The Ecryptostore is a cryptocurrency orientated, peer-to-peer marketplace -like eBay- that has a token called the FreeMarketToken, or FMT, as its native currency. Before you begin thinking that this is another product of the “tokenize everything” movement that really only appeals to the people in the crypto-sphere, give me a chance to explain why it actually appeals to the masses.
FMT might be the native currency of the Ecryptostore but it’s not the only currency accepted here. In fact, you can use a whole host of cryptocurrencies as payment on the Ecrptostore. All the usual suspects are available: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, Monero; but there are some less common and less cash-like tokens on the list of payment tokens: Ripple, Stratis, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash and Dogecoin.
Note: FMT is a NEM based token, however, NEM is not yet accepted as payment on the Ecryptostore. One would expect the opposite to be true, especially because, for their ICO, they are only accepting NEM and Ethereum. One would also expect NEM to be added in the future, but there is no direct mention of it in their Whitepaper or on Version 1 of their token sale roadmap.
Considering everything happening within commerce - in the world at large - we’re looking at some massive societal changes. We’re continuing down a path that is egalitarian in nature; one that allows for a larger and larger portion of the global population to access a “middle-class lifestyle”. As is usually the case, money is at the heart of the equation. So far, we’ve only spoken about the evolution of commerce. We haven’t even touched on the evolution of currency!
There are plenty of articles and videos online that can explain what cryptocurrency is and what blockchain can do, so we’ll focus on how it corresponds with e-commerce. The two are an obvious match. Blockchain will play a significant role in the expansion of the internet's infrastructure.
Taking a look at online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, the general idea behind their creation was to take the retail business model, put it online, and generate revenue. Ecryptostorewill be using similar ingredients but in a different sequence. They aim to utilize cryptocurrencies within the eCommerce business model, tapping into the market by serving the segment of the population that prefer to use cryptocurrencies. Check out the problems listed below (taken directly from the FMT Whitepaper).
Provide a safe environment to transact with cryptocurrency with minimal risk of fraud.
Merchants can avoid the exposure of market price fluctuation and processing delay times associated with typical crypto escrow services.
Provide tax invoice proving the purchase of goods in a personal use-case.
Avoids the hassle of engaging web-developers to build an e-commerce store. Simple to set up a storefront.
Merchant storefronts are conglomerated on one single platform which attracts a wider audience base.
Accept cryptocurrency locally or from anywhere
These are some specific problems Ecryptostore plans to solve, which will allow them to capture a significant portion of the e-commerce market if they get the timing and execution right. When I first started digging into the Ecryptostore idea, the first major question I had was, “Wouldn't it be easier for Amazon to accept Bitcoin?” and the immediate answer I came up with was, “Of course.” But after diving into the whitepaper a little bit deeper I realized the answer wasn’t so straightforward.
The adoption of cryptocurrency has increased rapidly since its introduction in 2009, back when you could have bought 10,000 BTC for $1. However, this rapid increase in price has outpaced its rate of adoption in the global economy. Governments are large, slow-moving machines and large enterprises like Amazon and Alibaba (who became successful without cryptocurrency) either aren’t able to adopt cryptocurrencies as payment yet or don’t want to adopt cryptocurrency as payment yet, especially since they haven’t been fully processed (read: regulated) by the government. There are also 'existing payment gateway partnerships’ that decrease ‘corporate agility’ and contribute to the adaptive delay of cryptocurrencies in these established marketplaces.
This delay in adoption leaves enough time for a smaller, more nimble company like Ecryptostore to enter the marketplace and capture a meaningful portion of e-commerce revenue. As the government’s stance on cryptocurrency becomes more clear, blockchain technology continues to present itself as the superior payment option, and volatility begins to subside, we can expect to see larger enterprises slowly accepting cryptocurrencies as payment.
A maximum limit has been set in each round of the token sale; this is done to curtail the effects of big money investors that might lead to a disproportional amount of tokens on the platform. This is in line with the aim of the FMT Token team whose goal is to have everyone on the same wavelength during the during ICO stage. 550,000,000 FMT tokens will be in circulation with the hard cap during the ICO set at 300,000,000 FMT tokens, 25,000,000 FMT tokens will be kept in the reserve and will be made available to new merchants. FMT token will be made available after the ICO also ETH and XEM will be accepted as a token offering.
By April 2018, 250,000,000 FMT tokens (including pre-ICO) will be sold through public sale and this sale will be done over two stages. Whitelisted addresses will be accorded special treatment should the ICO sell out, so all participants are advised to whitelist wallet addresses for both Pre ICO and ICO. In order to achieve global dominance, 125,000,000 FMT tokens will be given to participants as bonuses for their ability to influence sales, contribute to the development, refer other users and market the ICO. Should the ICO fail to sell out, an audit will be conducted to know the amount of token supply and the balance will be airdropped to all ICO participants.
Participants that will contribute to the long-term development of the project will be able to buy 50,000,000 tokens. These participants also have a hard cap limit which is in tune with Fair Token Distribution.
In order to create new accounts for merchants, 25,000,000 tokens will be sold at the market price of 1000 FMT tokens per new merchant. Ecryptostore will keep the liquidity of the Reserve Pool token overtime with the continuous purchase of FMT Tokens from the exchanges. The Reserve Poll will eliminate monopoly because every participant will be able to invest the same amount of money by eliminating big money investors from taking over the system by buying out the available token supply.
After a quick glance at the team’s profile blurbs on theFMT Website, I’m noticing a majority of the team has either been involved in founding their own companies and legal firms, or advised Fortune 500 companies, or established international connections through previous endeavors. First, on the list, we have David Dabscheck, CEO of GIANT Innovation, which is a group of advisors for large enterprises that specialize in implementing systems that adapt by remaining innovative in a market that demands corporate agility. Having implemented strategies within Fortune 500 companies, David brings the best of both worlds to the FMT platform.
The next member of the advisement team that stood out to me was Joseph Chua, who serves as a Strategic Advisor, specifically in the South East Asia region. He graduated top of his class with an MBA after writing a thesis focusing on “streamlining distribution chains and organizations to maximize effectiveness and cost efficiency.” He’s been awarded for his efforts in the Philippines (where he has extensive experience) after proving his exceptional ability in sales and marketing integration in Asian markets. This work allowed Joseph to build strong business connections in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia along with a wealth of business knowledge and insight for the FMT project to benefit from.
The advisors and legal team detailed above are just the ones that stood out to me, and going through the rest proves they are in good company. Each member looks to have decades of experience in their field, and you can see the specifics of each member by clicking the ‘Team’ tab on the FMT Website.
The FMT development team consists of seven members, all of which are experienced in multiple programming languages. A majority of the team is working in the Philippines, and the one member that’s living in Australia has been hired on at Fligno. The reason I bring up the geographical location of the development team is to highlight an observation
Just looking at Felix Chua’s profile, we can see that he has over 9 years experience as a database architect, as well as experience “in corporations such as Deutsche Bank, UOB Bank of Singapore and Prudential Life of America for the past 14 years.” The combination working with Oracle Databases and within banks means Felix is bringing significant expertise to the table.
While I won’t be breaking down each individual in this article, I encourage you to take a look at their profiles yourself. I was able to deduce quickly that each member brought a high-level of education on-board, and had proven their technical ‘chops’ to co-founder Rafael.
FMT Website: https://freemarkettoken.io/
FMT Whitepaper: https://freemarkettoken.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ECS-and-FMT_16_5_18.pdf
Bounty Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4118534
Ecryptostore: https://ecryptostore.com/
Authors Bitcoin Talk Account: Booli123
LINK : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2150359
