Abstract:

Transacting entities online may still become victims of fraud, cyber-threats, low quality or performance, privacy loss, unfair pricing, biases in matching offers to requests, among others. Blockchain and other decentralized technologies may provide remedy towards trustworthy online transactions. This paper proposes a blockchain-based market framework that enables trustworthy transactions. We first define the functionalities that such a market framework should combine, namely mechanisms for service discovery, decentralized reputation, price determination, self-sovereign identities and verifiable credentials, fair exchanges, anonymity, asset digitization, cryptocurrencies, invoicing, and more. Then, we describe blockchain-based solutions for addressing each one of these functionalities. Finally, we exemplify the operation of the market in three real-world use cases.