The primary purpose of this account is to enable Steemit users to buy & sell goods of all kinds, using the Steem in their wallets as the method of payment.
I understand Peerhub have done a great job at creating something along these lines already, but unlike them, I am looking to promote Steemit by keeping the marketplace on the platform and use only Steem or Steem Dollars as payment options. None of that pesky Bitcoin allowed here :)
The Process
Users create a post describing their item for sale including the following essential information:
- clear photographs from multiple angles
- description of item
- age & condition (if second hand)
- asking price in Steem with an indication if you are willing to negotiate
- location of item (in order that delivery costs can be calculated)
- use #steemshop as your first tag
As long as you post your advert or request using the #steemshop tag I will be able to see it and resteem here on the official @steemshop account where people can check availability and contact you directly if they want to purchase your item.
Should there be any breach of agreement between two parties, a collective of dolphins & whales will flag the guilty party off the platform. The blockchain has no secrets. Deliveries should be recorded and receipts should be kept to avoid any problems if the recipient claims their item didn't arrive.
It will take some time to fill up the @steemshop marketplace with a diverse range of goods so I will need your help to kick start what could potentially be a huge shift towards seeing Steem as a currency of exchange, rather than just a tradable crypto.
What are the key advantages of Steem as a payment method?
- Payments are instant
- There are no fees
- The wallet you need is connected to your shopping site, so no need to involve secondary sites or methods of exchange
- Every exchange you make is adding to the viability of this new system of shopping, building bridges into the future of Steem dominance
What can you do now to help get this started?
- You can make a list of all those items you fancy turning into steem
- You can start taking photos of your items and turning them into steemit posts, making sure to list the above required information.
- You can post your article using the #steemshop tag (which I will check on a daily basis to re-post in the @steemshop account)
- You can resteem this post to build awareness.
In Conclusion
It is my belief that having a Steem powered marketplace will act as a further incentive to join the platform and start spending our hard earned Steem without having to exchange it first to Bitcoin. Which many newbies will naturally still be confused about.
And there is an added advantage to moving the Steem around in this manner. By hoarding it in our wallets, we are not assisting the growth of this platform as much as we might think.
I am particularly excited about this project now that the value of steem is on the rise again, further demonstrating its staying power as a leading cryptocurrency of the future.
This initiative has been created by @samstonehill and I am open to all suggestions as to how we might be able to improve the system I have outlined above.
I look forward to seeing how this develops.
Finally! Great idea!
How do you see transactions going? Face to face transactions work, of course, but if the item to be bought is being shipped? Would there need to be a trustworthy community escrow? For example, as a seller I obviously wouldn't be willing to ship a gaming console to a buyer without receiving the STEEM/SBD first...But as the buyer, I wouldn't want to send the STEEM/SBD without knowing if said buyer is actually going to ship the item.
But other than that thought, it is a great way to give real world value to STEEM!
This is where Reputation can finally come into play. The community member could act as an escrow and take a little cut-of-the-top for being the escrow enabler. At least this is the way I see it.
That's what I was thinking, too!
Now that my friend is an excellent idea. Thank you :)
There is an escrow at the blockchain level.
That's right, the blockchain doesn't lie. It's the delivery guarantee aspect which remains to be the slightly more complicated feature of this shop.
Thanks for bringing up these important points. My only thought as to a solution would be a flagging control system threat. So, perhaps users must have active accounts above a certain reputation in order to use the buy/sell service. So if the transaction doesn't go well they have something to lose when my collective of dolphins and whales flag down their posts and add them to a list warning other users not to follow or upvote them.
I don't know. It's a tricky one for sure. Don't like the idea of 'punishing' people.
Hopefully we will find a system that works without needing this threat.
Great answer!
I am definitely interested in this and will be following you, that way I can see any updates and also see what people are selling!
Great idea, you might want to include #growth-ideas and/or #growth-proposals to follow recent format proposed by marketing team. ;)
I checked out the post from @cryptoctopus and using these tags certainly seems like a good idea now. Thanks very much for alerting me to this :)
Great ideas! Look forward to this as I may get back into selling things or just work with people and help out.
Thanks! I think it was about time Steemit had it's own shopping marketplace. And thanks too for your offer to help out. Let's see how fast this thing grows. And how much time I have for it, with 2 young kids and a full time job! :)
Great, I will deliver some handmade Black-polished clay Amulets. My post will come up soon. You may see here an older post:
https://steemit.com/deutsch/@schamangerbert/rauchbrandkeramik-black-polished-clay
I checked your article and it looks perfect. A few adjustments to fit the guidelines above and it's done!
Looking forward to having you with us here in this new exciting steem-powered marketplace :)
Great! Can't wait to check it out.
Who wants to buy some improv lessons? :)
Anything goes here...so why not? ;)
Interesting !
Very nice idea.. I was actually thinking the same thing recently. Glad to see someone is doing this!
Indeed, I was quite surprised that no one had done it already. Peerhub is the best alternative but not connected to steemit in any way. And I really want to make this a steem-powered marketplace exclusive to Steemit.
Perhaps you might be interested in helping me manage a separate steem shop account which focuses exclusively on the fitness category? In the end, categories will be the best way to help users find what they are after with ease.
This should work MEGA. Must be tried, tweaked and adjusted. "Caminante no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar". "Traveler, there is no road, you make the path as you go." Antonio Machado
Beautiful words my friend. Thank you for your thoughts. And yes, there will no doubt be a bit of tweaking and adjusting for a while but we will find the balance and then this will fly :)
And interesting that you chose this Machado quote for me. I am a traveler with no fixed address and my family and I have been on the road for over 3 years. We are currently in Bali. Next destination unknown.... because we will make the path as we go :)
Lets give it a try!
Please do! This is going to grow and grow.... :)
I already run an Etsy store with the same name.
So that will act as my "Reputation" it has customer reviews as well.
Since I sell digital products, I can be up and running in no time.
I will start creating the posts as suggested.
Great Idea.
Thanx :)
Sounds like a perfect tool to prove your reliability as a seller. And I love the idea of having some digital products here. No delivery cost complications for one thing!
Thanks for the comment. I will look out for your post & resteem asap.
I was already looking forward to this! What a great idea! I have plenty of beautiful handmade artworks and craftworks to sell them!
Perfect! And how lovely to have a friend from my group here :)
So grab that camera and start photographing your creations!
I will be doing a follow-up post in the next few days with some adjustments to the way this is going to work, but for now just stick to the guidelines I have outlined above :)
good job!
Thank you. There is plenty of work to be done yet, to get this thing fully up and running. But you can be in no doubt. It is coming!
Happy Sunday :)
Really cool Steemit's partnership with Amazon!
Thanks. Though I'm not sure we are quite at this stage yet! But we are getting there :)
Yes, we are!
Super idea! I would say it needs a bit more than a tag and posts of items for sale. But yes: marketplace is one of the most important service that needs to be made available.
Yes, we are working on a system that will be much more convenient than I have presented here as the first idea :)
From here it grows....
Thanks for your support.
You are creating a dedicated UI for a marketplace? By when do you plan to have this ready? I'm very interested!
Our intention at this stage is to keep it all on steemit and see how it grows. We have bought steemshop.com and this will act as a live feed of items available for sale. But all transactions will happen on steemit with the built in escrow feature. If the demand is there, a dedicated UI will be created, but for now we are just testing the water.
Ok, you purchased the domain name: steemshop.com, cool!
Also very cool you are looking to extent the services on Steem/Steemit. Steem requires it.
When do you have plans to have the website, shop open at steemshop.com?
That is a great idea! I will follow your progress with this.
Thank you for the follow. I am aiming big with this one. It's gonna be mega :)
I really hope so, a successful Steemit Marketplace would be great for the steem token and Steemit.com. I submitted already an item for the shop :-)
Wow! Fantastic. You will be the first person. Will head over to check your submission right now.
Exciting times ahead :)
cool, if any other information are needed than please let me know.
I have posted your add on the main page now and am in the process of developing a category system to help users quickly find what they are after.
Thanks for having faith in this idea. And i hope you sell some rings!
And I'm sorry, but it turned out you were actually the 2nd person to post using this tag.
Thank you. I dont mind being second :-)
meep
Great idea! I like where you are going w/ this. If you ever need to set-up a web-based version I own steem.shop the domain ( we could do a rss feed there ? ) . Looking forward to where this goes!
UP & RS.
Thanks for the amazing offer. For now I prefer to keep it exclusively on steemit. But hang on to that url! As you say, looking forward to where this goes :)
This is a really good idea! I've long been a proponent of an "eBay/Etsy/Craigslist" type peer to peer marketplace as a way to get Steem (the currency) to become something commercially viable... which (hopefully) will also get investors interested in Steem.
I am no expert but if there is a growing marketplace using exclusively steem and steem dollars as its currency, and this marketplace is only available on steemit, that should certainly get investors to at the least check it out :)
Part of the "key" to it is to make it a cool enough actual app that people from off-Steemit would look at it as a viable "additional sales venue/marketplace" for whatever they are doing... and join Steemit, just to be part of it... INDEPENDENTLY of having an interest in alt coins or an interest in blogging. In other words, let this be an "expansion slot" in the overall Steemit ecosystem.
I had not considered this aspect and you are right of course! Great thinking. Don't suppose you know any awesome app makers??? At least we are on the right platform to find one :)
Yay! I like this idea. I am a regular user. I already do a lot of shopping and paying with bitcoin. and I also pay for various other services for the coin bitcoin. I love it! ^.^ resteem
Thanks. I also use bitcoin for food deliveries and phone credit here in Bali. But why not have it all available here on steemit itself. No bitcoin in sight!
Of course having experience with bitcoin, steemit this should be interesting. While I only use it in the stock market.
meep
?...what is it?
If memory serves, it is the noise made by this particular muppet. His name alludes me but I do remember his 'meep' :)
meep
meep meep :)
meep
lol com'on dude
Mint idea! Cant wait to check it out
Thanks. Watch this space :)
This is a great, thank you! Followed and looking forward to seeing the offers!
Thanks very much for the follow :) The first item for sale has already arrived here! Fancy a bit of yummy protein bar?
Looking forward to seeing this steemit marketplace grow into a wide range of categories...
Nice ! :)
haha :) Yes...it is very nice indeed :)
Who wants to buy a home using Steem? Condo for sale in Altamonte Springs Fl. About 45 min. to Disney.
Excellent post! I like your work My friend
Thanks very much. Let's see how this develops...
Bravo! A stellar idea. Steemshop will help attract investors, marketers and new users to join,we P2P steemians. Comprehensive and expansive once the details are fine tuned i.e. escrow. Followed and resteemed.
Thanks very much for the follow & resteem. Yes, the escrow aspect is a bit more complicated than the rest. But I have some ideas...
Hope to see you seeing your goodies here soon :)
You are welcome. Lots of irons in my forge. Which ever heats to the appropriate glow, I'll strike while the iron is hot.
Fantastic idea! Thank you !
Hello,
Steem Shop is a Fantastic idea!
For sure more people will come use Steemit.
Have you found a good delivery company willing to offer discounts to use ?
I will be using Steem Shop.
thanks a bunch.