Please enter CoinGecko Free Api Key to get this plugin works.

What is Smartlink – Everything You Need to Know

In this article we will take you through everything you need to know about Smartlink and its use cases

Jump to
Short on time? Here's a summary

Smartlink is a decentralized escrow platform that has been booming in recent months. Smartlink offers hundreds of helpful features including a cryptocurrency marketplace. Smartlink is built on the Tezos blockchain for ultimate security. Smartlink is helping to resolve a number of worldwide problems including global fraud, the high cost of international transactions, and the decrease of security on Ethereum. Smartlink’s goal is to eliminate the need for any kind of trust during commercial transactions by replacing it with smart contracts.

Using cryptocurrencies and decentralised escrow platforms have become a more effective way to trade tokens and to gain rewards. Participating in decentralised escrow platforms does require an understanding of what you’re getting involved in as a trader and investor, so this article will explain exactly what Smartlink is, the problems that it can solve, where to buy to the tokens and why Smartlink is the best option for you.

What is Smartlink?

Smartlink is a decentralised escrow platform that is designed for Web 3.0, with the purpose of being of delivering a “cutting edge alternative to traditional escrow services by leveraging blockchain technology.” By utilising a decentralised service, Smartlink (where the tokens are known by the acronym SMAK), are able to use a direct payments interface.  This allows you to decide where your rewards will go if you decide to make your payments into a separate crypto wallet so that you can invest elsewhere.

Smartlink also incorporates a cryptocurrency marketplace, meaning that, as soon as you have purchased your SMAK, you are able to choose directly where you invest your SMAK and where your rewards will go. Smartlink is built on the Tezos blockchain, which is an ever evolving blockchain eco system that includes the opportunity for yield farming, and is built on this because of the security standards and the formal verification that the Tezos network provides (which, in turn, provides peace of mind for those using SMAK that you are investing in an ethical manner.)

Both Smartlink and Tezos are continuously evolving, meaning that the opportunities for investment, yield farming and market trading are increasing by the day.

What is SMAK used for?

SMAK, the Smartlink utility token, is used for gathering escrow rewards, investing in staking programs and participating in escrow reward APR (such as Plenty DeFi), growth proposals and revenue strategy. You can use platforms, such as Plenty DeFi or your crypto wallet, to trade your Tezos for SMAK – this article will show you how to do that later on.

Problems That Smartlink Solves

There are a considerable number of problems that using a system like Smartlink solves and avoids, particularly during the difficulties that the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown our way.

Global Fraud

Global fraud has increased significantly over the last eighteen months, particularly as many people are having to work from home during this pandemic and are more susceptible to fraud. Smartlink themselves have reported that 47% of businesses that responded to a crime study reported being the victims of fraud, resulting in losses of approximately $42 billion. The proportion of those losses was calculated as being 35% on customer fraud, 34% on cybercrime itself and 31% on asset embezzlement. With this being such a big issue, Smartlink addresses this by utilising what it calls smart contracts (contracts which are met with predetermined conditions) on the Tezos blockchain, which in turn applies and implements better control during transactions. This type of smart contract between buyers and sellers is self-executed, meaning that funds are released upon meeting the terms of the predetermined contract.

High Cost of International Transactions

Smartlink have reported that B2B (business to business) transactions, when completed on an international platform, are set to reach $35 trillion by 2022. Because of this continual and perpetual growth in international B2B transactions, customers are searching for new and more affordable B2B methods, which is where a platform like Smartlink can come in. Whilst platforms such as PayPal and Stripe charge up to and including 4.4% (not including fixed fees) for transactions, Smartlink only charges between 0 and 1% of a fee for all transactions (which can be encompass various cryptocurrencies). In addition to lower transaction fees, the transaction time on Smartlink is also significantly quicker (with deals and transactions taking less than five minutes) than platforms such as PayPal (where trans actions can involve a settlement period of up to four business days.) It is little wonder that businesses are turning to platforms such as Smartlink to complete their deals.

The Growing Cost and Decrease of Security on Ethereum – why Smartlink uses Tezos

Smartlink have identified that blockchain technology is redefining and revolutionising the way in which operations and transactions are completed over a variety of industries, particularly in the financial and business sectors. Ethereum is known to be on the most prominent blockchain networks available but it does come with its drawbacks, with rising gas fees and slow transaction confirmation rates being notable ones. For that reason, Smartlink utilises Tezos. Tezos provides high security (this links to formal verification required for smart contracts), an ideal framework and infrastructure for scalable applications, low gas fees and quick confirmation rates (as highlighted in the previous section).

Solution: Trust as a Service

Smartlink solves all of the above problems by providing an ecosystem and an environment of services that essentially eliminate the need for trust during a commercial transaction (the smart contracts that were referred to earlier.) It achieves this by creating a suite of decentralised (in this context meaning devolved or regionalised) services which are built on the Tezos platform. These can include, but are not limited to (as both platforms are continuing to evolve on a daily basis):

  • Smartlink Escrow Service: A decentralised escrow service for C2C (country to country services), B2C (business to consumer), and B2B to complete their transactions,
  • Smartlink Payment Processing: A decentralised payment portal that controls current and upcoming digital currencies for instant payment settlements,
  • Smartlink Milestone Management: A smart milestone management and administration service that functions as a part of the escrow service.
  • Smartlink Marketplace: A decentralised marketplace and virtual market arena where products and services can be listed for retail customers and business clients to trade or lend to.

Smartlink aims at enterprises, initiatives and individuals engaged in virtually any type of transaction. Qualified arbitrators and negotiators are used to settle any disputes that can occur on the network.

What this all means

To place this into layman’s terms of a sort, this escrow and guarantee service that Smartlink provides allows businesses to trade with or enter into an agreement with each other without having to trust one another and also allows them to save costs on traditional and legal contract writing services. This is particularly useful for start up businesses that have little equity or finance to spend on law firms constructing these. Smartlink also offers an automatic settlement on payments, which is also a useful feature for fledgling businesses.

Smartlink have identified that the crypto community can face limited support in terms of a payment method for regular transactions and have solved this by constructing its own token; the SMAK token. Because of its utilisation of the web 3.0 function, Smartlink is able to provide a cryptocurrency payment gateway that enables crypto transactions which can take place on virtual marketplaces, eCommerce platforms and apps.

Use Cases

Smartlink’s purpose is to establish and determine an escrow payment process that eradicates the limitations that are currently placed on crypto exchanges and, as well as being suitable for business exchanges, it can be used for individual transactions as well.

Individual Transactions

Individual transactions can include purchases of digital art and in-app purchases by consumers and, because of the additional safety of the escrow service that Smartlink provides, the costs and overall efficiency of the service are improved greatly.

Business Transactions

Because Smartlink is built upon the Tezos blockchain, it is able to market itself towards new entrepreneurs and provide safety and security for all users and assets associated with those users. The structure that Tezos provides enables all users to use the platform safely whilst eliminating the needs for a middle man. This means that projects and enterprises regarding domain names, fundraising, freelancing and payroll can thrive.

Where to Buy SMAK

In order to purchase SMAK, you first need to purchase Tezos. Tezos can be purchased using crypto currency exchange sites such as the following (but not limited to):

The important thing to note about signing up to these crypto currency exchange sites is that identity verification is required, which can take up ten working days. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you have all kinds of identification prepared (such as your passport, driving licence and proof of address.)

SMAK Token Economics and What That Means

SMAK tokens are essentially used for escrow fee exemption (Smartlink waive the 1% processing fee for transactions completed when using the SMAK token exclusively – this means that the only fees that apply are Tezos fees), escrow rewards (where buyers receive 20% rewards for staking SMAK during a transaction period), SMAK staking (this is a function where users are rewarded for using and locking their SMAK on the platform without having to start a transaction) and on-chain power and governance (this is where Smartlink have stated their intention to develop a regulation for its own platform. This means that Smartlink community members and user will need SMAK token to take part in platform decisions, but will always have a say in the way in which Smartlink goes about its ethos and ethical guidelines.) All of these SMAK token economics are designed to incentivise members and users to keep investing their SMAK tokens and to feel as though they are a part of the business model.

In this democratic process that Smartlink is devising, they have also announced plans to use a Ticket variable for specific function. Smartlink will generate a smart contract of its own and create tickets for SMAK token holders, whereby each ticket contains a value, an amount and the ticket holder’s address. This will require a multi-signature authentication, as the purpose of these tickets will be very important and valuable to the Smartlink and SMAK process. This smart contract can only be designated to one ticket holder, but they will be distributed evenly across SMAK token holders for the purposes of voting on each proposal that is produced and conceived and the initiative is to achieve a “consensus through a majoritarian mechanism.”

Conclusion

To conclude, there are many reasons why you, as a crypto investor, should use Smartlink as your platform. The incorporation of the Tezos model and the ability to invest and take part in the ethos and ethical model that Smartlink provides is incredibly important. Proposals can be sent to a vote and everyone who possesses a SMAK token has the facility to vote and partake in a democratic process. Smartlink offers a transparency in its services to users and businesses, which means that all members of the Smartlink community are fully clued up in its business model, what they’re getting in return and what they’re contributing to. 

Overall, we hope this article has been helpful and that you now understand everything you should know about Smartlink including its features, benefits and much more!

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram