OpenBazaar Raises $200k in New Funding

[MadGamer]

OB1, the startup behind the bitcoin-powered decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar, has raised $200,000 in new funding from investment firm Digital Currency Group. Additional details can be found on CoinDesk's article.
OpenBazaar Chief executive also said that the decentralized marketplace knew a steady growth since the last year, I find this hard to believe because I know no one who use the platform. Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

[unamis76]

Good to see that this project is believed in and has a lot of funding to keep going! Funny thing is that nobody seems to be using it a lot (although it is a very promising project) and that many blame it for requiring stores to be always online...

[eckmar]

Good to see that this project is believed in and has a lot of funding to keep going! Funny thing is that nobody seems to be using it a lot (although it is a very promising project) and that many blame it for requiring stores to be always online...

Agree with you. The reason nobody uses it is because newcomers are sceptical when they have to download software to their pc in order to buy/sell product, and in case they want to sell they have to keep node running all the time which requires VPS. Much simpler to join some market on TOR even its not as secure

[Yakamoto]

OpenBazaar Chief executive also said that the decentralized marketplace knew a steady growth since the last year, I find this hard to believe because I know no one who use the platform. Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

#1. "Steady growth" can easily be a buzzword and something listed at 0.5% growth per year, as long as it happens consistently, can be counted as steady growth. There is no real definition without actually having numbers present.

#2. The Bitcoin community doesn't have something against decentralized projects, it matters more whether or not the platform is actually useful and can be used more effectively than other projects that exist of the same kind. Openbazaar does not offer something better than alternatives to it, and the market is more selective and niche.

[European Central Bank]

i wonder what their figures are for users. even if they were ok at one point they must be falling with the fee situation as it is. i assume they'll be integrating alts.

i've tried it a couple of times. i couldn't find a goddamn thing.

[TheButterZone]

I'm holding off on listing my entire inventory until 2.0 stable is out so just a few things are @thebutterzone. Waste of time to have to redo the whole store with the new version.

[Pursuer]

Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

shouldn't this be in reverse? meaning "...against centralized ..." because bitcoin is all about decentralization and majority of users understand and want this.
it is possible that one of the reasons for OpenBazaar not being that big as they want it to be is that it is still not an easy thing to use. it was improved compared to the first release but it needs a lot more work to become widely used.

in other words people have nothing against decentralization, they just want an easier options.

[RodeoX]

I just ran it after reading this thread. Unfortunately I didn't really see the growth that was mentioned.

[lumeire]

OpenBazaar Chief executive also said that the decentralized marketplace knew a steady growth since the last year, I find this hard to believe because I know no one who use the platform. Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

#2. The Bitcoin community doesn't have something against decentralized projects, it matters more whether or not the platform is actually useful and can be used more effectively than other projects that exist of the same kind. Openbazaar does not offer something better than alternatives to it, and the market is more selective and niche.

Simply because it's impractical and not simple enough. Unless OpenBazaar can provide eBay like ease of use it's not gonna prosper.

[MingLee]

OB1, the startup behind the bitcoin-powered decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar, has raised $200,000 in new funding from investment firm Digital Currency Group. Additional details can be found on CoinDesk's article.
OpenBazaar Chief executive also said that the decentralized marketplace knew a steady growth since the last year, I find this hard to believe because I know no one who use the platform. Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

Good for them, used it once to see what kinds of things people were selling but never really got involved with it much. I should probably see if I can find anything interesting to me on that website, but I would have to go and download it again.
I don't think that the community has something against decentralized projects, but the interface was never something I really liked all that much. Maybe it has changed and I should go back to seeing if I can find things that I would like to buy at some point. Might be good for the community.

[davis196]

OpenBazaar Chief executive also said that the decentralized marketplace knew a steady growth since the last year, I find this hard to believe because I know no one who use the platform. Ironically, the bitcoin community seem to have something against the decentralized projects.

#2. The Bitcoin community doesn't have something against decentralized projects, it matters more whether or not the platform is actually useful and can be used more effectively than other projects that exist of the same kind. Openbazaar does not offer something better than alternatives to it, and the market is more selective and niche.

Simply because it's impractical and not simple enough. Unless OpenBazaar can provide eBay like ease of use it's not gonna prosper.

Perhaps they will improve the Openbazaar marketplace and software after they get more funding.
They will invest the money in programming,design and do some market research about what people like and hate in Openbazaar.
Anyway,i hate downloading and installing software,i prefer cloud services.

[Netnox]

Openbazaar has been a big disappointment till now. I first heard about this venture many years back, and even now they don't have anything solid to put up. How many listings do they have right now? I bet that the number is less than 10,000.

[Carlton Banks]

I understand the criticisms, but they are misplaced IMO.


I think the culture of running one's own personal server has yet to take off, yet I can see it happening eventually. Everyone knows the problems with free, centralised web services, and yet they also behave as if running a server is not an option. It takes more money and resources to serve your own content, but the operative word at the beginning of this sentence is "own". When we run our own servers, not unlike seeding Bittorrent content or running a Bitcoin node, it places the user in control, you own your presence or content on the web.

Ideas like Diaspora (decentralised social network alternative to Facebook) and OpenBazaar have yet to catch fire, yet the potential for them to do so is huge. Other competitors in the same markets as Diaspora and OpenBazaar (mostly Facebook and eBay) have been pushing more and more unwanted changes on their users, in an abuse of their dominant market position. They will push too hard eventually, I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been more of a backlash yet.

[Dudeperfect]

Really appriciate such projects. I even heard about a brand new retail store cum mall situated probably in China where they have bitcoin as a payment method. I think we are now entering in the revolutionary process of transforming payment infrstructure and still we have a long way to go. I would recommend bitcoin holders to invest their holdings in bitcoin/blockchains startups instead of relying on the speculative growth.

[darthmaul]

Hard to believe OpenBazaar raises $200k since not many people interested with their decentralized marketplace since it's not easy to use and seller need server (CMIIW).
I guess people still optimize that OpenBazaar will success or they have loyal users.

Yeah the loyal users! Thats is the only reason we can think of for that $200 raised in USD. The project though promising don't have much of the attention by investors. This projection become legendary one if people starts taking part in by investing their bitcoins. The potential is already proven by the company as seen on the post but without any further investors it may drain itself and the project might get dropped. Hoping it will take a boost soon enough.

[Denker]

I don't think this project will be a success.
Maybe with version 2 and TOR enabled some darknet users may find it useful.
However I thank Brian Hoffman for this attempt.

[eckmar]

I understand the criticisms, but they are misplaced IMO.


I think the culture of running one's own personal server has yet to take off, yet I can see it happening eventually. Everyone knows the problems with free, centralised web services, and yet they also behave as if running a server is not an option. It takes more money and resources to serve your own content, but the operative word at the beginning of this sentence is "own". When we run our own servers, not unlike seeding Bittorrent content or running a Bitcoin node, it places the user in control, you own your presence or content on the web.

Ideas like Diaspora (decentralised social network alternative to Facebook) and OpenBazaar have yet to catch fire, yet the potential for them to do so is huge. Other competitors in the same markets as Diaspora and OpenBazaar (mostly Facebook and eBay) have been pushing more and more unwanted changes on their users, in an abuse of their dominant market position. They will push too hard eventually, I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been more of a backlash yet.

I don't think money is problem there. You can run your own server for just a few bucks a month. Most users are not even trying to do it because they think that it's way too complicated for them when it's in fact very simple

[Vishnu.Reang]

I don't think this project will be a success.
Maybe with version 2 and TOR enabled some darknet users may find it useful.
However I thank Brian Hoffman for this attempt.

I am also quite skeptical about it, although I am unaware of any progress which they have made during the past few months. From the Wikipedia, I have learnt that they have succeeded in attracting hundreds of vendors, and there are now thousands of active listings. They have also been quite successful in attracting new funding.

[YuginKadoya]

#2. The Bitcoin community doesn't have something against decentralized projects, it matters more whether or not the platform is actually useful and can be used more effectively than other projects that exist of the same kind. Openbazaar does not offer something better than alternatives to it, and the market is more selective and niche.

I think the only one that are gonna be against a project such as these are some competitors that simply don't allow some bitcoin purchase, but I think these project will only be popular with the bitcoin enthusiast people and well I am one of that people that are patiently waiting for something like these that is gonna be convenient for every bitcoin users but I wish the transaction price can be reasonable and the transaction would be fast with their transactions. 

[2bfree]

I wish them luck this time around, I was not impressed with the first one. I'll wait for some good news and jump on the new version if I hear good things to check it out.