Is OpenBazaar a Darknet Market?
OpenBazaar is a new way to do commerce online, and people are often unclear exactly how it is different from traditional ecommerce platforms. We sometimes have people look at the features of this network and confuse OpenBazaar with so-called “darknet markets.”
What are darknet markets, and how is OpenBazaar different?
Darknet Markets
Marketplaces which cater to people engaged in illicit activity have been around for thousands of years, and it’s no surprise that in the digital age they can also be found online.
Since the early days of the public Internet there have been forums and communities of people discussing cybercrime and other illegal activity. In recent years a combination of new technologies gave rise to a new type of marketplace called the darknet market. Darknet markets have the following characteristics:
- They cater to illicit commerce, mostly focused on drugs.
- They are centralized marketplaces controlled by an individual or small group and run for profit.
- They require the use of technology such as Tor to access the market in order to keep the marketplace (and its users) anonymous.
- The payment method for transactions is cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin.
The Silk Road, launched in 2011, was the first darknet market. It was taken down by law enforcement a few years later. Other darknet markets have sprung up since, but many are shut down by law enforcement eventually.
Of the darknet markets that aren’t shut down, several performed what is called an “exit scam” by abruptly shutting down the site and taking all of the users’ Bitcoin deposits, in some cases worth millions of dollars.
Is OpenBazaar a Darknet Market?
Of the four characteristics of darknet markets explained above, OpenBazaar currently only has one thing in common with darknet markets: It uses Bitcoin for payments.
Otherwise, it differs in some important ways:
- It doesn’t cater to illicit commerce.
- It isn’t a centralized marketplace run for profit.
- It doesn’t use anonymizing technology by default.
- Exit scams aren’t even possible because no central organization controls the OpenBazaar network or escrow system.
Darknet markets and OpenBazaar differ in another way as well. In a darknet market the marketplace operator takes on the most risk by running the site. They are the target for law enforcement, and it means the users of the platform take on less risk by only needing to access the darknet market via a special web browser. OpenBazaar is different; anyone using the software for illicit commerce needs to run the software on their own computer (or a virtual private server they rent) and carry some of that risk themselves. There is no marketplace operator for law enforcement to target, but each individual user engaged in illicit commerce could become a target instead.
OpenBazaar 1.0 has existed for over a year now, and the vast majority of trade on the network is simple consumer goods and services. At any given time less than 5% of listings on the network are considered “NSFW,” and many of those are legal but, well… not safe for work!
The upcoming version 2.0 release does add another point in common with darknet markets: people will be able to use Tor with OpenBazaar. However, Tor is not on by default and is not required to access the network; it’s an option for users who care deeply about their privacy. This allows users to select their own level of privacy on the network.
Man, I heard some pretty scary stories about darknet. I steer clear from darknet. Period.
It really is a weird thing going on, it has absolute filth using it, but it also has people who live in situations where they do not have freedom of speech the ability to communicate freely. Steering clear is a best bet, but I wish the good that it does got as much promotion in the news as the bad stuff that happens on it (which holy hell is bad stuff).
I see, yeah, honestly when I think of darknet, I only hear about the madness of it all. I've yet to hear any good thing about it.
Some person online had a good post that gives good examples:
To avoid a national firewall, TOR is excellent. For example, in your country is forbidden all the pages regarding some polemic topic, such in China, where they can't access anything related to Tibetan culture. With TOR, you break this.
Let's say you're journalist and someone want to contact you to address some huge story. You know most companies save your steps online. With TOR, both parties preserves the ability behind national firewalls or under the surveillance of repressive regimes to obtain a global perspective on controversial topics including democracy, economics and religion. In fact, I know some Amnesty International activists use daily TOR or let's say someone wants to give you sensitive info about a corruption case.
Say you need to start a blog to tell your community how bad is the government or a big company but you can't because your profile; you're an important persona in your community but you need to tell these people in order to start the change. Well, TOR gives you the opportunity to start one without any tracking problems; the safety and privacy that gives TOR is unique.
Yes! Actually I think I might have heard about this advantage years and years ago. This is very true and very useful if you're under the rule of an oppressive government. I still feel like it's really risky because you can probably give your info out in other ways on accident.