Last week the official Particl Marketplace Alpha builds were released and a lot of real world, person-to-person eCommerce has already begun to take shape… and on a testnet no less!

Getting the ball rolling.

The Particl team could think of no better way to distribute some official swag while educating future users on the ins-and-outs of the Marketplace then by creating listings for real products as we test and build.

Although there is a sea of test listings for imaginary products by our active community, the official t-shirts can be easily searched for by typing “t-shirts” or scrolling to the bottom of the categories box to “Particl Swag”

Go ahead! Download the Marketplace builds for testnet and purchase one for yourself. It’s easy and it’s free!

All currency running over the testnet is our testnet-PART or tPART for short and has no value.Coins are freely given at our Particl Testnet Faucet and you get the added security that you’re using house money and are at no risk to make a mistake using your own PART.

Sales After 1 Week

We’ve had nearly 35 users begin the process of purchasing real tees — these are real t-shirts folks! They will show up at your door and the purchase will be completed without any 3rd-party pushing in to collect personal data and charging fees for doing nothing.

This is actually a great time to bring back the infographic of the sell/buy process on Particl Marketplace alpha and walk through some of the dialogs you’ll see as you walk through the process.

It’s also important to note that at the point of this blog publishing, I’ve gone through the entire order book for the t-shirts and have accepted and/or rejected all bids in my queue. That’s important to consider if you’ve placed a bid on one of the shirts and you’re wondering the next steps.

Bidding

Items in your cart that you have placed a bid on to purchase will have the “Bidding” label.

The label means you’ve sent a desire to purchase the item to the seller and the ball is now in their court. The same “Bidding” labeled box shows up in the Seller’s order book.

Important: If you have placed a bid on an official shirt and you still see the box labeled “Bidding” then I missed seeing your bid and you should place another bid. As I said, the queue I can see in my order book is cleared on my end and now awaiting buyers to actually purchase the items and put it into “Escrow”.

In this Alpha version of the Particl Marketplace all bids last 48 hours. So I might have missed your order if you placed it immediately after launch. Please place another order so we can get you your shirts!

Awaiting

When a seller has accepted your bid then the order book displays the “Awaiting” label. Now the ball is back in your court to actually purchase the item; hence why the seller is waiting.

  • Recall the info-graphic above to see entire process.

It’s ok! This is a new experience. This is a good example of starting something new in a testnet environment. With a little guidance I hope the process seems logical and with practice it should become easy and understandable.

Now, like I’ve said, I’ve cleared my queue as of this article. All my orders are either “Awaiting” or “Declined”. Declined orders are only multiple item orders. We’re trying to limit the amount of free shirts people receive so there are enough for others.

Escrow

This is the box I want to see in my store so that I know the buyer has gone forward and purchased the item. Again, I implore you, if you’ve placed a bid on and item like our official Particl shirts, return to the Marketplace and check your cart.

A few users have been confused by the process, understandably — it’s new to all of us. Their comments have been that they thought they were buying the shirts when they placed a Bid on them with step 1.

  • Again, refer to the info-graphic.

After the seller accepts the bid the buyer still must pay for the item and place a deposit in escrow. So the seller’s order book will display “Awaiting” until the item has been paid. Then the box changes to “Escrow” and it is now up to the seller to ship the item.

To be continued

I’ll leave the rest for a followup post as shirts get shipped/received and hopefully we start to see some selfies with Particl swag all over social media once the shirts arrive!

For those users who have paid for the items and are awaiting shipping (specifically on the t-shirts), I will begin filling those orders Monday June 11th. FYI

We’ve been diligent about reaching out in our general chat channels to make broad announcements as to what steps we’re in with the real products running on a live testnet.

As a sidenote, this isn’t the ideal way for buyers and sellers to communicate. Again, this is an MVP, not a finished product, but it validates the importance of our secure private messaging (SMSG) to be available for communication between buyers and sellers. It’s a convenience that is coming but is sorely missed in this first release of Particl Marketplace.

Happy Test Shopping!

Particl Team