The ideas and projects related to Bitcoin do not stop growing day after day thanks to all the implementation and acceptance options that it offers. If after getting information about this cryptocurrency you have reached a list of merchants that accept it as a payment method, it is likely that you have also found a name that you did not know until now: openbaza is.
Completely different from all the other stores you have known so far. In this new article we are going to present you an introduction about it so that as soon as you finish you can start trying it!
What is OpenBazaar?
Open Bazaar is a project Open Source, like Bitcoin, which aims to create a decentralized P2P trading network using BTC and without additional charges or restrictions of any kind.
What do means this?
Well, right now the power in an exchange between buyers and sellers would no longer reside in a centralized service that communicates them. It is the users themselves who connect directly. Without the requirement of any other third party. Let's see it clearly in the following graph:
Until now, every time one of us made a purchase on the Internet, it was not the only important element in the whole process. From the moment of purchase until you had the product in your house, at least 4 essential parts were involved in the operation.
- Merchant who is offering their products.
- Company and intermediary platform Between all of them and customers, we are talking about businesses like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress or any other that connects merchants and buyers.
- Payment system like VISA or Paypal they also have full knowledge of the buyer's and seller's personal information.
- Buyer: we, the person interested in making the purchase in the simplest and most comfortable way possible.
With OpenBazaar, only 3 elements are required and a moderator that we will talk about in detail when explaining how it works.
- Seller It does not depend on any other service to sell its products. He creates and maintains his trade.
- Buyer that reaches the seller's products using OpenBazaar.
- Payment method in this case decentralized and without having to provide personal information to any centralized entity.
Simple, right? Direct from person to person. Although unfortunately the delivery of the product is still mediated ... Do you dare to devise a solution to this? 😉
How does OpenBazaar work?
After comparing traditional systems with this new marketplace, it is time to understand how OpenBazaar really works with a clear example.
Let's imagine that María is a seller of computer products and Miguel a buyer interested in María's products.
Using the OpenBazaar client, Maria can open her own online store and create a new product list with all its details in the same way as she would on any other e-commerce site.
From here, anyone like Miguel will be able to find Maria's store as long as they search the OpenBazaar client for a device that they are actually selling.
Once Miguel has accessed his store, has seen the product, has been interested and decides to buy it, the client creates a contract between the digital signatures of both and sends it to a moderator. All this in a decentralized way and without it requiring additional information creating a multi-signature bitcoin account in which the authorization of two out of three people is required before the bitcoins can be released.
Miguel sends the 0.5BTC that his product costs to that address, María receives a message to proceed with the shipment of the product. When Miguel checks that he has received the product, the funds from the multi-signature account are sent directly to María.
All parts have what they needed. María has the funds and Miguel his product after an exchange with full security and integrity.
Moderators in this decentralized market with Bitcoin
Let's imagine for a moment that your product arrives and it is completely different from the one in the image or in the store description.
Someone has to moderate in this case, so the funds will not budge until the buyer and seller come to an agreement. It is then when the moderator will proceed according to the decision made.
Product explorers at OpenBazaar
The OpenBazaar client is in an initial phase and you may encounter problems in understanding how it works. That is why some web developers have already created portals from which you can find products from your browser such as bazaarbay and DuoSearch without delays or possible instability problems that may occur from the official client.
Do not you think it anymore, download the client and start looking for your favorite stores in it! Some like Trezor They have already opened their stores!