Thank you everyone! This was very helpful in getting my bearings.

Plenty of great replies, but this reminds me of a story I read some time ago. Where a love letter was found hidden inside the arm of a wooden chair 100+ years after it had been hidden.

So yeah I think going overkill is definitely possibly 

Also not a bad way to do some market research.

So hypothetically if I have a widget to sell, it would be nicest to have a single page store on a website; so that whenever a purchase is made I get an email. Then I pack, label, and ship the widget. Easy peasy.

I'm not very familiar with the nitty gritty of ecommerce, but I suspect things like shopify exist to keep things this simple for the seller.

So my question is: "What are the options for selling widgets on a stand-alone website for crypto?"

I can't just post a crypto address, because I need some basic info on the customer. Maybe I could request an email that includes that information, alongside a private key with the cash? Or maybe there's a solution that already exists?

Thanks everyone! Yeah this all answered my question. It's a shame. There is so much more potential for this tech to really open up small scale businesses to the public. I remember for awhile there was some effort being put into a decentralized mail system, an Uber DApp should be a thing. It's a shame that there isn't a bit more diversity in this alternate economy.

That said, crypto-kitties are pretty impressive 

Anyways, take care and thanks for the insights!

Haven't taken a serious look at crypto since 2012 and holy c#$@ has it changed. But looking around I've really been stricken by how little the ecosystem has diversified (on first glance). So I'd love to ask: Where are the big economic hubs in crypto outside of exchanges? I'm curious about the marketplaces for physical things and which communities are thriving.

Thanks in advance!