The Problem
Imagine you are shopping at any online marketplace, big or small. You're on the edge of purchasing a product, but it’s offered by a seller that has no rating, reviews or reputation. Can you trust this person?
This is the point where we can have apprehension to close an online sale. There's no way to know if this seller is credible, even though they may be extremely successful on another retailer's platform (like Amazon, Ebay, etc.). The seller is either brand new to the platform or just starting at online sales and their lack of reputation discourages buyers to purchase from them which leads to slow growth. Even if this seller manages to sell a few items, the buyer may not leave valuable positive feedback to help the seller earn a positive reputation.
The Solution
Hub, a project created by Eric Ly (former co-founder of LinkedIn) is developing the Human Trust Protocol, a decentralized and incentivized trust network utilizing blockchain technology to encourage trust on the internet. Hub allows buyers and sellers to have "skin in the game" in each transaction, encouraging a positive outcome for both parties.
Use Case: The New Seller & Slow Sales Growth
John, a traditional storefront retailer, for years has just started a shop on a popular e-commerce site to reach a wider audience online. John does not have any ratings or reputation since he’s new to online sales. He makes some sales in his new online store but is discouraged by the lack of growth. Reviews from customers are not coming to him despite his efforts in following up with customers, so he continually struggles to build a reputation for himself online.
John’s story is experienced widely by many small business owners and entrepreneurs. Fortunately, John heard about Hub from a very well connected friend in Silicon Valley and begins his journey to successful selling online. By utilizing HTP (Human Trust Protocol), John can encourage a buyer to purchase from his store by providing a reward to the buyer if something doesn’t work out as planned with the transaction. John stakes (offers up) Hub tokens with each transaction as his way of saying, “If we don't have a positive outcome you can keep my ($20 worth of) Hub Tokens”. Adam, a buyer, has found an item he wants to purchase on John’s site. In order to purchase the item, Adam stakes an equal amount of Hub tokens to John’s offer and ensures he will leave some feedback for John once the transaction is complete to help build his reputation on his store.
John and Adam are not losing their Hub tokens, but rather putting them aside (“in escrow”) while the transaction takes place. Once Adam receives the item that John shipped him and leaves a review for John then both John and Adam get their Hub token’s back and the interaction is complete.
The Hub Reputation Profile
John and Adam had a successful interaction, in turn, they both also get a positive mark on their Hub Reputation Profile. The Hub Reputation Profile is another valuable aspect of Hub and HTP. Essentially the Hub Reputation Profile is a decentralized ledger of the outcomes of your interactions. A record of each transaction takes place on your profile. You get to choose who sees your profile and you can use it to verify proof of your reputation overall or with respect to certain skill-sets.
John’s Outlook for Success
John now has an exponentially higher potential for success with his online store. He can encourage new buyers to trust him by staking Hub tokens and will now earn guaranteed reputation experience in his Hub Reputation profile which he can take with him anywhere. John now has fully solved his problem with Hub.
More details about Hub can be found here:
Join the Airdrop - 10 free hubtokens:
hubtoken.org/airdrop?t=463951608