What is Syscoin?

Syscoin BlockChain overview:

• Business model: A decentralised online retailer (Amazon-like)
• The shop will be available both online and on the desktop.
• Development is being carried out by the Blockchain Foundry.
• Syscoin is based on a fork of the Bitcoin protocol.
• Syscoin has plans to be integrated into Trezor.

Syscoin decentralised marketplace overview:

• Rebrand of Blockmarket is scheduled in end of 2017 start of 2018.
• Digital certificates
• Items will have listing fees (to avoid spam) but no commissions on sales.
• Prices will be listed in USD (as per the value of the underlying coin price)
• Managed Affiliate system, which allows traders to choose their affiliates.
• Different items can be listed such as digital products, real estate, domain name and, commodities
• Secure messaging
• Auctions and Timed Auctions.
• Identity and Reputation system for sellers and buyers
• Goods can be sold for Syscoin, Bitcoin and ZEC.
• Syscoin wallets will be managed through aliases rather than long strings
• Managed Arbitration and Escrow
• Plans for Dropshipping facilities

Peer to peer selling overview:

Amazon has become a behemoth, online retailer. Centralisation breeds power and when this power becomes a monopoly it becomes dangerous. Having centralised information about a person’s spending habits exposes one’s life to a central entity which can use and resell this information for a profit.

Amazon has also absorbed many brick and mortar shops and associated jobs, decentralised selling online may revert some power back to the common traders. Syscoin plans to decentralise retailing and in the process it could decentralise the profits to the many rather than a centralised entity.  Anyone will be able to have his or her Amazon like shop when using Syscoin’s services.

Safex, BitPay BitBay.market, Particl and OpenBazar are very strong competitors to Syscoin. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and most are set to launch sometime in 2018. Given this market is still in its infancy they can co-exist and they will eventually find their own niches in which they excel.

Syscoin SWOT

Syscoin Opportunities:

On launch 100,000 items (or SKUs) will be available for sale. This is will give immediate value to the network and attract more media, buyers and sellers. These items should be sold at a cheaper price thant the equivalent listed on Amazon as they will not have the sales fee Amazon charges.

Items will be sold in exchange of Syscoin, Bitcoin and ZEC. Rather than buying cryptos for FIAT, individuals can get cryptos by selling their stuff. Such an activity will create an alternative entry point  in the cryptocurrency ecosystems and will put Syscoin at an advantage; as it will be the first point of contact for buyers and sellers in the cryptoverse.

Syscoin will make creating a shop front and a bank account easy and practical. Giving those who do not have easy access to an e-commerce front and a bank account the means to set them up with ease.

Syscoin aims to be a platform rather than a one stop shop; a decentralised API service provider for selling items.

Syscoin Concerns:

Bitcoin fees can fluctuate from very expensive to reasonably, when they do become high they could make transacting small items uneconomic.

Will Syscoin self censor or ban certain items from their marketplace? Does it want to become the next Silkroad or the next Amazon? They are introducing privacy features to syscoin by using SuperNet this might give some clues as to what their end goal is.

Blockmarket is a closed source software, this is a concern because it reduces transparency it is an advantage because it makes the whole system less reproducible.

The value of Syscoin compared to the other market players will only be clearly known when they all launch and manage to take online retail market share.

Processing of VAT and drop shipping is an overhead for small traders, it is unclear to what extent Syscoin will facilitate these tasks.

Syscoin Masternode requirements:

• Collateral needed: 100,000 sys
• ROI:  75% of block reward or 28.5 SYS per block (to be divided between all the minderS)
• Hosting Requirements:
  • 2GB memory
  • 40GB free disk space(SSD recommended)
  • 1 CPU
  • Linux 16.04 LTS x64
• Coins can be hosted in an offline wallet
• Masternodes are currently being tested, testnet will be released in November 2017 and live version in February 2018.
• Reduce mining inflation to 10 from 16.39 SYS per block, Masternodes receive per block.
• Blockchain Foundry team will commit to at most only 5 Masternodes each.

Syscoin Masternode use:

Masternode coins have been sprouting like snails after the first rain. Unfortunately many of them have little practical use beyond being a currency. When a new masternode system comes along with real value it is surely provides some welcome relief. Syscoin is going to provide real world utility and value.

Other masternodes are used to make instant payments and privacy payments, it is easy to envisage such uses for Syscoin.

Syscoin will also enable Ethereum contracts that can be executed on masternodes, which will receive a share of gas fees.

There is very limited information on the role of masternodes in the Syscoin network at this time. It is unclear what is the full masternodes role in the network. Will they just facilitate transactions or also store product information and product images? Will they be used to store user identities and reputations?

Could syscoin masternodes be used to host the images and details of items for sale. There is no clear info out there on how Syscoin marketplace will manage listings; i.e. will products which are banned in certain jurisdictions be sold on the BlockMarkeplace? If yes will the masternode facilitate these transactions and would they be facilitating a crime putting the masternode owners at risk?

If Syscoin becomes the next silkroad, its days will be numbered. Although the utopian vision of transacting freely might be appealing to free thinkers,Governments have other ideas.
Even decentralised and anonymous peer to peer marketplaces need to abide by the local laws and rules if they aspire to become mainstream.

Conclusion

Syscoin has  a lot of potential, it will offer a cheap hassle free way for people to transact goods. Digital goods will be of particular interest because they can be transferred across the network easily. Things such as eBooks, Songs and Movies. Other markets such as real estate suffer from extremely high middle man fees, and this is what makes them easy to disrupt. Looking forward to more updates from Syscoin.

For more information syscoin.org