I have zero trust in anything decentralized in relation to money. Would definitely like a central authority to complain to when someone scams me. Implementing it like lemmy would make it impossible to effectively ban scammers and would also make searching for stuff annoying as hell. I already hate how annoying it is to search for things on different instances for this stuff.

Wouldn't that just be ebay? Or ebay before they began expanding? In most instances nowadays you can buy direct from manufacturer as well, and that's becoming more common as time passes and companies invest in their own distribution infrastructure

I don't know man, I think that the realm of money and commerce does need some higher regulation, at least for security. But I don't know, maybe my brain is still too primitive to get something like that. I would first try social networks and then see if it can be done with money and physical goods.

I tried this as a startup (sort of) years ago. A privacy-friendly alternative to Amazon with an aim to bolster small, local businesses. Built the entire thing...nobody was on board. 3 months of development! Wasted!

Oh you mean something like online shopping in general?

So something like https://github.com/OpenBazaar ! Though it looks like they are moving forward with OpenBazaar 3.0.

I'm a bit iffy on the idea, but not strictly opposed to it. How would scammers, returns, payment issues, etc be handled without a strong central authority?

Seems like a smaller, weaker local administration might not be able to handle such.

Legitimate curiosity on my end. I'm open to interpretation and suggestions.

I'm new to this federalized system in terms of social networks. It's been interesting so far.

Or Pinterest / Etsy

wouldn't that be mostly an insurance company? The 2 main things that Amazon delivers are fast delivery and hassle free service. ordered? At your doorstep in a day. not happy? send it back, no worries broken after 2 years? Send it back, no worries

I can't see that delivered decentralised without a massive insurance or CoC behind it. But if: Would be awesome

What exactly do you mean by that? Like different servers?