GM.co. A Future Outlook

From conception, GM.co has always been intended for peer-to-peer (P2P) commerce: a marketplace for the people, by the people, and one that people can trust because of the technology that supports and facilitates the transactions.

At its core, that’s what Gm.co will be, just like organisms: a living, breathing marketplace that will grow, morph, and transform over time in accordance with its people.

As the Architects & Mechanics of GM.co, PxN will design & maintain the quarters of commerce. GM.co’s denizens will be the global & growing digital currency market, as well as the global & growing creator economy, ever-chasing new ways to stimulate their audience. Holders, you’re the lifeblood and backing of this shopping commons, invisible, like ghosts, to the outside world and the buyers & sellers on GM.co.

As the Ghosts backing an outward-facing online marketplace, know that the limelight may not be on you, but you are in the shadows, watching and providing frontline feedback to us builders along the journey. Together, we must focus on building a place that serves the needs of the citizens of GM.co and not our own.

And it is in the serving of our platform’s citizens that we Ghosts, Architects, Mechanics, and Founders will attain the success, kickback, and riches that naturally follow by first providing our customers value, and genuinely caring for the platform’s community we’re opening doors to. 

To ensure the safety of our first customers, we’ll begin with only a very small selection of sellers with legitimate businesses as our opening merchants, as we–PxN & the PxN community–watch, learn, feel for the flow of the marketplace, and ensure the security of it first, before expanding & scaling.

Okay, guys, together: what we’re looking for, on launch, as markers of success are:

• GM.co goes Live
• Gm.co can handle the stress & influx of traffic 
• Listings appear
• Sales happen and fulfilled
• Core thesis works (people will use crypto to buy real goods)

Together with our Ghost backers, we’re looking to:

• Co-market GM.co (tell everyone about it!)
• Search for the next, most-desired features that should be built 
• Gather stats on GM.co’s citizens, in order to learn whom to develop towards
• Work together to ensure we’re communicating on a weekly basis to curate a platform our citizens want

In this phase of product development, we are not looking for:

• A hyper-polished, aesthetic, & visual experience
• An endless supply of item listings that can take infinity & beyond to look through
• A massive amount of transactional volume flooding through the canals of GM.co
• Or insane revenue generation just quite yet

For GM.co, let’s work together to co-create the go-to place on web3 where people can get what they want and need, using digital currency, and where creators, brands, businesses, sellers, and resellers can sell their goods for currencies of the future.

Together in 2023, let’s make our mark in the digital economy.

Wild Web3

Shopifying NFTs

Merchants on Shopify, an e-commerce platform, can now mint and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Avalanche blockchain through the Venly app.

Avalanche is a Layer-1 blockchain that is cheaper than Ethereum, the leading NFT platform. Buyers do not need an existing Avalanche wallet to purchase an NFT, and will be able to pay with fiat rather than cryptocurrency. The Avalanche wallet will automatically be created for them with the NFT inside.

Venly, a blockchain tech startup that also offers wallet solutions, launched its Shopify NFT minting tool on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon in 2021, and is planning to add support for NFTs minted through Hedera and the Ethereum scaling network Immutable X in the future.

“Our growing blockchain ecosystem demonstrates our commitment to supporting merchants as they sell NFTs directly through their storefronts, helping to further grow participation in web3 and expand what’s possible in commerce,” said Shopify Blockchain Ecosystem Lead Christina Lomazzo in a release.

As it gets easier to own NFTs and the line blurs between tech and adoption, web3 will rapidly take over our digital lives, and the general users will be none the wiser.

TVs enter the Metaverse

South Korean tech company LG Electronics has announced a series of updates to its metaverse capabilities at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Users of LG smart TVs will be able to access the Blade Wallet service to buy, sell and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through the LG Art Lab platform. LG smart TVs will also be able to access the metaverse platform Sansar, which includes a user-generated market economy.

LG has also partnered with cloud streaming firm Oorbit to bring the "interoperable metaverse" to LG smart TVs, enabling users to access virtual experiences such as concerts and multiplayer games.

As TVs get smarter and digital experiences move back to the living room, the metaverse will be the new frontier in which people interact with the online world.

Bonking Ahead With Solana

Bonk Inu is a meme coin focused on Solana, a blockchain platform, and is part of the Inu family of meme coins that are common on the Ethereum and BNB Chain. It surged over 2,000% after its developers airdropped 50% of the total 100 trillion tokens to the Solana community for free and burned the remaining tokens. It has since dropped quite a bit price-wise.

The token has a tiny market cap of around $77 million and is expected to be volatile. Bonk Inu's white paper contains few details on future tokenomics, which may be a concern for some investors. Bonk Inu's popularity has led to speculation that it will be adopted by major platforms such as NFT marketplace Magic Eden.

There were concerns of major projects leaving Solana as seen with DeGods and Yoots recent anoucement to move to Ethereum and Polygon respectively. This is amidst SFB’s FTX fiasco, who was a big proponent and investor in Solana. Bonk Inu’s launch is a breath of fresh air for the chain.

(This article is written for informational purposes and not financial advice. Please do your own research when buying any crypto coin and adhere to good risk management.)

Revolutionising P2P Trading

Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading is a type of trading that occurs directly between two individuals or parties, without the need for a central exchange or an intermediary. This can take place online or offline, and involve the exchange of physical or digital goods. A tale as old as time, P2P trades have existed since humans started swapping goods, and the platforms to host these trades are ever evolving. 

In a P2P trade, buyers and sellers negotiate and agree on the terms of the trade directly with each other, rather than going through a central party. This can be done in person, over the phone, or through an online platform or marketplace. A simple example would be a Singapore-based marketplace called Carousell. Users would be able to list their items on the platform while receiving messages from potential buyers and negotiating directly with them. 

P2P trading offers a range of benefits. These include lower fees, full control over the trading processes, and flexibility in payment methods and pricing. You minimise the risk of the deal going sideways as you are in direct contact with the seller, and if you like what you find on GM.co in the future, you now have the option to pay in cryptocurrency over fiat. 

However P2P trading is not risk-averse. It carries potential risks for fraud or default of the deal by one of the parties involved in the trade. Disputes may be difficult to resolve, and as a result, it is important that individuals participating in P2P trades do their due diligence and be cautious about taking steps to protect themselves. GM.co will aim to provide you with a trustless online shopping experience, whereby we help you mitigate most of the risks associated with P2P trading.

If the condition of the item arrives not as advertised, you will be able to open a chat with the seller and discuss the next course of action. Your funds will still be safe in the escrow address, and you will be able to get them back in full if the merchant fails to deliver. To sum up, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. 

The P2P trading feature wouldn’t be introduced just yet for GM.co. We are first onboarding merchants with a strong brand and reputation to uphold. This would ensure our users have a seamless and enjoyable experience using GM.co, without worry. Once more people have experienced using our platform, we will introduce P2P trading to expand our product offering. 

As we gather feedback from our users about how we can improve GM.co together as a team, key features and updates will be rolled out to provide users with a new and refreshing experience on GM.co. 

Market Matters

Welcome back to another edition of Market Matters. In the first week of 2023, we have a healthy amount of data and reports from the week to look at.

The most impactful data to analyze are the ISM Manufacturing PMI, JOLTS Job Openings, the FOMC Meeting Minutes, ADP Non-Farm Employment Change, the weekly US Unemployment Claims, the month over month Average Hourly Earnings, changes in Non-Farm Employment, the US Unemployment Rate and the ISM Services PMI.

We will start with the ISM Manufacturing index, as it is one of the key indicators for the overall health of the economy. The Manufacturing PMI data showed a contraction for the second month in a row, revealing the steepest decline to its weakest levels since the June 2020 reading of May’s data, indicating a further drop in manufacturing demand.

Although the manufacturing data indicated a contraction, the JOLTS Job Openings report demonstrated that employment demand continues to stay strong as businesses sought out workers to fill job roles, despite concerns of an impending recession. The job openings reported were higher than forecasted.

Closing out Wednesday’s data is the FOMC Meeting Minutes, where investors got an inside look at a transcript of the FED’s decision on the previous interest rate hike. It also gave some insights into what they plan on doing for the next rate hike. The FED plans to keep rates high in 2023, but will slow the pace.

With rates remaining high, and with no rate cuts in the foreseeable future, investors can expect mortgage rates to remain high this year as well. This puts some more pressure on the housing market, leading to a further decline in economic growth as they continue to combat inflation.

The change in ADP Non-Farm Employment within the private sector provided a rather high and unexpected reading of 235,000 jobs compared to the forecasted 152,000 jobs, likely due to the increase in employment around the holidays. This statistic shows a strong labor market which is the opposite of what the FED wants to see.

Alongside the ADP employment data came the weekly US Unemployment Claims, which showed a decrease in unemployment claims, yet another negative reading for the markets.

Moving into Friday, we received a bundle of data, including the month-over-month Average Hourly Earnings, changes in Non-Farm Employment, the US Unemployment Rate, and the ISM Services PMI.

The FED should be pleased to see that the Average Hourly Earnings data came in lower than anticipated, especially after the previous negative readings within the jobs market. However, it won’t be enough to sway them in the direction of lower than 50bps rate hikes.

The change in Non-Farm Employment shows that the labor market indeed remains strong, even with the decrease seen in the employee’s average hourly earnings, as it was reported that 23,000 more-than-expected jobs were added to the economy, leading to a total of 223,000 new jobs in December of 2022.

The US Unemployment Rate also decreased to a level below what analysts forecasted as the labor market powers ahead in the face of a potential recession. It's going to prove difficult for the FED to decrease rate hikes considering the amount of data showing how strong the labor market remains. Friday’s data closed out with the ISM Services PMI survey which contracted heavily, pushing it below expansion levels for the first time since June 2020.

In conclusion, with all this data, we can see a clear trend in the direction of the jobs market staying strong, yet wages are decreasing.