OpenBazaar

A free marketplace. No fees. No Restrictions. Earn Bitcoin.

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Press Release: Peer-to-Peer Cryptocurrency Marketplace OpenBazaar Launches Version 2.0 with Over 10,000 Nodes

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Washington, D.C. – November 1, 2017 – OpenBazaar 2.0 beta was released in September and has seen rapid growth through October resulting in over 10,000 nodes coming onto the new network in less than 50 days. Now, after nearly 2 months of testing and a successful Crypto Is Currency Day, an event with industry-wide support, the next version of revolutionary open-source software is launching.

Users from all over the world are demonstrating that their values align with OpenBazaar and they are seeking a marketplace that is secure, private and free to use. Since version 1.0 launched in 2015, the software has been downloaded over 250,000 times and this new release builds on the feedback from thousands of community members. Version 2.0 enables self-hosted stores to be more visible, provide buyers and sellers with even greater control over personal privacy, and enables developers within the OpenBazaar ecosystem with enhanced capabilities to build new applications for the marketplace.

With a beautiful new design that represents 18 months of investment, over a dozen major improvements have been made to the marketplace. Some of the most advanced and demanded include networking changes that allow stores to be accessible around the clock, privacy enhancements, a built-in SegWit-ready Bitcoin wallet, and infrastructure improvements that make it easier for developers to build their own tools on the platform. Buyers and sellers will enjoy new features that improve their ecommerce experience including inventory management, expanded shipping options, product variants, multiple search providers, and more. All users now have more control of their browsing experience with the new block & report features.

OB1 CEO Brian Hoffman, stated, “The first version of OpenBazaar proved that decentralized trade was possible, and we’ve learned so much in the past year and a half since OpenBazaar was first launched. OpenBazaar 2.0 incorporates the tens of thousands of pieces of feedback we’ve received from our community. This software represents the next major step in our efforts to liberate people from the expensive, privacy-invading intermediaries that dominate ecommerce today.”

OpenBazaar has pushed the limits of what peer-to-peer technology can do with a familiar and practical use case – online commerce – that anyone can participate in at no cost. Traditionally, peer-to-peer software has been difficult to install and run, preventing all but the most experienced users from participating, but OpenBazaar users can join the network in minutes without any technical expertise needed.

“The internet needs an open and free marketplace that allows buying and selling, using the money of the future: cryptocurrency,” says early OpenBazaar investor and blockchain advocate William Mougayar. “OpenBazaar is giving us a compelling answer to the question, ‘Where do I spend my Bitcoin?’ and this new release 2.0 gets us closer than ever to where peer-to-peer e-commerce is headed.”

Venture-backed company OB1 is leading the core development of OpenBazaar. OB1 has raised funds from Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, BlueYard, Digital Currency Group and angel investor William Mougayar in order to build and launch a completely decentralized marketplace that allows anyone in the world to buy and sell anything to anyone else, anywhere, for free.

Join the great community behind this open source project. Follow the project on Twitter, Reddit, GitHub or the official website at OpenBazaar.org

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Andreas Antonopoulos Introduces Joe Rogan to OpenBazaar

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Andreas Antonopoulos – security expert, author and Bitcoin evangelist – went on the Joe Rogan Experience to discuss Bitcoin and other technologies. He announced his new book, The Internet of Money, and also announced that he is selling his book on OpenBazaar. Listen to Andreas explain OpenBazaar to Rogan in the video.

You can find the new book for sale on his OpenBazaar store.

If you have a book – or anything else – that you’d like to sell for Bitcoin, try out OpenBazaar. If you need help, join our Slack community and let us know.

Who Controls OpenBazaar?

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You’re probably here because you saw or heard about something on the OpenBazaar network that was offensive, or illegal, and then someone directed you to this link to learn more.

Perhaps you’re not quite familiar with what OpenBazaar is yet. There are many questions to consider: How could anyone defend this? How come it’s not shut down? Who controls OpenBazaar? This post is meant to answer these questions.

First of all, you’ll need to take a moment to understand what OpenBazaar is. Or more importantly, what it isn’t.

OpenBazaar is not a website, a company, or an organization

Most people are familiar with the standard ecommerce model. A company – such as eBay, Amazon, or Etsy – has a popular website where people buy and sell stuff. The company directly controls the trade on their own website. You don’t hear about illegal or immoral goods sold on these websites because the companies won’t allow it. They remove any such listings. This model is a centralized model, because there is one central authority that can make decisions and control what happens.

This image shows a centralized model. The central hub is the website, which all the nodes (users) connect directly to. Everything happens in the central hub; users don’t interact with each other directly. If the hub (website) goes down, no one can do anything at all.

Centralized network
Centralized network

This is not how OpenBazaar works.

OpenBazaar is decentralized, peer to peer, and has no central authority

OpenBazaar is not a website. It is a peer to peer network of people around the world running software on their own computers. This is a decentralized model; there is no central authority that can make decisions and control what happens. If some people on the network have trouble with their computers or internet connection, other users are unaffected. They will still connect directly to each other.

This image shows a decentralized model. Unlike the centralized network pictured above, it has no central hub. All the nodes (users) are connecting directly to one another.

Decentralized network
Decentralized network

This is how OpenBazaar works. Users download the software onto their computers, and they buy and sell goods and services directly with each other. A seller lists items on their own store, which is hosted on their own computer. The only way for that store or that listing to be taken off the network is for the user to take it down themselves, or for someone to physically visit their home or business and shut down their computer.

Removing offensive listings or stores

With this decentralized model there is no central authority on the network which can take down their store or listings, even if they are offensive.

The developers of OpenBazaar – in fact, no one at all – have any control over the activity on the network. We don’t give permission to users to join the network; anyone can join by running the software on their computer. We aren’t making money from selling the software; it’s open source which means the code is open for all to see and use without any cost.

There is one method to remove offensive listings or stores. A store which is breaking the law can be reported to law enforcement. They can then attempt to track down the store, find the computer hosting it, and take it off the network.

Why decentralized?

You might be wondering why we would build a marketplace which could be used for offensive or illegal goods and services. First, it’s important to understand all the benefits that the decentralized model of online trade offers over the traditional, centralized model.

  1. Cheaper trade.A vendor on eBay is usually charged 10% of each sale. It’s 15% on Amazon. These fees are an enormous cost of doing business on centralized platforms. OpenBazaar has no middleman taking a cut, so the vendor is charged 0% for each sale. Vendors can pass on some of the savings to their customers resulting in less expensive goods and services.
  2. Borderless trade.Many popular online marketplaces aren’t available in every country. The popular payment methods available online such as credit cards or PayPal aren’t available in many countries. Engaging in international trade for people in these countries can be nearly impossible.

    OpenBazaar has no geographical restrictions, and it uses Bitcoin, which also is global. Anyone in the world with a computer and an internet connection can use OpenBazaar.

  3. Trade with cheaper and better escrow.Centralized marketplaces have a monopoly on trust, safety, and payments via escrow. It’s the reason why they can get away with charging high fees – users only have one choice. They also have complete control over funds, so users are forced to trust them completely.

    OpenBazaar does not have a monopoly on escrow. Instead there is an open market of third-party escrow services (called “Moderators”) which buyer and seller can mutually select. Having an open, competitive market for escrow services means fees will almost always be lower than monopolized platforms.

    Escrow on OpenBazaar uses a feature of Bitcoin called Multisignature transactions which means the escrow agent doesn’t control the funds directly, but controls them jointly with the buyer and the seller. Two out of three of them need to agree before funds are released. This leads to more secure escrow.

    Using an escrow service is optional. If buyer and seller trust each other, they can transact directly without involving a third party.

  4. Secure trade.In order to use the centralized platforms, you need to give them your personal data, or use a payment method which is tied to your identity (usually credit cards). Unfortunately, this information is a prime target for hackers to steal and use your personal or financial information for their personal gain. OpenBazaar has no account to sign up for, and you only share as much information about yourself with other users as you choose. It also uses Bitcoin, which means there are no credit cards numbers in a big database for hackers to steal.
  5. No restrictions.Centralized markets force their users to agree to their own “terms and conditions.” While some of these rules make sense to most vendors (preventing the offensive goods from being posted), other don’t. For example, Amazon recently banned the sale of some of their competitors products, for their own benefit. Etsy bans spells and other non-physical items, as well as banning the sale of merchandise from the Washington Redskins. None of these restrictions exist on OpenBazaar.

We built a tool which allows anyone with a computer and an internet connection to trade directly with anyone else in the world – for free – and we’re proud of that. The offensive listings must be viewing in context of the overall activity on the network, of which the vast majority is legitimate trade that makes everyone better off. We hate it when people abuse our technology, but the fact is that they alone are responsible for their own actions.

The internet itself is a decentralized system. Many people abuse this to do illegal or immoral things. However, we’ve collectively decided that the incredible benefits the internet has brought far outweigh the bad, and we do our best to reward the good while punishing the bad. The same should be true of OpenBazaar.

Recent Updates

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CNN Falsely Quotes Europol Report Mentioning OpenBazaar

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On October 2nd CNN Money wrote an article entitled, “Police: High-tech criminals have us outmatched and outgunned.” In the article, they discuss a Europol report on cybercrime.

This article mentions OpenBazaar multiple times – and in every mention CNN gets the facts wrong.

1. “…underground marketplaces online are getting smarter. They’re now decentralized too. No one person is in control. There’s no single computer server to shut down, no dragon’s head to chop off.”

Only one problem: OpenBazaar is not an underground marketplace. Those marketplaces were built specifically for illicit goods, and rely on technology (such as Tor) which obfuscates identity online.

OpenBazaar is entirely different. It’s a decentralized platform, not controlled by anyone, and not run for profit. It’s not being built for any subset of trade, but gives anyone in the world the power to buy and sell any type of goods and services with anyone else. It doesn’t use Tor or any tool to obfuscate identity.

2. “But now police are starting to see marketplaces like OpenBazaar. It’s a peer-to-peer operation, just sellers and buyers. There’s no kingpin to arrest. Europol compares OpenBazaar to BitTorrent, where people trade pirated movies and music.”

Police are not starting to see marketplaces like OpenBazaar, because OpenBazaar hasn’t launched yet. In the Europol report OpenBazaar is briefly mentioned under the “Future Threats and Developments” section. They clearly refer to OpenBazaar as “emerging technology.”

3. “The fight against OpenBazaar is going just about as well as the fight against illegally copied media (not well).”

This claim is a complete fabrication. There is no “fight against OpenBazaar” or any conflict between the marketplace and law enforcement at all, for several reasons. The most obvious reason is that it’s impossible, since OpenBazaar hasn’t launched yet. Equally important is the point that OpenBazaar isn’t an underground marketplace at all, and law enforcement has no more reason to “fight against OpenBazaar” as they have to fight against any other online platform.

In fact, this one bullet point is the entire extent of the recommentations the Eurpol report had regarding OpenBazaar:

  • “Law enforcement should collaborate with private sector andacademia to explore investigative and research opportunitiesrelated to emerging technologies such as decentralised marketplaces like OpenBazaar.”

CNN took a brief mention of OpenBazaar in a Europol report and turned it into a false narrative of law enforcement against decentralized markets. There is no conflict. OpenBazaar exists to eliminate the middleman from ecommerce, taking fees down to 0% and allowing people to trade directly with each other online.

The world doesn’t have a standard protocol for trading goods and services online, nor does it have a network to share information about those goods and services. OpenBazaar finally creates a protocol and network that is free and open for all. As such, we expect that the use of OpenBazaar will largely reflect how society trades at large – almost entirely legitimate, positive trade with a small portion of people using it for illicit activity. We’re excited to see – once we’ve actually launched – how people will use OpenBazaar to make their own lives better.

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