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The Particl Thread
#1

The Particl Thread

[Image: particl-logo-dark.svg]
Particl is an open, privacy-focused blockchain platform designed to host a variety of decentralized applications, the first of which will be an anonymous, censorship-resistant marketplace.

My intention in creating this thread isn't necessarily to shill Particl as an investment (disclaimer: I do hold PART tokens), but because I see a genuine need for what the Particl team is creating. I could go on about rampant internet censorship, Amazon's monopolistic stranglehold on e-commerce, and the need for a decentralized, non-sovereign replacement for the legacy financial system, but here at the RVF I would undoubtedly be preaching to the choir.

Instead, I'll provide a brief overview of the Particl network and marketplace, provide links to additional information, make myself available for questions (I've been closely following the project for well over a year now) and continue to update this thread as the development team comes closer to finishing the marketplace (a working beta is expected by EOY).

History
Particl is the successor to the Shadow Project, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency network started in August of 2014.

The network was built on a Bitcoin codebase, but with special cryptographic functionality - confidential transactions and ring signatures - added to hide the transaction amounts and participants, respectively, making the token fully anonymous (this is the same cryptography Monero uses). After the first month of network operation the dev team changed the consensus algorithm from proof-of-work (mining) to proof-of-stake, so instead of requiring dedicated hardware and copious amounts of electricity to run a node, individuals can run network software with minimal tech (many users stake on raspberry pis) and earn new tokens in exchange for processing transactions and securing the network.

Several months after the Shadow Project was created the Silk Road darknet market was shut down by the FBI, and the Shadow community realized there was just as much of a need for a decentralized, unstoppable marketplace as there was for an anonymous cryptocurrency. Plans were put in motion to incorporate an anonymous messaging module as well as an automated escrow system in order to eliminate the need for any third parties, and the dev team created a beautiful GUI wallet aggregating these features (along with specs for the envisioned marketplace), all contained within the node itself.

The project gained a considerable amount of interest over the next two years, but the team eventually realized that in order to properly bring about their vision (which had expanded from just black markets to gray and white as well) several major changes would need to be made.

In March 2017, it was announced that the Shadow Project would be rebranded as Particl. A non-profit foundation (quite similar to the Ethereum Foundation) was registered in Switzerland in order to provide legal protection for the core developers, as well as for the handling of logistics (like hiring and paying employees) and interacting with third parties like exchanges, legal teams, marketing & PR firms, etc. A 1:1 token swap was implemented to exchange ShadowCash for the newly created PART token, and in July 2017 the Shadow network was put aside while the Particl network went live.

Network Overview
There are currently just over 9MM PART tokens (as a reference, Bitcoin's supply is 21MM). Network inflation was 5% the first year, is currently 4%, will decrease to 3% next July, and then 2% indefinitely the year after that.

The Particl Foundation receives 10% of all staking rewards to ensure its economic self-sufficiency. It currently holds an additional 996k PART, for which it will conduct a funding round(s) over the next year or so in order to raise capital to support further marketing, development, and vendor onboarding once the marketplace is live.

While the team intends for the marketplace to be currency agnostic (meaning users will be able to pay with ANY cryptocurrency and eventually fiat), the PART token is integral to the functioning of the marketplace, as every currency used is first swapped on the backend for a corresponding amount of PART. The transaction is then made with the PART token itself, ensuring a fully anonymous and untraceable transaction, with the seller given the option to either keep his earnings in PART or swap them for his preferred crypto. The automated escrow system also only uses PART, again to ensure anonymity and remove any need for third parties.

In addition to staking rewards earned from running a Particl node, PART holders also collect 100% of the listing fees (vendors will have to pay a very small fee to maintain an active listing, to discourage spam/abuse) as well as transaction fees and any slashed stakes from malicious nodes. Unlike many cryptocurrencies PART holders have claims on future network cash flows, meaning PART can eventually derive its value primarily from network use, rather than mere speculation.

The network is also designed to be self-governed, in that PART holders have full control over which items are included in the marketplace (one vote per PART). While we're likely to see plenty of black and grey market items (e.g. cannabis or pharmaceuticals), the plan is for the community to self-police and vote off obviously undesirable items like child pornography.

However, the marketplace will also come with a Private Listings feature, whereby sellers can create listings that are accessible only to those with whom they share a special link. These listings won't be seen on the marketplace and will even be invisible to the dev team, although all purchases will still go through the PART token and escrow system like everything else.

There's a lot of additional information I'm leaving out for brevity's sake, like how being built on an updated Bitcoin codebase allows Particl to benefit from any Bitcoin developments (such as Schnorr Signatures or the Lightning Network), or how Particl was the first proof-of-stake blockchain to enable cold staking and quantum resistance (whereby users can store their PART tokens securely in a hardware wallet yet still receive interest based on their holdings while running a node).

There are also several downsides I haven't mentioned: proof-of-stake is new and relatively unproven compared to PoW; PART is only available on a handful of exchanges (mainly Bittrex); the price chart looks like dog shit from a technical perspective; and the governance assumptions are still theoretical and untested. Not to mention the likely reaction from governments and authorities to things like unstoppable black market sales or easy and anonymous tax evasion, should the network grow enough to be noticed for such things.

But as I mentioned above, there's no need to invest in PART - many people on the RVF can benefit from the infrastructure Particl is building without ever owning a single token. But if you do decide to invest, as always do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Links & Resources
Below I've listed official Particl resources, social media, and some of the better in-depth overviews of the project. The team is quite responsive, both on social media and as part of their bi-monthly AMA, but feel free to ask questions here and I'll do my best to answer.

General

Website: https://particl.io/
Forum: https://particl.community/
Forum Announcement Blog Post: https://particl.news/the-particl-forum-i...4dd81cddec
News: https://particl.news
Wiki: https://particl.wiki/
Roadmap: http://particl.io/roadmap/
Whitepaper: https://github.com/particl/whitepaper
Proposals: https://particl.io/proposals/

Token & Network

Buy Particl: https://particl.wiki/listed-on-exchanges
Download Particl Wallets: https://particl.io/downloads/
Staking revenue calculator: https://particl.wiki/faq_part_coin_staking_calculator
Github: https://github.com/particl/
Block explorer: https://explorer.particl.io/

Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParticlProject
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Particl/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/particl.official/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnuttPu...nTz2GGMnbg
Steemit: https://steemit.com/@particlproject
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParticlProject/
BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.html?topic=1835782.0
Discord: https://discord.gg/YFeXbFZ
Telegram: https://t.me/particlproject
Riot: https://riot.im/app/#/room/#particl:matrix.org

Essays & Overviews

An In-Depth Presentation of the Particl Project

What Makes Particl's Marketplace Stand Out From Its Competition

Who is Going to Use Particl's Decentralized and Anonymous Marketplace and Why is it So Badly Needed?

Particl in a Nutshell

Cold Staking and Quantum Resistance
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#2

The Particl Thread

How's this different from Syscoin/SYS? They're also involved with e-commerce and have functional apps already... look up Blockmarket. (https://coincentral.com/syscoin-sys-beginners-guide/ if you CBF googling)
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#3

The Particl Thread

Quote: (10-17-2018 03:59 AM)JackinMelbourne Wrote:  

How's this different from Syscoin/SYS? They're also involved with e-commerce and have functional apps already... look up Blockmarket. (https://coincentral.com/syscoin-sys-beginners-guide/ if you CBF googling)

From What Makes Particl's Decentralized Marketplace Stand Out from its Competition?:

Quote:Quote:

Another advantage is that the Particl Marketplace is designed as a 100% decentralized and trustless solution, which most of its competitors aren’t. Just as an example, Syscoin’s Blockmarket interface is closed-source and moderated by Syscoin staff. Escrows on Syscoin are arbitrated, meaning there needs to be someone acting as escrow agent in case a deal turns sour. This can quickly lead to bias, collusion, or other similar types of issue born from the simple fact that a third-party basically has full power over the settlement of a dispute. Talking to various vendors, this quickly becomes an issue for vendors on eBay, for example, because eBay/Paypal will most of the time side with the buyer, even when it shouldn’t.

On Particl Marketplace, there is literally no counter-party at play. The escrow is based on smart-contract functionalities and uses the MAD game-theory to keep both parties honest, no moderator required to settle disputes. The marketplace itself will be entirely governed by the community, making sure no person or group of person is held liable for the content published on it or collude with either vendors or buyers.

Quote:Quote:

The Particl development team is definitely a top-tier team. They are indeed ranked 6th in one of the most thorough code quality review (https://medium.com/darpalrating/darpalra...6b839abdaa) that did review up to 200 coins (in comparison, Syscoin is currently ranked 36th, BitBay is 192nd, Safex is not even active enough to be ranked). The code quality review takes a lot of things into account, and disregards community and marketing, solely focusing on the code itself.

Also, last time I checked the Syscoin token was NOT fully anonymous - they require use of a coinmixer to hide transaction data. Because of this, they also allow BTC and ZCash to be used for payments in their marketplace, which weakens the long-term buy support for the SYS token.

In comparison, PART is fully anonymous and is required for every marketplace transaction (as well as escrow insurance), which means buy pressure on the token will grow in accordance with marketplace usage.

On a related note, PART will also serve as the backbone for any additional dApps developed on the network. The focus of the team is 100% on the marketplace right now, but they created the network to serve as a development platform for any privacy-related dApps, so if in the future third party developers choose to build something on Particl, token holders will be entitled to those transaction fees (in addition to price appreciation if the dApp requires PART to be held).
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