Plaza MerchantChain – The Next Generation High Speed Commerce on the Blockchain

TL;DR: Plaza is leveraging new technology for a disruptive and user-friendly blockchain based marketplace referred to as Total bCommerce, built on their next generation blockchain powered commerce; Plaza MerchantChain. This is expected to assist sellers to avoid the costs associated with using centralized platforms and allow them to deal directly with the consumers, cutting out the unnecessary middlemen. And in order to reduce the hindrance that is usually experienced by most new cryptocurrency users, Plaza users will receive free PlazaWallets synchronized with Plaza debit cards; PlazaCard.

Background: The Problem

E-commerce is one of the outstanding wonders of the Internet, it has taken commerce and trade to a level that we never thought possible, prior to the advent of the Internet. Which was partly made possible by another equally amazing innovation; online payment or e-payment. But, while we were recovering from the astonishment of that, in come Blockchain sweetened by Cryptocurrency and it became like a dream, as if we were dreaming because it all looked to good to be true. If my statement feels like an exaggeration to you, then maybe the following historic data and statistic will give you a glimpse of that perspective.

According to Statista; the global e-commerce market recorded US$ 2.29 trillion in sales for 2017 and is projected to exceed US$ 4 trillion by 2020. Meanwhile, the rapid adoption of blockchain technology has the potential to propel growth rates to even higher levels.

Marketwatch stated that; Blockchain underlies the fast-growing cryptocurrency market. Crypto capitalization, at the time writing, was nearly US$700 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 2 trillion by 2020; simultaneously disrupting and expanding global e-commerce.

Well, that should be like an open secret for many of those who have been following the rate at which the market has been evolving, in order words, this should not come as a surprise to us all, when we look at the astronomical growth and interest that cryptocurrency has been generating in the last few years.

However, the growth of e-commerce brought about some critical challenges like; high cost of maintaining centralized systems (e.g Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, etc) due to the huge amount of money require to maintain the level of infrastructure required to keep these platform running smoothly, payment gateway/processors issues and their high fees, privacy and security issues, etc.

Meaning, conventional e-commerce platforms have to charge the sellers a bit high premium to meet up, while the sellers also try to pass on the fees to the buyers, but because of the level of competition from other sellers, most sellers sometimes have to shoulder part of the cost, which lowers their margin while the part transferred to the buyers make them to pay higher prices.

Again, we have the privacy and security issues which became a serious problem and has made many potential customers become apathy to e-commerce. Though most of these platform guarantee non-disclosure and absolute safety of such personal data but history has proven them wrong, there have been instances where some of them have exploited users' personal information for profit, other time, it has been due to negligence leading the platform being comprised and users’ personal data stolen.

While the industry was battling with how to proffer solution to these problems, blockchain and cryptocurrency came along with a solution that is rather revolutionary, to say the least. Blockchain drastically reduces the cost required to keep e-commerce platform running using decentralized systems as against conventional centralized systems. Sellers can also enjoy reduce fees through the use of platform utility token (cryptocurrency), a benefit which is transferred to buyers in form of cheaper prices.

Blockchain also provides viable solutions to the problems of privacy and security through trustless anonymous identification. However, it didn’t take too long to realize that blockchain and cryptocurrency came along with their own problems, some of which are; interacting and using blockchain facilities is not yet newbie friendly because the learning curve is steep as there are a load of things to be learned and mastered, current options available for crypto usage are still very limited, the level of adoption is still very low compared with conventional system, etc.

That is why Plaza Systems decided to create a solution that bridges the gap between e-commerce and cryptocurrency.

Plaza claimed their twelve (12) years of operating experience in the e-commerce sector has helped them to identify the major inefficiencies, frustrations, and abuses in the e-commerce and cryptocurrency industry, as well as their solutions. Hence, Plaza is leveraging new technology for a disruptive and user-friendly blockchain based marketplace, which is referred to as Total bCommerce build on their next generation blockchain powered commerce; Plaza MerchantChain.

This is expected to assist sellers to avoid the costs associated with using centralized platforms and allow them to deal directly with the consumers cutting out the unnecessary middlemen. And in order to reduce the hindrance that is experienced by most new crypto users, Plaza users will receive free PlazaWallets synchronized with Plaza debit cards; PlazaCard, this is essentially smart because almost everybody around the world understands the benefits of a debit card over fiat. With the PlazaCard everyone can easily and immediately start taking advantage of cryptocurrency in their daily activities.

What is Plaza Systems?

Plaza is a systems integration company dedicated to on using blockchain technologies to provide innovative and enhanced solutions to business problems which mainly touches on e-commerce and cryptocurrency. Plaza has been able to successfully develop a next-generation blockchain commerce solution which is fast, scalable and future-proof, a solution that is poised to deliver a viable solution to the many problems that sellers, buyers and other stakeholders in the e-commerce industry have been experiencing.

At the root of Plaza solution is the Plaza MerchantChain and the Plaza MerchainChain Transaction Coin.

Plaza MerchanChain

MerchantCahin is a super-fast, secure, highly scalable, and future-proof distributed ledger for commerce which allows any seller to build decentralized applications on-top of it.

Some of its features are:

1. 15,000+ transactions per second at less 3 seconds average confirmation time
2. The Ledger is maintained by the ultra-low-powered internet of things (IoT) devices and mobile/desktop applications using a proof-of-reputation (PoR) algorithm.
3. It has the ability to Scale infinitely, meaning its scaling ability is unlimited.
4. Built-in Enhanced Security, where all parties must possess AURA SSL Certificate, which is meant to preventing fraud, thereby encouraging trust and confidence in the ecosystem.
5. It is future-proof, precisely it is quantum computing proof as the ledger will remain secure irrespective of the capability of the quantum computer.

MerchantChain Transaction Coin (MTC)

MTC resides on the MerchantChain as a native transaction coin that allows sellers on the MerchantChain to mint their own MerchantChain Transaction Coin. Meaning sellers on the Chain can actually mint their own version MTC for the use of their customers and the community.

Some of its features are:

1. It is backed by real-world value, that is it not based on market sentiment or speculations
2. It is designed mainly for spending, its' meant for carrying out transactions, not for hodling
3. It is much more consumer-friendly with only two decimal places instead of the now popular 18, making it more like our popularly used transaction and accounting numbers system of two decimal places.

Now, an interesting thing here is that Plaza did not just stop at the protocol and infrastructure level, which sellers can build on. They have actually gone ahead to demonstrate the capabilities of the MerchantChain by building on it themselves. This led to PlazaMarket and PlazaDollar, which are both the first use case for Plaza MerchantChain and the MerchantChain Transaction Coin respectively.

Another word you’re like to come across in regards to Plaza is what is Total bCommerce, which I believe was coined from “Total Blockchain Commerce” and according to Plaza, it’s is a simplified, secure, and cost-effective means for both buyers & sellers to transact in the crypto/blockchain era.

Plaza Ecosystem Overview

Featured Components

1. PlazaMarket - A place to purchase anything around world with an assisted AI-assisted metasearch engine for easy shopping at best price, no need waste time searching across multiple e-commerce platforms for the best price. Users activities are completely hidden from any data collection of their browsing activity, you can shop securely and anonymously for millions of items.
2. PlazaCard - Plaza Debit Card supports PLAZA or PlazaDollar (PL$) and Synchronized with PlazaWallet.
3. PlazaWallet - A Secure Multi-Currency Client-side Encrypted wallet with support for both Plaza and PL$
4. Mobile and Desktop Apps – iOS and Android for use with PlazaWallet
5. Instant Over-The-Counter Payments – Merchants can accept fiat currencies in exchange for an instant transfer, or “top-up” of any Plaza user’s wallet.
6. PlazaConcierge - An Amazon Alexa-enabled Smart Speaker for personal assistant and mining rig.
7. Royalties With Hands-Free Mining – Just connect the PlazaConcierge to your home or office WiFi network, and plaza mining royalties program™ pays something to every miner for every single transaction
8. Plaza Lifestyle Rewards - Instant Cashback and user action incentives include (but not limited to) Instant cashback for purchases; translation services, seller & consumer referral programs, self-advertising promotions, affiliate program, and bug identification.
9. Plaza Chatbots – Which includes Plaza Customer Service Chatbot, Plaza Chatbot Arbitrators, and PlazaConcierge Chatbot
10. PlazaArbitration - Automated and decentralized dispute resolution, which provides fully autonomous decentralized dispute resolution for more complex issues.

Token/ICO

Token Symbol: PLAZA
Platform: Ethereum
Type: ERC-20
ICO: October 4th - November 15, 2018
Price: 1 ETH = 5,000 PLAZA
Minimum Purchase: 0.25 ETH
Payment accepted: ETH
Hard Cap is 100,000 ETH
Total Supply: Depending on the amount of funds contributed.

Note that PLAZA is the native token of the Plaza Ecosystem, and Plaza will also issue a stable, fiat-backed cryptocurrency, that is PlazaDollar (PL$) which will be used exclusively for Plaza marketplace transactions by buyers and sellers within the Ecosystem.

Token Distribution

Usage of Raised Fund

Core Team

Advisors

Conclusion

The e-commerce market is a huge and highly liquid market with an even bigger future prospect, irrespective of the stiff competition. I believe the market is ripe for disruption and in this crypto era, any crypto startup or project that’s able to create a truly disruptive solution to the current problems in the market will make a landslide success.

I had somehow been following the progress of the Plaza Systems project for a while, but recently look deeper into it, and this review is an evidence to that fact. So, I believe in what Plaza Systems is trying to achieve and also believe they have the capabilities – the team, to deliver on their proposed solution. The project is providing a solution to real life problems and creating real-life use cases for crypto. The opportunity is great, the potential is huge.

Moreso, it will help to further deepen the adoption of cryptocurrency by getting crypto back to its original purpose as it conceptualized by Satoshi; that is, to serve as a currency to be spent in daily life transactions, rather than an asset that is being hodling.

More About Plaza Systems:

Website: https://www.plaza.systems/
Whitepaper: https://www.plaza.systems/whitepaper/
Telegram Group: https://t.me/plazatalk/
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/plazainfo/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlazaSystems/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5C06Ma-O6-bqgJ76GogBMw
Medium: https://medium.com/plaza-systems/
GitHub: https://github.com/plaza-systems/

Referenced Articles

1. Cryptocurrency Market to Grow at 32.31% CAGR to 2023
2. Retail e-commerce sales worldwide from 2014 to 2021

DISCLAIMER:

This is not a financial advice, always do your own research (DYOR) before investing in any project.

About Author:

Bounty0x Username: edundayo
Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1004920

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