How to Buy

Buying products and services on Particl Marketplace gives you more privacy, security, and freedom than on any other online marketplace. It is also entirely free to use, except for tiny sub-cent cryptocurrency transaction fees.

All these benefits are available through Particl Marketplace. And due to its unique decentralized architecture, the process of shopping online may be slightly different than what you’re used to.

As we’ll see in this user guide, this process isn’t complicated at all - you’ll be up to speed in no time!

Purchase an Item

Attention

To purchase an item on Particl Marketplace, you need to have PART coins in your Public (default) or Anon balance.

Place an Order

Attention

Wallet Unlocking

To be able to progress through the steps of the purchasing process, your Particl Desktop client needs to be unlocked. Failure to do so means that you won’t be able to complete the required steps to submit and complete your order. Make sure the padlock icon at the top-right corner of the status bar is unlocked.

To purchase an item on Particl Marketplace, you must first submit an order request to the seller. Keep in mind that, after you do this, you will still need to complete one additional step before your order is properly confirmed!

Add an item to your cart

  1. Open Market -> BROWSE to find the item you want to purchase and click on it to expand its details.

  2. Click on the Shipping & Escrow tab within the listing’s details to ensure the item ships to your country and that you have enough PART in your Anon balance. You will find the total number of PART required to send the order request within the Total needed for order column.

  3. Click on Add to cart.

Submit order request to the seller

  1. Open Market -> CART to review the content of your cart and enter your shipping information.

  2. Click the Review & Submit this Order button to review your order’s details, and click the Confirm Order & Submit to send the bid to the seller.

  3. Your order request has been submitted to the seller. Now we wait for his confirmation.

Hint

Save your shipping information into a user profile. That way, you do not need to rewrite it with every order. To do so, check the Save shipping profile box before moving to the next step and give the profile a name.

Make Security Deposit

Once the seller has confirmed your order, its status will change from REQUESTING to ACCEPTED; it’s time to make your security deposit into the two-party escrow smart contract.

  1. Await the notification that the seller has accepted your order.

  2. Open Market -> PURCHASES -> Orders and look for any order marked as ACCEPTED.

  3. Click on the order’s tile to expand its details and click on Request Escrow.

  4. You can provide an email address or a phone number to help the seller and shipping provider. This step is optional.

  5. Confirm your security deposit by clicking on the Confirm & Fund.

Hint

In the Filter section, you can check Orders requiring attention to only see orders that require your attention or filter them by status.

See also

Check out the Two-party Escrow Explained page to know more about it!

Verify Order Status

After locking your security deposit into the two-party escrow contract, you now need to wait for your package to arrive, after which you’ll be required to mark the transaction as complete to receive your security deposit back.

Once the seller marks your order as shipped, he may send you a tracking number through the private Chat function of your specific order.

  1. Open Market -> PURCHASES -> Orders and find the order you want to monitor. Additional information, like a tracking number or notes, can be seen by clicking on the order’s tile.

Finalize Order and Get Security Deposit Back

After receiving your order, it’s crucial to finalize the transaction on Particl Marketplace. That is how you get back your security deposit, and release the payment to the seller.

  1. Wait for your package to arrive.

  2. Open Market -> PURCHASES -> Orders.

  3. Click on the order’s tile to expand its details, and click on the Mark as delivered button to complete the transaction and receive your security deposit back instantly.

Attention

It is crucial to return to Particl Desktop once you receive your order and mark it as complete. Without it, you won’t recover your security deposit.

Hint

In the Filter by status section, you can check SHIPPING to only see orders that have been shipped by sellers but haven’t arrived your way yet.

Contact a Seller

Resolve Order Issues

If you encounter an issue during your order or want to contact your seller, you can use the marketplace’s dedicated messaging system. Messages are sent through the SecureMessaging P2P network (SMSG). All direct messages are end-to-end encrypted and anonymous by default.

  1. Open Market -> PURCHASES -> Orders and find the order you have an issue with.

  2. Open up the order’s chat function and send a message to the seller.

Ask a Question Before Buying

Each listing has a public chat section where you can leave questions for the seller to respond to. Questions and answers published in the chat section of listings are public and visible to everyone else.

Attention

Do not include any personal information in the public chat of a listing. What you write here is visible to everyone on the network.

  1. Open Market -> BROWSE and click on the listing you have a question about to open up its modal.

  2. Click on the CHAT tab to open up the listing’s public chat section.

  3. Accept Particl Desktop’s warning message — do NOT type any sensitive information in the public chat.

  4. Type your question and click Send button.

See also