Business

Preparing for Transition

J.G. Whitley
July 12, 2022

TL:DR

Shopify Beta and Lightning Network integration are on pace for the end of July.  
Common Rewards have ceased; to ensure partners get the best, and because KYC failed.
We're still building the future of delivery analytics, but sales efforts will focus on surveys.
We are still engaged with exchanges in regards to listing an ERC-20 based PORT.
We're engaging exchanges and Web3 companies with our service: Surveys-for-sats.

Transition Time!

In preparation for the Beta launch of our Shopify plugin, PackagePortal is entering a transitional phase that calls for significant changes to how our crediting system has operated historically. This new phase signals the end of the open-ended issuance of rewards, as we transition to offering exclusivity to clients and partners. The reasoning is multifaceted, but primarily boils down to two leading goals: partner privileges and PORT protection.

Quick Recap

During the 18 month period that scan rewards have been live, anybody, anywhere has been able to download the app and earn rewards by participating; as long as they didn't live in a country where the app was restricted. Most of those rewards came in the form of delivery confirmations early on, and now more recently they've come via survey completions.

How its Gone So Far

We learned pretty quickly last year that crypto reward platforms are heavily targeted by coordinated looters and fraudsters, and PackagePortal was no exception. To protect the integrity of PORT and stop bad actors from earning rewards, we instituted a KYC policy, enlisting a leading 3rd party service provider for handling and processing KYC documents and confirming user authenticity.

To our surprise, the recent increase in XPORT (10) rewards for surveys, revealed that the 3rd party's software had been impotent in preventing fraud, recently allowing thousands of falsified KYC documents to be approved. In essence, their KYC service is broken and being abused, and bad actors have still been able to siphon XPORT rewards. Because of this exploit we can't trust the results of KYC to prevent bad actors from abusing the system.

What's Next?

Since scammers continue to find ways to sidestep market leading KYC software, PORT has been left vulnerable. There's little doubt that the stolen rewards have played a role in the market decline of PORT, as scammers are still able to earn and sell without recourse. So we have decided to pause rewards as they exist in order to protect the ecosystem.

However, this is not merely a reactive measure, but also a proactive step in the right direction, as we had planned from the beginning to eventually migrate over to exclusive rewards rights for clients and their customers. So, as we near the launch of the Shopify Beta and Lightning integration, in conjunction with the discovery of this service failure, we are convinced that now is the time to cease existing rewards and begin that transition to privatized access. Please note that PORT staking still works as it always has, no change there. But new scan and survey rewards have ended.

What to Expect

As of now, freely available surveys and delivery confirmations as they have existed will no longer accrue rewards. Instead, rewards will be preserved, and exclusively offered to Members, consisting of enrolled Shopify Stores and other subscribers, with their respective users. We are sorry we couldn't provide any warnings, but we could not create an opportunity for bad actors to coordinate a final run on rewards.

We know that earning is fun and this will be disappointing to those using the app responsibly, but this is the evolutionary step needed to strengthen our platform overall. As you may well know, we are also transitioning technologically, by readying features that will offer rewards as Bitcoin and Ethereum based tokens. This means an even higher incentive for bad actors to pursue us, which calls for even greater levels of vigilance, so that we are able to maintain the veracity of the ecosystem.

What Else?

Surveys-for-Sats extends the value of PackagePortal outside the walls of delivery and e-commerce, paving the way for any company in any industry to incentivize feedback from their various user types. Since surveys are customizable, they are not bound to the E-Commerce industry alone like delivery confirmations are. So we're now actively engaging Web3 companies like exchanges, news desks, and analytics platforms, to offer them our surveys-for-sats API.

Whether an NFT marketplaces polling collectors, or metaverse projects looking for visitor data, or exchanges adding trader insights to their marketing/listing research, PackagePortal's Lightning Network integration will allow any of them to offer non-custodial Bitcoin rewards to their crypto savvy users. What's more, is that all of it can happen right in your web browser. We will update the community soon regarding the Shopify Beta launch, and participating partner(s). Stay tuned!

J.G. Whitley
Hi, I'm JG, one of the founders of PackagePortal.

Our latest news

Discover our latest articles, feature releases, and more!

Get your Shopify Store on the Beta list!

Whitelist My Store!