Splyse, a United States-based development team best known for the NEO projects HashPuppies and Master Contract Token, has announced that its “Safe Remote Purchase” dApp is now live on the NEO TestNet for real-world testing. The purpose of the dApp is to allow self-escrow; because both parties to the sale put an additional deposit down in a smart contract, they are both incentivized to act in good faith to release the funds.
Self-Escrow
The core mechanic of Safe Remote Purchase is a smart contract that holds funds in escrow until both the buyer and seller agree to its release. Instead of third-party mediation, good faith efforts are enforced by a surplus deposit supplied by both the buyer and the seller. If the buyer and seller cannot agree to release the funds, they remain forever locked by the smart contract.
Splyse’s implementation notes, “both parties have additional funds at stake which will be forfeit if they do not complete the sale to both parties’ satisfaction…Therefore both parties are highly incentivzed to come to a mutual agreement.” In the Safe Remote Purchase smart contract that Splyse created, not even the smart contract’s owner can refund the deposits of an incomplete sale.
Encrypted Chat
The Safe Remote Purchase dApp also allows for encrypted chat between the buyer and the seller. The chat can be used to coordinate and negotiate the details of the sale in a long-lasting and verifiable yet private manner.
MCT and TestNet MCT
The Splyse contract on NEO’s TestNet acts as an MCT faucet; 1,000 “CTX” tokens (the TestNet version of MCT) are transmitted to the user upon entering the Safe Remote Purchase front-end. CTX have no cash value; however, this amount is enough to test the dApp and features with sales, chat, and transactions. Safe Remote Purchase requires the nOS Browser, available at https://github.com/nos/client/releases; for the time being, users will need to set the current network to “TestNet” through the nOS “Settings” menu in order to use the Safe Remote Purchase dApp.
Future MainNet implementations of Safe Remote Purchase will use the MCT token.
Spylse’s Safe Remote Purchase dApp can be viewed at the following link: https://srp.splyse.tech/
About The Author: Colin Closser
Colin Closser, M.D., was a speaker at the first NEO DevCon in San Francisco. A devoted contrarian, he has managed the improbable: a peaceful and healthy life, despite holding a medical degree. He aspires towards the wisdom of Michael Lewis and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
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