Bitcoin Forum

It is the middlemen who currently run this world.

Easiest way to make money.

1. Find a product that's valuable.
2. Buy the same thing at a lower price by purchasing in large quantities.
3. Sell individual units at a profit.

The giants Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart, ETC. all exploit this tried and true method of creating value.

I also sell products wholesale on Amazon and can tell you from experience this works. Anyone can do it.

The thing is, once people can make transactions directly from the warehouse or the seller without the need of a platform or place at the best price and with great shipping, security, trust etc. won't all forms of middlemen become obsolete?

Everything would be cheaper and more accessible.

maybe someday but i believe we are very far a way from that day.
we already have bitcoin, which is the decentralized currency that you can use for purchases. then we also have openbazaar which is the decentralized marketplace for people to buy and sell anything they want in a decentralized manner. but neither of them are mass adopted, not to mention that usage of them is not easy specially openbazzar. and that is a big obstacle that we need to overcome before wanting to see it replace big corporation giants such as Amazon.

Amazon is a real cancer in society. It appears to have been the cause of the demise of Toys'R'us, and it is destroying many local shops. It is starting to move on supermarket chains, and this will allow it to further its globalist initiative. We know that the banking/globalist elite are promoting eugenics, and Amazon's take over of the food chain and drug distribution could be a great help in furthering this initiative.

The problem is that centralization and scaling up enables low prices for end customers and quick delivery times. Peer-to-peer marketplaces (e.g. OpenBazaar) will definitely take place next to the giants of e-commerce, but putting Amazon "out of business" is highly unlikely.

Because they would provide the security necessary without having to pay higher prices. Amazon markups always calculate the Amazon fees and same with Ebay.

Evolving delivery methods (ai drones etc.) would provide the same cheap and fast delivery for peer-to-peer purchases so both sellers and buyers would save money.

The strange thing is, I would have thought that companies like Amazon were made by the Internet, but in time to come, with Blockchain technology etc., the middleman will effectively be cut out and we'll be able to buy direct from source. This is because of decentralization, basically. It may be true. But it's going to take time. A lot of time.

I think you are right, somehow this innovative alternative will affect the big players out there,

I believe OpenBazar or Particl annon market will have a big impact on how we (we) do business online.

To see some creative creators selling goods over there will be amazing!! Soon I want to sell some homemade tables there but still waiting a while till it gets popular.

There are some things that are good to buy from reputable companies though and I don't think this will go away.

Some good producers don't want to take orders that are quite small (lke if you're buying an ssd or a computer component or something) os goign to a retailer like amazon to be a middle-man for if there's an issue is a great idea to implement I think.
Unless of course we get to a point where these large producers of stuff decide they will accept orders of smaller numbers of units than the big buld buys that allow people to start buying up what they'd usually have a pay a premium for from the likes of amazon and similar stores.

Cutting the middlemen off will certainly cut the costs of the items and remove unnecessary fees that can be incurred by the end-user, however, middlemen serves as a security and guarantor of the end-user in case the seller wants to scam the buyer. Most people would certainly avoid decentralized marketplaces even if it offers cheap items and would better be buying expensive ones on reputable marketplaces since they are less likely to be scammed and protection is there for them. There's some sort of psychological factor attached into buying from reputable marketplaces and companies that can never be addressed by decentralized marketplaces, so there's that.

Amazon provides a service and platform that's useful to people on both sides of the market. If it was that horrible as people here think it is, they wouldn't be doing well, but they are and their revenue and profits speak for them.

Average joes want convenience, and that without thinking about the privacy that they no longer have when they allow a company as Amazon in their life. As long as it works they'll go as far as they need to keep using it.

I'm don't say it's good or bad, but I'm solely looking at what the average person thinks and does. They don't see the threats we see in these companies, and as long as they aren't confronted with these threats, they won't change.

People change and aim for alternatives once the companies and financial institutions start to work against them.

In reality, if this happen; it will displace Amazon and other giant in the middleman business. A decentralize market place will put the middleman into check which is unavailable at the moment but with the help of the Blockchain technology there will be a freedom for all. The advent of Blockchain acceptance and adoption will put all the big wings out of the business.

One good thing that I see in the middle men like amazon, ebay, alibaba or any other ecommerce platform is the competition from the sellers that are selling on these platforms. The idea that the warehouse would just replace these platforms might eliminate competition as the are the one that have the items that need to be sold.

If this is your definition of the middleman, then every businesses and stores you see around, are all middlemen! Every manufacturer sells their product to the wholeseller first. The wholeseller then sells it to the retailer from where we buy the products. As per your your definition of middleman, these wholeseller and retails businesses, are all middlemen. That's how exactly the a trade functions!

And due to this same reason, there is a healthy competition in the market. If everything goes to the hand of the manufacturer, this competition will turn ugly and we will become the victims of their cartel the way Banking system is showing off their power now!

If you think that decentralized marketplace will let you connect directly with the manufacturer, you're wrong! It's mainly a marketplace that allows peer to peer transactions without the need of having a third party to verify the activities for both buyers and sellers.

There are both pros and cons for the decentralized marketplace. A big challenge is the dispute resolution area. Lets assume, you purchased a mobile phone from a seller of a decentralized marketplace but the when the product arrived, you found manufacturing defects in it. Without any centralized authority, how will you get resolution or get the refund? That's a very practical challenge in today's scenario.

So more research and ideas are needed to overcome such obstacles. Decentralization is a very new structure to us and we will need more time before we can actually think of competing with the behemoths like Amazon, Walmart etc.

It would if the demand was there.

OB lacks in more fields than just one with how there is nothing behind it with a profit model to fund further development and more importantly, marketing. I think the development side is pretty solid even though it's somewhat slow, but the marketing side is where they can book most of the gains, which is the only thing that actually matters here.

The more use OB generates, the more motivation there is behind the scenes to work on it, and it may even lead to large crypto businesses to fund marketing out of goodwill.

On top of that, I think OB needs a web based interface to actually become more mainstream, because average joes aren't going to bother installing software to get things up and running.

Amazon is a brilliant and super successful project that has become a leader in the field. I look forward to when they and other large resellers join the cryptocurrency market. Such a merger in my opinion would be mutually beneficial.

It would be really complicated to create decentralized market, as mentioed there was couple of those decentralized stores but some of them illegal, but if we talking about legal products it can possibly happen, but it requires a lot of things. Also I would better wait for lightning network

True. It is like a Value added tax with another tax. People dont see it but it is just a platform for people to posts what they want to sell. They dont really have an item or if they did, it may be just a little than all the people who have posted their items.

Ebay is just the same right?
They wont even assure the buyer that it is a legitimate seller. So what are we really paying them for? The web page? Maintenance? ;D

Facebook got a lot of seller right now. Maybe I will just stay there and add all those online sellers. ;D

But not all can do what you could possibly do. Aside from it what Amazon is offering to its sellers is convenience. They don't need to go to anywhere as the could easily buy what they want right at their fingertips through their phone or laptop. These tech giants are also adapting to change the e-commerce business is just one part of their business. Amazon is really a large company and is more like Apple or Google now where they are venturing out of their main business and diversifying their income streams.

Exactly, selling is pretty complex, there are many things involved like advertising and delivery, for example. It will take many many years for decentralized marketplaces to get to the level of centralized marketplaces, and it's not clear if they will ever become a serious competition. I think it's always better to keep expectation realistic so you'd never get disappointed.

By that definition, a decentralized marketplace that beats Amazon on price will be even worse for local shops an than Amazon is already.

Amazon and Bezos are not going away anytime soon. Crypto has to be highly adopted before anything change comes to that sector.

That is possible only in theory, but it is a possibility, Bitcoin and the blockchain have the potential to eliminate every single form of profit taking being done by middlemen, this is very powerful this means that in the future you could buy your products directly from the producer and it will reduce shipping costs and make the whole economy more efficient.

I think this is too much because there are still many people who do not understand cryptocurrency to be the market for Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart and others, it will remain crowded and I think in the future the giant market can run along with other decentralized markets.

crypto currency can kill various kinds of businesses carried out in a monopoly manner such as banks, and buy and sell online, because crypto has a transparent system but amazon must have followed the development of crypto currencies so this could be an improvement in the online trading system because there is no currency monopoly which can sometimes turn off a product, because the value of the krypto currency is the same everywhere.

Everything can happen in crypto but amazon is hard to out because that is a big company business online but if amazon accepting crypto as a payment , Amazon will become popular like others that keep accepting bitcoin as a payment. And about the buying directly to the owner of the product is really a big saving to us because the owner can give you a big discount if you buy bulk.

We have to admit Amazon creates a lot of jobs worldwide, not only with its warehouses but also on its online marketplace. There are many people making a living with Amazon and small companies "surviving" with their sales on Amazon.
Toys'R'us is just the result of the actual society buying more and more on the web. It's not the first company and not the last.

I don't really understand how this necessarily ties into decentralization, because as far as I know, this can be done with centralized platforms already.

I think there are still some services or components of services that require the centralized nature of these marketplaces in order to function smoothly, such as customer support, such as conflict resolution between the buyer and the seller.

In the future, if decentralized marketplaces that carry these sort of features do pop up, then sure. The fees could be taken away from the middleman, and these centralized marketplaces could see drastic changes in their business conditions. But just like decentralized exchanges, we see various issues in terms of practical use at the moment still. Not everything in my opinion absolutely needs to be decentralized immediately. The most important aspect is still decentralizing the currency and the processing of payments, imho.

Amazon seems like one of the biggest companies in the whole world right now, it is not that easy to put biggest company in the entire world to get out of business thanks to couple of new options. Standard oil was seen as the biggest company of its time and had to be torn apart for monopoly reasons, the companies that came to be after it was torn apart right now holds over a trillion dollars in value, even shredding it to pieces didn't hold those companies low.

Amazon will always be one of the big players unless something huge happens to it. Of course, decentralized markets could get a share out of it and certainly rival it but just because Amazon would have some competition at the top would mean it will go down, it will just soar with them together instead.

You're missing one thing, it's also beneficial for the warehouse, they don't want to ship one item at a time to thousands of different buyers, that's not the way that their business operates. Just because they could get more money that way does not mean that it is the most profitable choice for them, even if it's the most profitable does not mean it's the best choice. The current model works because people are happy with it, maybe not all people but enough people.

There is actually no way at all that we can even get to put some big companies out of business, and that is already way too much. There have been competitions already all over the world, so there is always a whole lot to go around when it comes to the ecommerce world.

It is understandable that times are changing, decentralization as well as blockchain technology is also hitting the ecommerce space as well, but you really think Amazon or other big businesses won't be looking into that already. Innovation is always going on everyday just to stay on top of the ladder, and I am sure once you are there, it would really take some pride only and comfort zone level of thinking to get pushed down.

I hope a lot of people know that Amazon is already a big global market and it will really take some huge level of competition to be able to get them out of business. Also, what makes you think that for a system that has already been on ground and has made a lot of name over the years, will not find a way to adjust in the long run and be able to not just sit in its comfort zone, but look out for possible threats and find a way to integrate those threats and make it a strength in its own platform, which as far as I am concerned, an already well-established business, as long as they do not slack, will always have an edge.

Amazon already got his position in the online marketplace and it is ready to adapt the blockchain technology which again put it on the edge of e-commerce. Bezoz took him almost 20 years on how to figure and how to defeat the biggest retail store in the US like WalMart, Sears, CostCo and the like. Amazon is a game changer to e-comerce and some other traditional retail store are unable to catch up because they did not adopt the new technology or they are too late to adapt it that's why they are out of the game. Decentralized marketplace is very far from reality for some reasons like security, customer service, logistics and after market support.

Using blockchain technology does not make something have the same appeal as a decentralized marketplace.

The problem with Amazon is everything isn't available (they moderate and ban plenty of products), they charge a lot of fees for that customer service and fast logistics.

As for your security argument, real peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a third-party, like a crypto exchange or centralized platform, would make any transaction safe and secure, and would be possible with a distributed exchange network and an escrow system. It also couldn't be moderated.

Customer service is mostly about the speed of shipping, which will be possible with evolving drone delivery.

Decentralized marketplaces will never have all the resources and infrastructure that Amazon has. It's what makes Amazon competitive and valuable.

I doubt that intermediaries will leave the trade market. In any case, it is often convenient for a person to buy goods in one place and pay for one parcel, rather than ordering each item with separate delivery. And if this is an international delivery, then most likely, a direct purchase will be even less profitable. Amazon is unique in that it offers users a great platform, a huge range, good customer support and logistics. And for the convenience of many people are willing to overpay.

People can make transactions directly by using bitcoin or they can use it as a payment method for products and services. Bitcoin is not a platform. There must be a warehouse or seller but not without the need of a platform or place. People do not trust to the seller (God knows who he is), they trust these online platforms.

I don't think that Amazon will simply go away without any fight. As I have read they already patented something regarding blockchain so it looks like they're ahead of the game for all we know. They might be expecting decentralized marketplace already and maybe has some plans already laid out in case of another innovation in online that will affect their business.

Nope. This will never happen.

Amazon call themselves a logistics company primarily. That means they're experts at managing the journey from your desire to it showing up at your door. That means sourcing, stocking, advertising, transporting and if needed handling its return.

There's no way a bunch of random nutters selling their granddaughter's soiled panties or lawnmower blades can offer the same level of efficiency and service.

So eloquently put  :P I think that people easily lose sight of the added value that companies provide if it is not immediately visible to them. Amazon provide so much added value and benefit from economies of scale that the service they can and do offer is superior to that which any of those random nutters you speak of could.

I really do not want to celebrate this post yet that decentralized marketplaces will create a value for humans until we have all seen it practical. For now, we may just have to keep faith with the large stores like Amazon and so on.

In a perfect world, we'd have decentralised marketplaces like this as you mention. But honestly I doubt that it's going to be feasible in the near future. I absolutely agree with avikz as well. A decentralised marketplace doesn't necessarily mean that you're directly interacting with the manufacturer.

It'll be hard to disrupt this market due to people's familiarity with dealing with centralised marketplaces. Also, how exactly will the middleman be cut without having holes in the system that is open for exploitation will still need time to develop, imho.

What I think is most likely is that the traditional marketplaces will in fact respond to increased crypto adoption by integrating it into their services further, such as accepting it as a form of payment or even using blockchain as a ledger to keep records. But a truly decentralised marketplace seems like a far fetched idea for now.

Amazon and other e-commerce forms are still the trend of today's market. They still find ways to optimize their work to maximize profits. So now to overcome them with a new method that requires breakthroughs and more.

I'd go along with that. Amazon is really a society cancer, i think that sooner of later, Amazon will be kicked out of decentralized marketplaces.

Amazon is the big business so decentralized nature of crypto is not harmful for that and crypto market is expanding so it will reach to every root of the business, decentralize is causing the currencies more volatile and in these days bitcoin is capturing the whole world so little time will be required for the whole market to use bitcoin for transactions.

That could happen, but I do not believe that we are going to be alive to see it, that kind of transition doesn't happen in such a fast way, it takes time not only because the technology needs to be developed and because people need to begin to adopt this new technology, it takes time because those big businesses are not going to give up what they have accomplished without a fight.

Market places have been evolved on internet now. Ecommerce has initiated this war between companies to make challenges and competitions to other combines through internet.