Particl, a Distributed Marketplace Rethinking Privacy’s Future – Announced Seed Round

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Privacy coins, frequently dogged for associations with nefarious activities, may soon see a paradigm shift in their public perception with​ the announcement​ of a new privacy centered e-commerce platform today. Particl, a distributed marketplace, aims to facilitate global commerce and communication without third-party surveillance.

However, unlike marketplaces with a similar functionality, Particl will utilize a self-governance feature, similar to the voting system used on Reddit, to weed out nefarious parties within the network. Particl’s distributed governance mechanism poses a potential answer to questions of illegitimacy that have frequently plagued cryptocurrencies since their inception with Bitcoin in 2008.

Ryno Mathee, Particl’s lead developer, said that the need for confidentiality is a fundamental liberty and does not denote foul play.

“We firmly believe that privacy is a human right and want to give people across the world a means to chat and transact without being conflated with the negative actions of a few,” said Mathee. “We have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars and worked with one of the most respected law firms in the world to help realize this positive, privacy first future with Particl.”
Mathee is also the lead developer of the Shadow Project, an open source distributed privacy platform which will transition across to Particl’s marketplace alongside the majority of Shadow’s engineering team.

The Shadow Project was launched in 2014 as one of the first anonymity based marketplaces, boasting an encrypted chat room, a popular digital coin called Shadow Cash, and a cryptocurrency wallet.

According to Mathee, the Particl project is a manifestation of the Shadow Project’s innovation throughout the last two and half years. Particl will ultimately offer a more scalable and advanced privacy-centric marketplace for the community to move forward with.

Seed Round: ​Particl has announced its seed round, beginning Friday, March 17 and continuing one month until April 7. Owners of ShadowCash (SDC), will exchange their tokens for Particl’s cryptocoin, PART.

Shadow Cash will be the only way to become ‘part’ of the Particl network before the April launch of the blockchain. However, once the marketplace is live, it will be agnostic to all digital currencies.

Better Infrastructure: ​Included in his announcement, Mathee noted that his development team has finally completed the final prototype for the Umbra marketplace, the platform that is currently utilized in the Shadow Project. They will bring this model across to Particl, where it will be based on the new Bitcoin Core 0.3.12. Also integrated will be the same high-level privacy technology that is seen in the Shadow Project, with some additional unique Particl features that are soon to be launched.

Increased Resources:​ The team behind the Shadow Project was ostensibly part-time which put a ceiling on the long-term growth potential of the distributed marketplace. The majority of this team will now be transitioning on to Particl on a full-time basis, which will underpin the network with better conditions to mature. With financial backing, a cumulative goal of mainstreaming privacy in the most innovative way possible, Particl has a strong set of resources to move into the future with.

Go to their website to read the FAQs, where you can learn more about the movement toward privacy, the technology underpinning it, and details of the initial seed round.