Web3 Marketplace Mechanisms

[SionoiS]

Tokenomics & Game Theory

Many projects built a system without a reputation mechanism.

Staking

Token are staked on work producers, accruing fees and loss if verification fails.

Most system use inflationary and deflationary mechanisms in their design and so a native token has to be used.

egg. Livepeer

Escrow

A simpler version than staking, work similarly. No native token, no tokenomics, can be both good and bad.

Probabilistic Challenges

Pick random peers and have them verify each other.

The Huddle whitepaper doesn't describe in detail how this is done but one can imagine an algorithm based on the hash of the latest block in a blockchain serving as source of randomness. Although who the challenger is should probably be obfuscated so that the prover can't distinguish the challenge from normal "work".

A trusted third party might be the only solution if a smart contract can't be use as the registry of challenges.

Ad-hoc Challenge

Similar to probabilistic challenge but only triggered if the consumer is dissatisfied.

Verification

All systems have to verify the work or part of it to catch cheaters.

Replication

Sample the work being done and replicate it then use the result as proof.

It is unclear how "work" can be verified if not deterministic. The cost of verification might also be high.

egg. Truebit

Proxy

Sample a provider for work capacity.

What is measure is not if work has been done but if it can be done.

egg. Huddle