In the early days of Bitcoin, much of the community’s focus was around payment and getting merchants to adopt cryptocurrencies. Although the technology and narratives have evolved, some projects continue to embrace that original vision of peer-to-peer business, where merchants and their customers interact directly, and if they so wish, anonymously.
We’re joined by Brian Hoffman and Washington Sanchez of OpenBazaar. Since we last interviewed Brian in 2015, the project has grown to become a mature decentralized marketplace where people come together to buy and sell products and services anonymously with crypto. Its polished interface and reputation system gives users a similar experience to that of using eBay, but without fees or the risk of censorship.
Topics covered in this episode:
Brian and Washington’s respective backgrounds
The origins of OpenBazaar as the Dark Market project
The history and evolution of OpenBazaar since their last appearance on episode 67
How OpenBazaar managed to survive all these years and how the vision has evolved over time
Who uses the platform and to what ends
How it compares to traditional dark markets like The Silk Road
OpenBazaar’s position on deplatforming and how it responds to pressure to censor content
How OpenBazaar works under the hood as a collection of decentralized technologies
The company’s business model and future plans
Episode links:
OpenBazaar website
Dark Market project on GitHub
Episode 67 of Epicenter with Brian Hoffman
Trust is Risk
Brian Hoffman, Twitter
Washington Sanchez, Twitter
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This episode is hosted by Sébastien Couture and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/279