Check Out My OpenBazaar Store
Recently, I started digging into the OpenBazaar scene. I have been following it for a long time now, and have messed around with it through the years by installing it and looking around and that was about it.
Until recently, it wasn't super easy to install and get running, but things have really changed. You can have it downloaded, installed and a store up and running in a matter of a few minutes. Everything is pretty straight forward and simple in terms of usability.
The OpenBazaar team is hard at work rolling out updates and has been concentrating on infrastructure, but I think things are starting to take a turn towards features now.
What would it take for a market like OpenBazaar to compete with the likes of Craigslist?
The first hurdle I see is the ever present challenge of getting into and out of crypto-currency. It seems like we are getting closer everyday with Bitcoin ATMs and CoinStar supposedly starting to roll out Bitcoin sales. We also have markets like @swapsteem building a peer-to-peer marketplace to buy and sell with Fiat, including PayPal transactions. That could be a real asset.
So, it is a hurdle for mainstream adoption, but movement toward solving the problem is happening.
The second hurdle I see is the ever present marketing challenge that pretty much every open source project faces. Is there a budget?
OpenBazaar does not charge any fees to list, buy or sell. Moderators may charge for their services, but the platform has no fees.
Will the communities support the project marketing and even take on responsibilities ourselves? Will that prove sustainable? I have been putting a lot of thought and research into how to make open source projects sustainable and provide marketing and I do think there are ways to accomplish this with the tools we have today - namely Steem. The more I think about it, the more I think that Steem is the greatest project asset we have ever seen.
I'm just wondering, but does Craigslist do any marketing these days?
My OpenBazaar Store
Check out my store: ob://QmbbhRFX8JABjmZxoU8ycGBrY8y266MW5nymNRPu3yACko/store
To do that, just head over to the OpenBazaar website and download your version.
Once it is installed, just copy the address above and paste it into the search/ address bar at the top of the app.
If you have a store, share it with us. If not, do you have anything to sell that you can list and then share it with us?
Please support @SteemOnOB (Steem on OpenBazaar Project) to be able to pay natively with Steem.
This would be a huge asset to our community and the OpenBazaar communities. Steem is one of the fastest transactions, if not the fastest of all the blockchains, plus transactions are free. This would certainly make Steem a very attractive choice and open a lot of exposure to Steem as a crypto as well as the communities it supports.
Please consider delegating to @SteemOnOB or donating for task bounties. This is a special account that is used STRICTLY for promoting and supporting getting Steem on OpenBazaar, so please follow and support us in any way you can.
Much more to come, soon!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://diggndeeper.com/check-out-my-openbazaar-store/
Very cool! Once we get Steem up and running on OpenBazaar there’ll be a huge new audience exposed to the possibilities of Steem 😊
Posted using Partiko iOS
I believe so. And a whole new way for Steemians to spend their favourite currency, too.
Win, win!
@diggndeeper.com this is amazing! I really don't trust Craigslist anymore. Through the years it has got a bad reputation.
The OB project sounds awesome. I am going to download this and yes I do have many items I can list! Gently used kids toys, Thomas Kinkade paintings and other popular artists, lots of odds and ends.
Thanks for sharing once I get it set up and figured out I will share it as you requested. Talk soon,
@bit-trader
Posted using Partiko Android
Awesome. I think you find it to be pretty straight forward.
I look forward to checking out your store.
This is interesting. Glad to see openbazaar is doing it's thing and still going.
We have our own marketplace at the IFC and it was doing really well at first when the value of steem was higher and we had a bunch of transactions and stores that opened, but ever since the value of steem dropped it's been really quiet in there..
I think that's one of the main hurdles right now, I feel like if the value of steem went back up even to just a dollar or a couple of dollars that would make a huge difference, but as long as it's below a dollar I think it makes it really difficult for business.
I still highly believe in our marketplace as well, though not sure how to really help it grow much right now with the market where it is and with steem as slow as it is..
But.. There's a few other people trying to do similar as well. I remember hearing about Dstor? And it seemed like they had a bunch of drama and not sure where that's going, there was also steembay I think? or steempay? And a few others.. There's been quite a few attempts to link steem to real world value and I think there's a tremendous amount of potential here. Also this sort of links into our other conversation about freedom and going in a new direction as I think if we had our own currency which we could set up marketplaces for and buy and sell and trade physical items.. That would be a major step towards obsoleting the old forms of power. Will that be steem? I can't say for sure, but I do think that's an important part of the equation to freeing ourselves more.
I saw that IFC mentioned just a minute ago. What is that?
Absolutely. We have to be the change we want to see.
Will Steem be a major crypto? I think is certainly can be.The only way that will happen, though is if we grind it out and add value every day in every way. The tech will stand up, but we have a lot of work to do.
Side note: I think the biggest thing keeping Steem down is all the people that come in and immediately power down and never do anything. It's really a literal drag on the value of the platform. I don't have a solution, but I do think that is our main problem right now.
Why does a low value for Steem make it harder to sell things?
At least from my experience in the Marketplace I created people were doing a lot more business when the value of steem was around a dollar or higher and the two main reasons I think for this is that there was a higher demand for steem cause people believed in it more and thought it was more valuable and the second reason is because you could buy more with less, for example.. When steem was a worth a USD you could say buy a crystal or a drawing or a hat or whatever in one of the shops for 10 steem, now with steem at around 30 cents, it would cost around 3X that in steem and be like 30 steem or more.
For me personally that decrease in value means I'll be spending a lot more steem to purchase anything than I used to pay. And I'm sure other people in the marketplace felt similar.
That's quite impressive time to make it big : )
Thanks! We have such cool tools available now.
I already was fiddling around with OpenBazaar a year or so ago, but I didn't get it running on my Raspberry Pi back then.
Maybe it is time to have another look onto OB again :)
I hope you do! Do you think you will start a store? If you do, share it with us so we can support you.
I dont know for Sure, I am busy for the Moment but if I do I am Sure in for a community! Thx for the invitation :)
What kind of things do people here want to buy on OB?
I don't know what people want to buy, but anything including services, digital goods, physical goods and crypto can be traded on OB.