&l;span&g;The old trope of independent and small businesses needing to adapt in order to compete is true. &l;/span&g;
&l;span&g;However, when these businesses seek out new opportunities online and trade in online marketplaces, they face&a;nbsp;natural limits regarding their independence. While most of them do&a;nbsp;provide a gateway these companies need in order to find new business, there are limits involved. In a &l;/span&g;&l;a href=&q;https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/sep/14/ebay-etsy-policy-unfair-sellers&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;&l;span&g;Guardian article&l;/span&g;&l;/a&g;&l;span&g; published last year by an online-shop owner, she described her peers as &a;ldquo;powerless against its often arbitrary decisions,&a;rdquo; as she stated.&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;
&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;Online shopping is sometimes perceived as one of the most &l;a href=&q;https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/19/how-to-structure-a-marketplace/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;centralized&l;/a&g; spaces that currently exists, as the online marketplaces are considered consolidated, with limited autonomy given to the merchant. Additionally, with any centralized format, risks are involved. With online shopping, these risks include susceptibility to fraudulent activity and risks for hidden charges. Furthermore, centralized marketplaces and e-commerce platforms have been slow to adopt cryptocurrencies as payment, as few are equipped to deal with crypto transactions.&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;
&l;a href=&q;https://gamb.io/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;GAMB&l;/span&g;&l;/a&g;&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;, which stands for Global Alliance of Merchants on the Blockchain, is being built by the German software giant Gambio.&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;GAMB is trying to give power to the merchants, allowing sellers located on the marketplace platform to contribute to the rules that govern them and their businesses - unlike a more centralized marketplace.&l;/span&g;
&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;According to them, the advantage of blockchain technology for the online marketplace is the transparency. The decision regarding features and services, as well as cost and fee structures, will not be written in stone. Instead, merchants will be able to decide amongst themselves in a decentral autonomous organization. They hope&a;nbsp;merchants will become members of this alliance, thus granting them access to participate in the decision-making process.&l;/span&g;
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&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;&a;ldquo;By using blockchain technology, we can provide a platform which not only provides secure transaction, but an opportunity to create an ecosystem of vendors and merchants which is self governing,&a;rdquo; says Dr. Felix Hotzinger, senior advisor. &l;/span&g;
&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;So in application, GAMB&a;rsquo;s de-centrally organized marketplace hopes to enable businesses to manage their online shops locally, while ensuring access to traffic, SEO and consumer demand. The marketplace will share gathered data in order to improve the competitive positioning of merchants.&l;/span&g;
&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;From a realistic standpoint, taking on tech-giants could seem suicidal, but Gambio has pointed out some major flaws in some of these e-commerce centralized marketplace systems. With over 96% of the American population currently shopping online, and with over 2.1 billion people expected to shop online by 2021 according to &l;/span&g;&l;a href=&q;https://www.bigcommerce.com/press/releases/bigcommerce-survey-shows-americans-consider-online-shopping-essential/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;BigCommerce&l;/span&g;&l;/a&g;&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;, it is overwhelmingly likely that cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology&a;nbsp;are part of the process of improving.&l;/span&g;
&l;span style=&q;font-weight: 400&q;&g;However, &a;ldquo;unionizing&a;rdquo; merchants in a marketplace could present issues on their own, including the fact that what is sometimes good for the majority of sellers won&a;rsquo;t necessarily be good for all. Only time will tell if Gambio has the resources and the ability to bring about a decentralized marketplace, and give power &a;nbsp;back to the merchants. &l;/span&g;
&a;nbsp;&l;/p&g;
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