Open Bazaar - A success.

I came across an old thread asking Is OpenBazaar A Failure, I tried to reply but it told me to start a new thread so...

How can you call something a failure before it has even started? Most of the people who will benefit from using it are in the 'third world' and haven't even heard of it yet. With version 2 it will be much easier to set up and run (it's pretty easy already but you need it on pretty much 24/7) and uptake will increase from then on I think.

Some of the discussion revolved around whether businesses will consider it worth the risk of investment, but the whole point of it is to open up selling to a whole bunch of folks who would not consider setting up an online store under the current circumstances, and those who could not, which includes billions of 'unbanked' people.

OpenBazaar is designed by people who are imagining a different future, not looking at the past and basing the design principles on that. It's natural that such a thing will not 'catch on' with those who are already familiar with the old ways of doing things.

A thing is not a failure until it fails. So far OB has been a success. It went from drawing board to beta testing with testcoin to first deployment quite fast. It has users and is being used. It's not an organization or company, so it doesn't need to grow or progress within the confines and definitions of such an entity. Will it fail at some time in the future? Who knows? Nothing like it has been done before so there's nothing to measure against. At worst it can be the yardstick by which subsequent efforts will be measured.

For anyone who has sold something using it, or has merely been inspired by it, it's a success. Having lots of users and making money is a measure of success for the likes of Etsy or eBay, because they are companies. We need to define success before we can argue about it. Othewise, I can claim my dog is a failure because he can't fly.