(2015-02-01) Monegro Deep Web Marketplace Reputation

Joel Monegro explores Deep Web Market-s, esp in terms of their anonymous Reputation Management. There’s a lot to learn from these platforms as we continue to think about how the Block Chain and other new technologies might impact traditional business models. For example, marketplaces with cost structures that command high take rates are vulnerable to Bitcoin-driven business models with very low or non-existent transaction fees. It could be that what drives adoption of unbundled services is competition by lowering costs.

Brad Burnham ponders decentralizing a Market to reduce its OverHead. All this leaves me wondering not so much if the world will move toward decentralized, and disaggregated marketplaces, but when and why. Because the activities on the dark web are largely illegal, there is no other choice. For the rest of us, we are still generally willing to depend on a centralized platform for discovery, and identity management. For the moment, we are also still willing to accept the fees, the terms of service, and the bundling, these platforms enforce. My guess is the models pioneered on the dark web will come into the light first as leaner more efficient competitors to the first generation of peer economy companies, but the question I am still struggling with is where to look. Are there legal markets where the value of a decentralized market is greater so this transition will happen sooner, or will it happen first in any market where a first generation peer economy company goes too far by economically and politically disenfranchising the value creators at the edge of their network?