Dark (D4RK) is a blockchain-based community-driven project that allows users to trade and exchange cryptocurrency in a secure marketplace. The project aims to solve the problem of data privacy and third-party involvement in e-commerce by using blockchain technology. Initially, Dark ran on Shadowcash, a decentralized cryptocurrency that enables near-instant, untraceable, unlinkable, and trustless transactions. Later, the community decided and forked Shadowcash to create permanent solutions for the modern blockchain projects that need speed, security, cross-chain communication, and other development frameworks. Finally, the community decided to run the project on Polkadot, which offers open-source pallets, protection of user’s data, and decentralization.

According to its whitepaper, the project uses proof of concept (PoC) for fast P2P e-commerce decentralized apps (Dapps) where users can create a profile, customize it, and add products that users wish to purchase. The proof of concept (PoC) is a process that determines whether the project is feasible for real-world situations. Dark also provides an automated escrow system. An escrow system means when a third party holds an asset or funds before transferring between the two parties. PoC acts as the automated escrow agent in the project to perform the action rather than third-party involvement. Also, the project uses cryptography for making payments and easy account and key management in a web browser. Further, the project can interact with other blockchains like Kusama. Kusama is another scalable blockchain that functions like Polkadot and interacts across multiple blockchain applications. 

D4RK is the native token of the Dark platform and follows mirror ERC-20 token standards. Here, mirror refers to a DeFi protocol that can interact with other decentralized applications across multiple blockchains. The users can use D4RK to pay fees within the platform and engage in staking D4RK tokens. Moreover, D4RK holders can become part of the governance system. As a community member of the governance, holders can initiate proposals and vote on directions to follow, developments, or improvements to fund with the community treasury. Governance members can also vote on the parameters to adjust escrows and awareness campaigns to fund the project.

The Dark was developed in September 2018. The total supply of the Dark project is 29,492,882 D4RK.