with large inventories can allow others to resell product and take a commission or they can leverage the marketing skills of additional sales channels by allowing reselling with a mark-up. Users with a large network of influence could use the affiliate feature to stand up their own marketplaces marking up items and making a profit simply for curating offerings across the network.
Digital certificates can be linked to offers, providing the perfect sales and delivery mechanism for serials, keys, and other digital media of that nature.
Encrypted messaging is a highly sought-after feature. This service alone is worth downloading the wallet for. It could even be wrapped in a mobile or web interface to be used as a stand-alone service.
How does Syscoin expand on the technology behind the blockchain?
Syscoin adds a decentralized marketplace, escrow, private messaging, certificate, aliases and price pegging directly in our blockchain technology. It is also ten times faster than Bitcoin for transactions. Bitcoin will most likely never have any of these functions. All of the data leveraged by Syscoin is stored on the blockchain, often in an encrypted format. Syscoin builds on the core blockchain technology by using it for much more than simple currency transfer. Syscoin uses blockchain technology at the heart of all its features and as such that core technology has been modified to support these services. We’re also doing a lot of research into scaling these modifications to Bitcoin’s core blockchain technology by ensuring that as time goes on the Syscoin platform will be able to continually scale as use increases.
What tasks can Syscoin help businesses optimize?
Syscoin can reduce costs and overhead for merchants vs selling on other platforms that require personal information, put funds at risk, and/or require round-the-clock hosting in order for items to remain visible. Syscoin’s marketplace has 24/7 uptime and a huge amount of redundancy with extremely low cost of entry. In the near future the Syscoin team also plans to offer private consulting services to larger scale merchants who may want to leverage Syscoin’s technology in a private context.
What are the uses of digital certificates created with the platform?
Selling digital goods, proof-of-ownership, sensitive data, medical documents, proof-of-date applications and more. Digital certificates can be used to store small pieces of data; things such as serial numbers, keys, PDFs, and other data. They can be transferred from user to user with the blockchain acting as a permanently recorded chain-of-ownership. Digital certificates can also be tied to offers and are automatically transferred upon purchase. This is useful when selling digital goods, as data can be stored in certificates and can only be read by the owner. This provides the perfect vehicle for digital sales and nicely compliments the marketplace feature.
What do you think about this project’s new developments? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Syscoin.