Welcome back to this series of insights into the Ecryptostore and their (future) token the Free Market Token, FMT. If this is your first time hearing about the Ecryptostore and FMT check out this article explaining why the Ecryptostore has excellent potential!
I showed you last week how the Ecryptostore sizes up excellently against Amazon and Ebay, outshining them both in all aspects of their merchant subscription programs. The data used was taken from the FMT whitepaper where they compared their “staked” accounts to the equivalent merchant accounts on market giants. In this article I’m going to specifically look at why you’d be better off selling from a staked account than an account paid for with FIAT. I’ll also make the case as to you might want to buy and stock up on FMT now, to reap the benefits later on.
Staked Accounts
Staked accounts use FMT token staking for subscription fees whilst non-staked accounts require a monthly subscription fee in FIAT. Both types of account have the same merchant levels.
Staking means that you hold a certain amount of FMT tokens in your Ecryptostore wallet in order to qualify for a particular merchant level. This is instead of paying a monthly FIAT fee. So long as you don’t drop below the token threshold for that merchant level -250FMT for Gold Merchants and 1000FMT for Power Merchants- by using these tokens, then you keep that merchant level. They don’t get deducted monthly, they just stay there.
Using tokens to pay transaction fees gives you a further discount on your transaction fees; 0.5% extra off transaction fees for Gold Merchants, 1% extra off transaction fees for Power Merchants. These fees don’t require you to have a staked account but if you’re staking tokens you’re more than likely to pay these fees in tokens.
Staking and Escrows
As a security measure all merchants not 100% verified will have all or a portion of buyers funds escrowed until the buyer confirms receipt of the item. This is to protect the buyer from malicious actors and to help to build trust in the Ecryptostore platform.
If a merchant wants instant access to buyers funds (called instant settlement) there are a variety of methods they can use to improve their verification level, these are explained in section 11 of the FMT whitepaper. One method is to stake tokens. A merchant puts their staked FMT up as collateral, effectively putting their reputation as well as their money at stake in order to instantly receive the buyers funds.
What If I’m Not Staking or Using Tokens?
Gold Merchant Status costs $10AUD a month.
Power Merchant Status costs $40AUD a month.
Gold Merchants will pay 2.5% fees per transaction. 2% when using FMT tokens.
Power Merchants will pay 2% fees per transaction. 1% when using FMT tokens.
Looking to The Future of FMT
There is a fixed supply, 550,000,000, of FMT. As people begin to use the Ecryptostore more and more tokens will get staked and the quantity of tokens available will decrease. Also remember that 25% of all tokens used for transaction and subscription fees will be frozen in smart contracts for 24 months after the company has received them.
If usage of the Ecryptostore increases then the token will likely rise in value. If you buy now at the ICO price, with the intention of using the tokens on the platform then your tokens could last for longer than you expect. Unlike many other platform based tokens, FMT is going be exchanged in real time for FIAT when you use it to pay for transaction fees or real world items. Therefore, it’s not an investment with the aim of monetary gains from the re-sale of the token, you can receive monetary gains from the use of the token.
Disclaimer: This article was written for the FreeMarketToken Bounty Program (See link below to join). This is a program through which writers, video makers, crypto-enthusiasts and absolutely anyone else can earn FMT to use on the Ecryptostore, by spreading the world about how we can all use our virtual currencies to purchase real world items, right now!! Anything I write is not financial advice and should not be considered as such. Before making any investments you should conduct your own through research.
Find out more:
FMT Website
FMT Whitepaper
Bounty Thread
Ecryptostore
Authors Bitcoin Talk Account
