When offering a sneak preview on its latest product dubbed MarketSquare, blockchain solutions developer ARK.io spoke of it as the “new homepage for the decentralized Web”. Which is really creating a solution that has been found wanting in the impressive space of emerging technology.
Blockchain innovation has been heralded by many as the single most important development of the past two decades, in the same level of importance as the internet, mainly because of its ability to decentralize many aspects of the way we live life and conduct work.
Centralization has been building up over the past century, with central authorities and governments been put to task, trusted by people and citizens to determine the correct directions to take in policy and spending. Corporations have also filled in the gap, so much so that public-domain technologies such as the world wide web and internet, which started out as decentralized ideologies, are now centralized. ICANN manages domain names. Google monopolizes search engines. Facebook does the same with social media.
So blockchain’s promise to decentralize all of these have proven to be very popular with people. But the problem isn’t so much about acceptance and buy-in, rather, the problem is getting out these decentralized solutions to people.
A homepage for the decentralized web
So is MarketSquare the answer to this problem? It certainly is built to be that.
In its blog announcement giving a preview to its latest product, ARK says that MarketSquare will take away the complexity of new users, developers, and even project founders in reviewing and researching blockchain products. It will treat projects as “property”, allowing founders and communities to claim properties and then update these on their own to contain the information they believe is most relevant and useful to others. Associated people can even update their own profiles with photos, descriptions, social links, and connected properties to help others to connect and network.
Before, it was impossible to find a unified platform that lists all the thousands of blockchain projects and apps. MarketSquare hopes to embark on such a task, letting people access, learn, and discover all the amazing things the industry has to offer. It also encourages developers and users to interact together with businesses, building a “robust search function” that will foster communities, keeping them updated and engaged with their favorite projects.
Although currently in alpha testing, the reception towards MarketSquare appears to be positive, with a public beta timed for the latter part of 2020, and a development roadmap that has social messaging and bounty mechanisms all in the pipeline. It plans to cater to everyone, from retail users, to blockchain pioneers, giving them all value and the ability to find all things blockchain in a single place.
All this in line with ARK’s philosophy of empowerment for all, guided by a vision that sees blockchain access easily and freely available to all participants. To understand how ARK can help individuals, businesses and creators, visit the official ARK website at https://ark.io/ or keep abreast of developments in real time via Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or Slack.
