Archives for October 2016

OpenBazaar Ecosystem: Bitcoin Not Bombs

October 31, 2016 by OB1 Team

In these posts we take a look at some unique members of the OpenBazaar ecosystem. Today our featured shop is Bitcoin Not Bombs, another of our great community members that has been active from day 1! Read their story below and shop Bitcoin Not Bombs on OpenBazaar.

Just want to browse? Check them out on Duosearch and at BitcoinNotBombs.com

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My background is in media production but I don’t get to do much of that these days. In 2008 I became interested in economics and caught the silver bug and alternative currencies became a hobby of mine. When I first heard about Bitcoin in 2011 I was immediately intrigued. In 2012 I started selling silver dime cards on Bitmit.net and began working with Davi Barker on creating more products we could sell. In 2013 Davi and I took the Bitcoin Not Bombs product line to the first US Bitcoin conference in San Jose, we were blown away by the response. We knew this would be a great niche market but at that one event we sold out of almost everything we had. Back then people were buying products for bitcoin just to show support for the currency. I see a lot of that same excitement with OpenBazaar today.

The Bitcoin Not Bombs logo has been printed on t-shirts, hoodies, lapel pins, patches, stickers, shot glasses and other small items over the last few years. We have also collaborated on a few large art projects like the world’s first coin operated voting machine. The brand and logo means different things to different people and we like it that way. These days we have reduced our inventory to only the small items sold on OpenBazaar and Purse.io. Many of Davi’s t-shirt designs can be found at store.bitcoin.com and a lot of our work goes to supporting antiwar efforts.

Why are you selling your product on OpenBazaar?

Because it matters, though I’m somewhat disappointed that less than 300 vendors are still actively selling items on the network. I know thousands more have downloaded the client and set up stores but lost interest. In the summer of ‘15 one of the OB developers asked us if we could list our small low risk items when the software became available. I was ready with our first listing on day one, a lapel pin that supports the FreeRoss.org campaign. In some ways OpenBazaar is the conclusion of the Silk Road experiment, I wanted people to see that connection and offer this lapel pin from the beginning.

How has your experience been with OpenBazaar so far?

Great! Things where buggy in the beginning but I was happy to ride that out, I saw the development team pushing updates constantly so I knew it would get better fast. Things run very smooth now and I still get a few orders a month, I suspect everyone will see a second wave of orders once version 2.0 is available.

How familiar are you with Bitcoin?

Fairly familiar, I’m not a programmer or computer expert but I have read a lot of technical information on how Bitcoin works. One reason I stuck with it was that I knew it would only be a few years before the wallets became extremely easy to use. At this point you don’t need to know how Bitcoin works under the hood to use it, but a better understanding of the technology will lead to more adoption.

What changes would you like to see to OpenBazaar to make it more useful for you?

Not having a way to combined shipping cost on orders is my biggest complaint, but I have seen that a better shopping cart system will become available in version 2.0 along with variable data like size and color.

Does your store have any special promotions?

For Bitcoin Black Friday we will offer free US shipping and a free gift for international orders.

Weekly Development Update: October 28, 2016

October 28, 2016 by OB1 Team

Special Event

Our first community organized promotional event on OpenBazaar is going on now! Check out the tag #AutumnSale on Duosearch through the end of October to browse autumn-inspired items and other great discounts and offers.

And now for your regularly scheduled development updates…

Current version

Front End

Links for websites in the about section of the User Page were truncated to improve their appearance (Thanks to our contributor, Reed Rosenbluth).
In the server configuration modal, clicking enter will save a new or edited configuration (Thanks to our contributor, Amelia Goodman)
Electron was updated to fix an Electron bug that caused a JavaScript error.

Back End

Code was added to solve an issue with a port that could be blocked in some edge cases.

2.0

Front End

Added Photo Gallery / Photo Zoom to the 2.0 listing detail overlay
Cleaned up the 2.0 Checkout Process
Cleaned up the 2.0 Wallet designs
Progress continues on listing editing
Progress continues on avatar and header image uploading in Settings

Back End

Continuing to make progress on crawler development
Continuing to make progress on the v2 store page–preliminary version of it is in peer review

Other Projects

Deploy

A few bug fixes
Added node location selection to design–still to be pushed live

OpenBazaar Ecosystem: Cyberfunks Alliance – Bitcoin Awakens

October 24, 2016 by OB1 Team

In these posts we take a look at some unique members of the OpenBazaar ecosystem. Today our featured shop is Cyberfunks Alliance‘s event in Austin, TX called Bitcoin Awakens. This unique event is designed to help new users get oriented to acquiring and using Bitcoin through a fun and interactive game. You can find tickets to the event on OpenBazaar and learn more about their philanthropic mission by reading on!

Tell us a bit about yourself?

https://youtu.be/lsm_SHe1Qb0
I am Fred Constantinesco and my co-founder, Rey Poullard, and I started the Cyberfunks Alliance and our aim is to create a broadly-based, widely-accessible, deeply-entrenched network of Urban, tech-savvy Bitcoin enthusiasts in Austin, TX!

At Cyberfunks, we directly address the pain points for user adoption and appeal, such as user experience, price volatility, security, and use cases in the local community. Most Bitcoin conferences spend more time giving presentations and targeting those already in the bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem.

Real engagement. Real use. Real value. An event where everyone leaves Bitcoin literate. Reframing Bitcoin as an immersive adventure will create the peak experiences necessary to shorten the adoption curve from early adopters to the early majority.

What do you make or sell?

We sell tickets to our event Bitcoin Awakens and provide a way for our partner, the Central Texas Food Bank, to accept donations to fight hunger in over 21 counties in Texas.

“Bitcoin Awakens” Event Tickets on OpenBazaar
Our inaugural event, Bitcoin Awakens, on Sunday, November 6th, 2016, 8AM – 8PM, at our headquarters, Urban Co-Lab in Austin, TX. Bitcoin literacy meets fun-filled adventures as players take center stage in a flood of competition, mystery, & camaraderie—based on scenarios from the Star Wars Universe.

Teams of three (3) will solve up to 15 challenges throughout the city of Austin, TX to reveal the coordinates of a secret location for a victory party in honor of the mysterious creator of the Bitcoin protocol.

Selling tickets for crypto events is a no-brainer because the OpenBazaar audience spans worldwide. Eventbrite, Meetup, and other event websites only reach a portion of the world’s population. With OpenBazaar, we sell tickets internationally to anyone, anywhere.

Donations to the Central Texas Food Bank
We are introducing a new way for the community to support one of our partners, the Central Texas Food Bank, by donating bitcoin through our OpenBazaar store. Bitcoin provides a means to make donations transparent, and through OpenBazaar, we are reaching people worldwide.

To make donations transparent, we use the Food Bank’s bitcoin address (1ARxKuBArW8XzJQNGoRC5RZBVqhb4Tx5yx) found on centraltexasfoodbank.org/bitcoin, and you can write off any donation made to the the Food Bank for tax purposes (optional, as anonymous donations are more than welcome!!!).

Why are you selling your product on OpenBazaar?

The idea came to me after spending an absurd amount of time helping my mom donate to an organization. The amount of personal details and time required needed to make a simple donation was burdensome and unnecessary. The current donation model bombards people by stealing their time and attention, which is priceless, by inviting counterparty risk and friction to philanthropic campaigns, which removes a lot of incentive for people to give.

OpenBazaar enables “zero-marginal-cost charities” with no interference with government regulation. It’s free to download and use. It’s permissionless, borderless, and available to anyone with a computer and internet connection. OpenBazaar removes many barriers that otherwise exist in banking and philanthropy.

OpenBazaar donations can bring a lot of awareness to causes that need assistance while sending a message to the world about the viability of decentralized marketplace and microdonations. More stories about the “good” a decentralized application can do and the amount of people we can empower are the stories we plan to bring to the entire crypto ecosystem.

How has your experience been with OpenBazaar so far?

When I heard about OpenBazaar before the beta release, all I knew is I wanted to be involved.

I joined the beta on day one and opened a luxury watch store with a friend from high school called Justin Time. I am not a watch guy, but my buddy, who the director of timepieces at a well-respected diamond company in Dallas, TX, has years of experience in the industry. We decided to partner, and before I knew it, I was spending all my time learning about OpenBazaar.

It has been exciting to see OpenBazaar stores, listings, and community grow. The OpenBazaar Slack channel is an incredible resource for anyone to learn how to use OpenBazaar, regardless of eCommerce or technical experience.

The OB1 crew work like robots and are extremely responsive to questions. Also, OB1 CEO, Brian Hoffman, was the first to donate to the Food Bank while newly hired OB1 developer, Tyler Smith, provides the server to host our store. It truly is a community that all projects in this space can learn from.

How familiar are you with Bitcoin?

We aren’t Satoshi, but we live Bitcoin daily. No movies or T.V. series provides the amount of comedy, drama (forks), tragedy (hacks), or overall entertainment that the Bitcoin community does.

We teach Bitcoin literacy through Bitcoin Awakens and host weekly Bitcoin Meetups every Monday in Austin, TX.

You don’t need to know everything about Bitcoin & blockchain technologies and there there are plenty of ways to familiarize yourself with the concepts and theory of it. But, we want to teach people how to take advantage of Bitcoin and show them how to apply it in their own lives. We want them to experience Bitcoin and give them the knowledge and power to build a better life for themselves and their family.

What changes would you like to see to OpenBazaar to make it more useful for you?

Most of the changes I look forward to will be implemented in version 2.0 (IPFS, Auctions, Inventory Management, statistics, etc.).

However, I do have some suggestions:

Remove the minimum listing price. This would enable micro-transactions and potentially, increase donations to charitable causes. With no minimum price, anyone would be able to list free items they need to get rid of or offer up volunteer opportunities.
Store Templates and the ability to save drafts of store listings.
Pre-schedule the date for listings to be posted.
More third party integrations.

The Cyberfunks Alliance is onboarding potential customers and you can take advantage of the relationship with the customer right from the start. OB Stores interested in donating in-kind any Bitcoin novelty/paraphernalia, hosting services, crypto art, hardware wallets, etc., or offer discounts should reach out to us on our Slack.

Join us as we co-create the inroads for urban, tech-savvy smartphone users to leapfrog inefficient economic infrastructures and reduce dependency upon legacy financial systems in a way that is epic, lucrative and fun.

Join the conversation to empower yourself and others at the Cyberfunks Slack, www.cyberfunks.org.

Weekly Development Update: October 21, 2016

October 21, 2016 by OB1 Team

This last week was spent finalizing, and publishing, the 1.1.8 release and the new OB1 Deploy service. Those links have more details. Enjoy your Friday!

OpenBazaar 1.1.8 Released; New Features Added

October 20, 2016 by OB1 Team

Today we’ve released version 1.1.8, the first release in a few months. This release adds several new features for vendors as well as a significant amount of bug fixes and code improvements. You can download this new version on the openbazaar.org page.

We’ve also created an installer which only contains the client for users who have a server hosted remotely (such as a VPS) and don’t need a local server installation. If you want to use the client-only installer, visit the Download page and choose the “Client Only” installer for your operating system.

Features

Pinned listings

Vendors can now choose certain listings they want highlighted in their stores. When creating a listing, or editing an existing listing, vendors can select “Pinned” if they want that listing to be displayed to buyers at the top of their storefront. There is no limit to how many listings may be Pinned, all Pinned listings will be shown before un-Pinned listings.

Hidden listings

Vendors can now create Hidden listings. When creating a listing, or edit an existing listing, vendors can select “Hidden” if they don’t want visitors to their store to see that listing. The vendor can still see it, though it will be faded out to indicate it is hidden. However, these listings can still be visited with the listing address, allowing vendors to create private listings that are only visible to people they give the listing address. This feature allows vendors to have more control over who can access their listings, and when.

(Note that the client will not display listings with a “hidden” flag to people using the client, but third parties crawling nodes can still see the listings).

Maximum Quantity

Vendors can now set a maximum quantity on their listings, which prevents a buyer from purchasing more than the number of items they specify in one order. This gives vendors a simple inventory management system. If the Max Quantity is set to zero, the item is still visible, but cannot be purchased.

Improvements

Addresses

We’ve made the following improvements to addresses:

The first address in the Addresses tab of Settings is now marked as the Default Address.
Addresses in the Addresses tab of Settings can now be reordered by dragging.
Addresses are now more flexible. Only the name and country are required, and a new contact method field has been added.
The appearance of very long addresses in the purchase flow has been improved.

Images

We’ve made the following improvements to images:

The Avatar in the Page tab of Settings can now be rotated with rotation buttons.
The buyer and seller avatar pictures now appear on the close dispute form for moderators.
When images are uploaded to listings, if the image has an orientation in its EXIF data (for example, if it was taken on a phone in landscape mode), the image will automatically be rotated to match the orientation.

Shipping

We’ve made the following improvements to shipping:

The list of shippable countries in the address panel of the purchase modal has been removed, it was made obsolete by the Shipping tab in the listing page.
The “ships to” field in the edit listing screen now has a clear all button.
Listings have a “Ships From” field now, so each listing can have a different shipping origin. It defaults to the Country value set in Settings/General.

Miscellaneous

Various optimizations have been made to the following, follower, and store tabs in the User Page, and to the Discover view, which should speed up rendering and reduce the strain on the Chromium browser.
The last view is now saved per-node. This means if you connect the client to a different node, the last view saved for that node will be loaded, instead of trying to load the view the current node was on.
Listings in the Store tab are now ordered by most recently saved.
Tags have a maximum length of 40 characters. Old longer tags are truncated at 90px wide.
Chat messages are never shown for blocked GUIDs.
The language for NSFW was updated to “Adult or Offensive Content” from “18+ (Adult Content)” since the definition of adult is not 18 in all countries, which caused confusion.

Bug fixes

This release has a significant number of bug fixes. For the full list, check out the release notes.

Statistics

15 commits made in the master branch and six issues closed on the server repository.

123 commits made in the master branch and thirty-four issues closed on the client repository.

The 1.1.7 installers were downloaded more than 37,000 times since release in late June.

OpenBazaar at Scaling Bitcoin Conference in Milan

October 19, 2016 by Chris Pacia

by Chris Pacia

This month I had the opportunity to attend the third Scaling Bitcoin conference in Milan. My purpose for going was to stay on top of the latest developments in Bitcoin and keep an eye out for collaboration opportunities for OpenBazaar and OB1 related projects. Now that I’m back, I can give a review of sorts and talk about some of the cool ideas that were proposed and discussed.

Firstly, the Scaling Bitcoin conferences seems to be evolving away from being exclusively about scaling and to a more general technical conference where bleeding edge ideas are presented. There were still a good number of presentations that were scaling-related, of course, but also a good mix of other ideas to improve Bitcoin. All of the presentations were of high quality, but I’ll comment on a few standouts.

MimbleWimble

The darling of the conference in my opinion, mimblewimble, was dropped on the internet by an anonymous mailing list poster as picked up by Andrew Poelstra and others. The basic idea is to use the same technology behind confidential transactions to turn blocks into a sort of big coinjoin transaction. Blockchain sleuths would not be able to use the transaction history to figure out who paid whom the way they can do today. A side benefit of this format is that much of the data in the blocks can be dropped allowing the blockchain to be compressed to a very small size.

Possibly one downside is that transactions still need to be broadcasted to each node, meaning there is still an opportunity for active attackers to record all transactions and link transactions together. This attack could possibly be foiled by grouping transaction together before broadcasting.

Most attendees I talked to about mimblewimble were very hot on it, but were holding back their enthusiasm until it could be demonstrated that it could scale (for example if they can make the lightning network work on it).

TumbleBit

I spent a good deal of time talking to Ethan Heilman who presented TumbleBit ― an anonymous coin mixer/payment hub. Whereas previous tumblers required users to trust the person running the tumbler to not keep logs which could de-anonymize users, TumbleBit makes that impossible through the clever use of cryptography. In addition to unlinkability, payments made through the tumbler would largely happen off chain.

Over the years there has been some talk about building these type mixing protocol directly into wallets to encourage their use, improving fungibility and increasing the anonymity set, but we’ve seen little movement in that regard. Maybe going forward there will be an opportunity to collaborate and get TumbleBit–or something like it–into OpenBazaar.

Ethan also offered to take a look at the OpenBazaar protocol to see if he can find ways to break it which, of course, would be great to have more eyes and more people with technical expertise reviewing it. It will only make the protocol stronger.

Notable Mentions

In the interest of time I’ll just offer a few more highlights:

I found Peter Todd’s talk about having miners skip validation and just focus on ordering, while requiring nodes to do their own validation to be an interesting rethinking of how consensus is achieved.
Emin Gun Sirer’s presentation on Bitcoin covenants was cool. People I spoke to about it liked the concept of covenants and suggested some ways of extending them further with Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees.
Side note: It was nice to seem movement on bip 150/151. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
I also had a short chat with Pierre who recently published a simulation of the FLARE routing for the lightning network. I talked to him about a routing simulator I wrote recently (which I didn’t publish since it was just a hack job to give me a rough idea of how well it would work). I think we both kind of agreed that there is still more work needed to optimizing routing and give us the greatest probability of finding routes from any one random node to another random node for a range of values. The routing needs to be very reliable for lightning to become widely used, in my opinion.
I had a really interesting chat with Mark Friedenbach from Blockstream about some of the advanced things they are working on. I won’t publish what they are as I don’t think they have made them public yet and I’ll let them talk about it when they’re ready, but they are super cool and at least one of the projects is something I’ve been wanting to work on myself and would probably be working on if I wasn’t working on OpenBazaar.
I spoke with Joseph and Laolu (Lightning Network) about collaborating on an SPV wallet implementation in Go. Tadge Dryja wrote a small (and incomplete) SPV library for their lightning network project which I forked and have done some work on to beef it up. There is still a good way to go though and I’m hoping we have the opportunity to work together to get a solid implementation for both of us to use.
I didn’t get to attend Roger Ver’s free speech party and was disappointed that it was held at the same time as the main reception. Both parties ended up smaller than they would have been and it reduced the opportunities to network. If it was scheduled as an after party, or better yet a party on Sunday night, I’m willing to bet most conference attendees would have gone. There were lots of people looking for a party on Sunday night but there wasn’t one scheduled! Maybe a missed opportunity.

So all around the conference was very productive and it was good opportunity to make connections and stay on top of the latest developments. Assuming future Scaling Bitcoin conferences follow the same format I will be looking to attend them as well.