Satoshi Nakamoto’s last unfinished project inspires this new online marketplace disruptor in the crypto space

A fork of Bitcoin, known as Particl, has announced the completion of an eBay-style marketplace that’s been integrated into its wallet. Built using blockchain smart contracts, the marketplace is derived from an original concept first proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Particl’s latest release forms a trustless, unstoppable marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade goods without the risk of getting scammed. It features zero fees and encrypted chat messages between buyers and sellers alongside ring signatures and blinding to provide greater transactional privacy than Monero.

Bitcoin’s creator vanished in 2011 after being invited to meet the CIA. His last email stated, “I’ve moved on to other things.” Before he disappeared, Satoshi was working on a marketplace built into Bitcoin. Now, a working version of this technology has been quietly released by an anonymous team of developers. Satoshi’s original Bitcoin source code included an unfinished marketplace in line 69 of the headers file. “I was trying to implement an eBay-style marketplace built into the client,” he said in a 2011 email to Mike Hearn.

During the Covid pandemic, the sale of many essential items was restricted on traditional platforms like Amazon and eBay due to price gouging rules. As a result, sellers took advantage of Particl’s decentralized governance system which offered no such selling restrictions. Items such as thousands of units of PPE, hand sanitizer, and Covid test appeared on the platform. During the Hong Kong student protests, items such as full-face gas masks and protective gear were listed. The first Tesla car was even listed for sale, well before Elon Musk took an interest in crypto.