3 Things Where OpenBazaar is Better Than Amazon
You already may have heard about OpenBazaar. It is the most popular free and decentralized ecommerce marketplace with no fees and also no restrictions. It is built on top of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
1) It is decentralized
OpenBazaar doesn't have any gatekeepers like in the darknet marketplaces e.g. Alphabay. In general, it isn't owned by anyone, but the Blockchain and its miners.
2) No Fees
There are no fees. Simple as that. Unlike on eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress etc. there are no fees at all. Period.
3) Dispute Process
Unlike other popular ecommerce platforms, people are actually motivated to provide superb support as the moderation on OpenBazaar is a central key element, that users heavily use.
Yeah... it's the next Silk Road...
You may have heard about the infamous "Silk Road" marketplace on the darknet, that was mainly used for selling/buying drugs, guns, contract killers and all kinds of other unimaginable services and stuff...
Well, since OpenBazaar is a totally decentralized platform, and unlike Silk Road it doesn't maintain servers, host product listings, or store transaction data, therefore it can not influence the product listing.
The CEO of OpenBazaar, Brian Hoffman, addresses that critical point, he explains: "We're merely providing a software tool to the masses, and each user is deciding what they do, how they participate on the network... So just as someone can write something derogatory in a Microsoft Word document, Microsoft is not liable for that."
Staying absolutely honest, he sums it up, and tells, that the fate of OpenBazaar lies totally in the hands of the people: "While it may seem amazing that Silk Road did hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even a billion dollars, worth of illegal goods, a billion dollars is nothing in terms of how much e-commerce gets done each year," Hoffman says. "If six months from now OpenBazaar is just flooded with drug listings and illegal services, then most likely it wasn't a good enough solution for the world's trade. I would consider that a failure, because this is more about building a free market, not just an illegal market."_
It's success will depend on how easy it is for non-technical users to set up shop.
That is a crucial point. However, it looks like ebay and especially amazon shops are more complicated to setup. The only thing is how easy it will be for crypto-newbies to understand the "bitcoin thing" since you can pay with 50+ cryptos on OpenBazaar.
I love the idea of Openbazaar. I think this is really the future of e-commerce, once the usability improves by better user interface and easier setup, adoption will take off I expect. I am already long time planning to download it and look closer into it to see what my opportunities are. But been busy other things, there is so much happening in the crypto space.......
Can absolutely understand what your saying, the cryptorevolution is happening too fast. And just got a nice idea from you: I'll test it and write a thorough review about how to sell and buy from OpenBazaar!
Thats a good idea, follow you, so I will see your post ones you publish it! Looking forward
Checking into this, looks like it has potential. Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for appreciating it!
Very cool. So are mayments made in Bitcoin or can you choose to use a coin with a lower transaction fee like dash or Litecoin?
@cryptoviking: You can pay with 50+ cryptocurrencies on OpenBazaar: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, etc. But the seller receives payment in Bitcoin.
That's pretty damn cool. I'll have to check it out.
That's very interesting. I hope for the best with that site.
Hopefully it will be the next big thing combining amazon+ebay+craigslist all in one!
Upvoted because OpenBazaar deserves broad attention.
Absolutely, thanks!
Interesting I haven't heard of OpenBazaar before, I might try it out.
You definitely should.