What is Joint?
What is Joint?
Joint refers to a collection of components that work together to allow the Joint Protocol to achieve its purpose. Before we go into a detailed explanation of Joint, it is essential to describe them clearly.
Joint Team: This is the company within which the Joint protocol was developed. The company is responsible for researching, implementing, testing and deploying the Joint Protocol.
The Joint Protocol: A collection of non-upgradable smart contracts on an EVM-based blockchain that work together to facilitate peer-to-peer swaps between on-chain and off-chain assets such as crypto to fiat swaps and vice versa.
The Joint Dapp: A web interface and indexer designed to allow users to access and use the Joint protocol easily. It is open source and can be deployed by anyone worldwide to create an alternative access point.
Joint Governance: A suite of contracts designed to distribute ownership and control to the Joint community. The protocol's JOIN token facilitates Joint governance.
The DroidPD: The official NFT collection and mascot of the Joint ecosystem. A collection of 10,000 unique characters designed to tell the Joint story of unmediated commerce in a fun way.
Introduction
The Joint protocol is a peer-to-peer system that allows users to exchange cryptocurrencies (ERC20 Tokens) for off-chain assets like fiat, gift cards, and other real-world assets (and vice versa). It is also capable of allowing exchange between any two on-chain assets.
It is a set of non-upgradeable smart contracts deployed on an EVM-based blockchain to match, organize and enforce asset exchange instantly or interactively. Joint protocol prioritizes the following properties:
Privacy:
Users do not need to reveal personal information (KYC-Free).
Communication between users is encrypted and inaccessible to anyone other than the participants in a trade.
Censorship-resistance:
Users can trade with anyone.
Users can trade any assets.
Users can trade unlimited volumes at any time.
Self-custody:
Users manage their funds and interact directly with the Joint protocol smart contracts from their wallets. There is no intermediary to hold funds or execute operations on users' behalf.
Transparency & Fairness:
Users can see the full trade information on-chain.
Users can start disputes and track the progress and decision-making with the Joint protocol's dispute system.
With Joint, anyone can use or build an exchange that protects users from censorship and risks associated with centralized exchanges. Once deployed, the Joint Protocol will be instantly and perpetually available on the blockchain to everyone worldwide.
How does Joint protocol compare to centralized P2P marketplaces?
To sufficiently explain the difference between Joint protocol and its centralized alternatives, it is important to clarify the layers that make up a typical centralized P2P marketplace. These layers greatly determine the platform's capabilities and end-user experiences.
Jurisdiction Layer
The first layer in a centralized marketplace is the Jurisdiction layer. This is the country or region where the marketplace has selected to incorporate its business and subjects itself to the existing rules and regulations. The team will look at factors such as ease of doing business, market size, legal structures, financial service infrastructure and political stability to make their decision. Incorporating in the wrong place can be catastrophic to the marketplace's success.
Regulation Layer
Once the jurisdiction has been selected, the regulatory layer includes all the rules that will govern the operations of the centralized marketplace. This layer informs the features and utilities built into the application. Most times, the source of pain and violations endured by users can be traced to this layer. It involves the enforcement of rules created by multiple regulatory bodies. Some of the most notable challenges users face include:
Privacy violations:
KYC requirement at registration time even when the user is not a citizen or domiciled in the jurisdiction.
Public revelation of customer information during a security breach or bankruptcy proceedings.
Sharing of confidential information and transaction activities with third parties.
Users' fund security
As custodian platforms, centralized marketplaces have control of users’ funds; they can lock funds for arbitrary service violations or at the request of regulators and other third parties.
The jurisdiction can also determine whether a user can access compensation when the exchange loses users’ funds via a software glitch, a hack, fraud or during a liquidation event.
Trading limitations
Regulatory requirements force centralized marketplaces to limit how much volume a user can trade before and after KYC completion.
Frequently, users intend to exchange assets at very low volume (ex, $10, $50, $100) but are still subjected to KYC procedures that can take multiple days to complete.
Additionally, users domiciled in a neutral jurisdiction who intend to trade among themselves will still be subjected to the rules of the host jurisdiction.
Trade Engine Layer
The Trade Engine layer implements the business logic of the marketplace with careful adherence to the rules defined in the regulation layer. The trade engine is responsible for registering and authenticating users, processing trade requests, handling KYC processing, payment settlement, and storing users’ communication logs and activities. Most user violations are executed on this layer. Since only the marketplace team has access to this system and the codebase is closed, detecting, proving, and protesting violations and irregularities is difficult before the damage is final.
Application Layer
The application layer includes applications in the form of web interfaces, mobile apps and API services used by end-users and developers. It is where the users go to start a trade, deposit funds, view their history and access marketplace features. The application layer is subject to the features made available by the Trade engine and other lower layers. It is tightly coupled to the Trade engine layer on centralised marketplaces, leaving no room for third-party extension or integration.
User Layer
The user layer describes the end-user who uses the marketplace to trade their cryptocurrencies and fiat. If the regulatory model requires KYC, it will not welcome users who need strict privacy considerations. High-volume traders will seek an alternative if the trade volume limit is too low. The type of users that make up this layer is largely determined by the decisions made in the lower layers.
The Joint Protocol
The Joint protocol takes a different approach through the decentralization of the layers that make up the protocol:
Governance Layer
Joint Protocol begins with a decentralized governance layer. As the first layer, Governance determines the protocol's features, capabilities and core ethos.
At Joint, we are bootstrapping the Joint Protocol’s governance with an ethos that prioritizes censorship resistance and users’ privacy. We care about building a protocol that is permissionless and jurisdiction-agnostic.
We care about building a democratized protocol that can be extended or integrated by anyone. At maturity, Joint protocol will be completely governed by its users across the globe.
Trade Engine Layer
Joint Protocol’s trade engine layer is a collection of smart contracts. These contracts work together to provide all the trade creation, management, settlement and rule enforcement needs of a peer-to-peer trading system.
Unlike centralized trade engines, Joint is permissionless, censorship-resistant and privacy-preserving. As an autonomous system that lives on the blockchain, It does not conform to regulations in any jurisdiction; it has no boundaries and can maximize user happiness and fulfilment. It is open source; anyone can inspect, use the codebase and propose upgrades.
Jurisdiction & Regulation Layers
Unlike centralized marketplaces, a Jurisdiction layer is optional. The Joint protocol has no chosen jurisdiction; its only jurisdiction is the blockchain it is deployed on. As an autonomous application that lives on the blockchain, it cannot be accessed from anywhere.
Without the constraint of jurisdiction, the Joint protocol does not include any artificial limitations designed to restrict its use unnaturally. At the Joint, we believe regulation may be applied on the application layer depending on the region the application intends to serve. Users worldwide and in different jurisdictions should not be required to adopt the rules from places they are not domiciled.
Application Layer
With a permissionless trade engine that lives on the blockchain, anyone can build applications that offer trading services to users across the globe and incorporate regulatory frameworks applicable to their target market (if they must).
This layer encourages the creation of various interfaces and applications, enabling competition and more choices for users. The Joint development team will provide an official interface to allow users to access and use the protocol easily.
User Layer
The Joint protocol has been designed to enable integration and allow any team to build new interfaces and experiences. As a democratized protocol, applications can be designed to meet the specific needs of sections of users with little to no change in user experience. The protocol can also be integrated into existing and new decentralized applications to provide a new defi primitive for converting crypto-assets into cash. The Joint protocol user layer will span across many integrated applications and protocols.
Conclusion
The Joint Protocol uses innovative smart contracts to enable peer-to-peer trade without permission. This approach, unhindered by censorship and valuing user privacy, makes the platform unique. The smart contracts are carefully crafted to ensure smooth, secure, and efficient participant interactions. And its decentralized nature provides unparalleled transparency.
The Joint Protocol is more than just a mission; it's a pioneering initiative. It plans to set up a new protocol for unrestricted on and off-ramping, welcoming all users and encouraging inclusivity.
Plus, it's built to be compatible with both new and existing protocols. It can seamlessly integrate with various systems, promoting its usability and adoption.
Joint Protocol aims to facilitate trade and foster a more interconnected, efficient, and inclusive digital economy.
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