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Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

openbazaar.org

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Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#51

Post by StavrosK »

jstanley wrote: post #34
matthewbauer wrote: post #26

Am I the only one here that gets a little terrified by this kind of thing? I mean I'm fine if they're just selling recreational drugs. But, we all know that there are much worse things people will be selling on these crypto markets than just plain old LSD and marijuana. Can we find a way to help law enforcement police at the very least the really, really bad stuff?

If you took a look at OpenBazaar you'd find absolutely nothing illegal for sale.

I'm kind of wondering why that is. Since darknet markets are getting busted one after another, why hasn't everyone migrated to OpenBazaar? It would seem like a prime opportunity.

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#52

Post by jstanley »

StavrosK wrote: post #51
jstanley wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you took a look at OpenBazaar you'd find absolutely nothing illegal for sale.

I'm kind of wondering why that is. Since darknet markets are getting busted one after another, why hasn't everyone migrated to OpenBazaar? It would seem like a prime opportunity.

I think there are 2 reasons:

1.) Lack of anonymity - AFAIK it doesn't yet have integration with tor-or-similar, although this is coming soon

2.) Network effects - hardly anyone is buying or selling anything on OpenBazaar, so there's not much motivation for anyone new to move there. I hope this changes. I use eBay for almost all of my online purchases, and I would love to see the day where OpenBazaar replaces eBay for all or most of my uses.

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#53

Post by nowarninglabel »

jstanley wrote: post #40
vectorpush wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who buy drugs "in the streets" generally aren't versed in how to acquire and manage cryptocurrency. Most people buying drugs have a personal relationship with a dealer and don't do transactions "in the streets". Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers". Finally, in my per…

> Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers". This is false. You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash: sell things for it, exchange currency with friends, exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins, steal it, run a business taking payment…

Not disagreeing, but just to test this a bit. I'm in San Francisco. What's the safest and easiest way for me to go acquire Bitcoin or Ethereum right now? Note, I don't have a credit card.

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#54

Post by peterhunt »

jstanley wrote: post #45
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are getting crack from it, does it matter what type of market it is? People are saying this is where the drug trade might migrate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14828864 I think it's scary that (a) these markets are here to stay, and (b) anyone with a computer and the most basic technology skills will be able to get any hard drug they can imagine delivered right to their doorstep. Again, there's noth…

Firstly, there are absolutely no illegal drugs currently being sold on OpenBazaar. It's almost exclusively novelty items at the moment. Secondly, if Alice wants to sell crack, and Bob wants to buy it, I don't see why you or I or anybody else has the right to stand in the middle and say that's not allowed. I accept that you think it's not good for Alice and Bob to be able to transact however they like, but you must ac…

Does the same logic apply if Alice wants to sell Bob a human being?

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#55

Post by avaer »

ddon wrote: post #48
avaer wrote: post #4

> How are there no fees and restrictions? _Someone_ is paying the TX fees. Who? It can't be a single party, especially the developers, without betraying the decentralization. > Pay with 50+ cryptocurrencies on OpenBazaar: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, etc. Seller receives payment in Bitcoin How does this work without a middleman or central party?

TX fees are paid to miners. Currency conversions are probably done using ShapeShift https://shapeshift.io/

Hm, if that's indeed the case then this is free, feeless and decentralized only to the depth of its landing page.

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#57

Post by jstanley »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #53
jstanley wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers". This is false. You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash: sell things for it, exchange currency with friends, exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins, steal it, run a business taking payment…

Not disagreeing, but just to test this a bit. I'm in San Francisco. What's the safest and easiest way for me to go acquire Bitcoin or Ethereum right now? Note, I don't have a credit card.

Probably a LocalBitcoins in-person cash trader. In a city like SF there should be a decent number to choose from.

It gets harder if you're somewhere more rural, and many of the LocalBitcoins online traders (at least in the UK) require a lot of KYC information, but you should be able to find somebody if you look for long enough.

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#58

Post by jasode »

wuliwong wrote: post #29
jasode wrote: post #14

Seems to be some confusion... To clarify OpenBazaar's "No Transaction Fees" , it means there are no marketplace platform fees. To compare with ebay, to sell an item for $500 and charge $20 for shipping ($520): - eBay fee: ~10% of final bid value + 10% of any shipping charge added on = $52 - PayPal fee: 2.9% of payment = $15.08 The bitcoin network would eliminate the PayPal fees. (The bitcoin fees would still exist bu…

Actually there are still transaction fees in the bitcoin network.

Yes, that's why I wrote "(The bitcoin fees would still exist...)"

Are you talking about something else?

Re: Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace

#60

Post by c0nducktr »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #33
matthewbauer wrote: post #26

Am I the only one here that gets a little terrified by this kind of thing? I mean I'm fine if they're just selling recreational drugs. But, we all know that there are much worse things people will be selling on these crypto markets than just plain old LSD and marijuana. Can we find a way to help law enforcement police at the very least the really, really bad stuff?

You're not the only one. These services have destroyed peoples' lives by providing them easy access to coke, meth, and heroin. Contrary to opinion, the vast majority of these people would not have found those drugs in the streets. There are no easy solutions here, but it's false to claim that these services are inherently better than what came before. They may make it safer to acquire the drugs, but they also make it…

> Contrary to opinion, the vast majority of these people would not have found those drugs in the streets.

[citation needed]

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