I am super excited to see this initiative... and especially about the idea of this developing into a fully integrated and "turbo charged" version of something like PeerHub! Resteemed.

As briefly mentioned, having an actual peer-to-peer marketplace establishes a solid "economic reason" for Steem (the currency) to exist, which creates that all-important marketing thing called "differentiation," as we will undoubtedly be swimming in an ever larger group of alt coins. It'll enable us to look people straight in the eye and have a good and valid answer when asked "So what makes Steem any different from Blahcoin, Burpcoin and Yaddacoin?" We'll HAVE something none of them have... and I believe that is what's going to help Steemit become a top-5 cryptocurrency.

@steemshop (along with SteemGigs) will really help.

A couple of months ago I started outlining some of the details on a Steemit marketplace... basically "cherry picking" the best features of eBay (back when it was a cool place for collectors and artists), Etsy and Craigslist. Yes, there are lots of inherent challenges in creating such a venue... but the good news is that the underlying "bones" have already been tried and road tested by other organizations for some 20 years... we can learn from their developments.