Inspiration
Many people turn to Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or eBay to sell their used goods. However, there is always a fear of being scammed, either as a buyer or a seller. There are many stories of people who did not receive the product they wanted, or did not receive the money they were owed for the product. It is easy to say that the second-hand exchange market is not very reliable.
What it does
We propose SecureSwap, a secure way of buying and selling goods. SecureSwap will run on a decentralized platform, backed by the Ethereum blockchain. This is a service for both buyers and sellers, ensuring efficient transactions and market agent privacy. With the Ethereum blockchain, we can facilitate issuing payments to sellers and withdrawing money from a buyer’s account.
To prevent scams from occurring, the buyer and seller are both required to stake money into the contract. Buyers will put in the price of the product they expect to recieve, and sellers will initially put in an amount higher than the value of the product. This provides an incentive for the seller to send the correct product. If all goes well, the seller's money will be refunded to their account, and the buyer will pay for the product.
In the event of a dispute: a) If the seller needs to increase the cost (shipping is more than they thought; they realized the value is too low, etc.) then the buyer must approve this amendment and add funds to the contract.
b) If the seller needs to increase the cost and the buyer disagrees with this increase, the seller has the option to end the contract and the contract will send funds back to the buyer automatically.
c) If the buyer needs to decrease the sellers cost (product is damaged, the product doesn’t work/is not as advertised), the buyer can request a decrease of funds. The seller must approve this, and if the seller agrees then the difference in funds will be sent back from the contract to the buyer.
d) If the buyer requests to decrease the seller’s cost, and the seller doesn’t agree with the decrease, the buyer must upload pictures of the malfunctioning product to the AI. The seller has proactively uploaded pictures to the AI which will determine whether the product is, in fact, different from what was advertised. If the AI favors the buyer’s story, the contract will refund them, otherwise the seller will get the money in the contract.
e) If the seller never sends the product/the product is lost in shipping, then the seller will be charged their collateral.
How we built it
Frontend: We used React.js to build our website. We used Commerce.js API to act as a way for users who are sellers to put in the products they want to sell.
Backend:
Tensorflow:
Challenges we ran into
Through this project, we learned to effectively utilize Infura for Ethereum interactions, gaining insights into managing blockchain interactions without a local node. We also enhanced our skills in resolving frontend to backend connectivity issues, understanding the intricacies of network configurations and security. Additionally, we gained practical experience in deploying and managing smart contracts, which improved our proficiency in blockchain technology and smart contract security.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of successfully integrating our backend with Ethereum smart contracts via Infura, which allowed for scalable and efficient blockchain interactions. Despite initial challenges, we achieved a seamless connection between our frontend and backend, enhancing user experience and application reliability. Additionally, we successfully implemented and utilized our smart contract functionalities, establishing a solid foundation for our platform's core operations.
What we learned
Through this project, we learned to effectively utilize Infura for Ethereum interactions, gaining insights into managing blockchain interactions without a local node. We also enhanced our skills in resolving frontend to backend connectivity issues, understanding the intricacies of network configurations and security. Additionally, we gained practical experience in deploying and managing smart contracts, which improved our proficiency in blockchain technology and smart contract security.
What's next for SecureSwap
Our client and server have successfully connected, using Infura to link our server with our Ethereum smart contract. With more time, we would have liked to make the app access the smart contract to complete the transaction. Once the transaction has succeeded, we plan to use the smart contract to list products and fully utilize its capabilities. In the frontend, we want to improve the UI with all the user functionalities. We want to create separate experiences for buyers and sellers so they can fulfill their roles. We also want to explore using an external database to keep track of all transactions and images that are uploaded to the website.
Built With
- commerce.js
- react
- solidity
- tensorflow
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