What Is INS?

It may come as a surprise to many, but the online grocery market is projected to grow from US$98 billion in 2015 to a staggering $290 billion by 2020. However, even with all of that growth potential, this market is severely hampered by issues related to retail monopolization and ineffective promotion.

The INS ecosystem is a global decentralized marketplace that is designed to facilitate grocery shopping in a highly streamlined fashion. It connects users directly with manufacturers and growers, thereby moderating the price of produce. Additionally, INS allows sellers to save on direct promotions since it eliminates the need for vendors and supermarkets— thereby allowing for additional savings for both buyers and sellers.

Moreover, participating sellers and manufacturers have a diverse range of options from which to choose when using INS. These include:

• Publishing a list of items for sale
• Carrying out promotional campaigns to attract more customers
• Launching loyalty programs
• Receiving feedback from consumers

The ecosystem is currently under construction, and it is being made in such a way that it will be scalable in order to accommodate future growth. Also, through the use of a decentralized ledger, INS will offer benefits such as long-term stability and sustainability.  

Overview of INS

• Tackles problems related to supply chain inefficiencies by creating a transparent, inclusive platform
• Creates a direct communication channel between manufacturers and buyers
• Redefines the power structure and gives the consumer a bigger say in spending matters
• Allows for savings of up to 30% on all purchases

Key Features

To start off with, the INS ecosystem makes use of a decentralized shopping module that allows for quality groceries to be distributed and sold at prices that are lower than those offered by supermarkets.

The buying process is extremely simple, as the platform comes with an intuitive UI that allows purchases to be made with the simple click of a button. Not only that, INS also provides its users with unlimited access to a plethora of suppliers, thereby delivering a good choice selection as well as healthy market competition.

            Top: The Manufacturer’s Web Interface | Bottom: The Consumer Web Platform

As for the marketing side of things, real-time promotional campaigns can be relayed to customers through the use of this system. This results in better savings for buyers as well as increased customer satisfaction.

All internal transactions are facilitated through the use of specialized smart contracts. Plus, the ecosystem makes use of a currency called the INS token, which is required in order to make grocery payments.

Lastly, there is also an incentive program that participants can utilize. It provides users with INS tokens every time they make a purchase. These coins can later be redeemed for either digital items or other shopping discounts.

How INS works

The INS ecosystem consists of four central components:

• The Marketplace: this is the visual hub where listed products can be viewed and added to an online shopping cart.
• Consumers: these are the people that are looking to buy groceries and similar goods.
• Sellers: these are the farmers and growers who would like to sell their fresh produce.
• Fulfillment Operators: these individuals run operation centers, work behind the scenes, facilitate deliveries, etc.

Overview of the platform (courtesy of the official whitepaper)

Also, in order to participate and become a member of the INS ecosystem, users are required to sign up for the platform. The registration process involves the creation of both a customized profile as well as a digital wallet. This wallet will be used to store native INS tokens as well as to secure all of the data that is recorded on the decentralized ledger.

Other key aspects of INS include:

• Execution of fair and secure transactions in a timely manner
• Deployment of smart contracts that are required to fulfill order payments
• Fulfillment of all orders by distributing work between center workers and couriers in an organized fashion
• Creation of marketing campaigns to garner additional traction within shopping communities across the globe.

About INS

INS Ecosystem Limited is a BVI company that is responsible for the creation of open-source cryptographic technologies that allow for smoother operations within the INS platform.

The core people behind the project include Peter Fedechenkov and Dmitry Zhulin, both of whom are the founders and marketing brains behind INS. Peter has been in the retail and tech domain for more than 10 years, and he has previously worked with high-profile companies such as Goldman Sachs and IBM. He holds a degree from Harvard Business School and teaches regularly at the Stockholm School of Economics.

For his part, Dmitry describes himself as a “venture capitalist and private equity expert” whose primary focus lies in retail markets and e-commerce. He has previously been associated with companies like:

• VTB Capital Private Equity
• Rothschild
• PwC

He holds a graduate degree from the University of London, as well as a PhD in finance.

Lastly, Dmitry Khovratovich is a blockchain and smart contract expert who serves as the core back end dev for the company. He is widely regarded to be one of the top cryptographers in the world, and has over 2,000 citations to his name. Dmitry is also the designer of technologies such as:

• Argon2
• Equihash

Token Performance History

Since the currency has only been in the market for a little over a month, it can be difficult to assess its future potential.

INS token lifetime performance chart (courtesy of Coinmarketcap)

However, upon its launch, a single INS token was priced at US$4.93. The currency touched its peak value on the 15th of January when the price of one INS scaled up to an impressive US$11.96. Since then, the price has dipped substantially and currently stands at US$2.42 (as of the 22nd of February).

Final thoughts

With the blockchain being implemented in various spheres of our daily lives, it will be exciting to see whether INS manages to live up to the hype it has generated across the globe. Due to its wide array of features, it certainly promises to reshape the online grocery market.

If you’d like to start investing in this venture, INS trading pairs are currently being offered on Binance, KuCoin, and elsewhere.