The cryptocurrency-based decentralized marketplace Openbazaar launched its 2.0 platform in September 2017, introducing a host of new features. A few months later, the marketplace has seen significant growth, particularly as vendors from darknet markets begin to flock to its privacy-enhanced protocol.
Privacy Enhancements Drive Openbazaar Growth
This week, Bitcoin.com took a tour through the search listings on the Openbazaar 2.0 platform. The new version features three search engines—OB1, Duo, and Raw Flood—providing users with deeper product discovery. Additionally, the platform now integrates the Tor browser, a native Bitcoin wallet, Shapeshift integration, and offline stores. These attributes have exponentially increased the number of vendors and users, with far more products available than just a few months ago.
The offline stores and Tor integration have also attracted darknet market (DNM) vendors. They believe using Tor over Openbazaar helps mask user identity, while the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol keeps stores available 24/7. On the Reddit forum /r/darknetmarkets, users detail in a long thread that selling illicit products through Openbazaar using Tor and VPNs is working as intended. One DNM vendor explained, "We had our first sale today and were able to withdraw the money with no issues at all — The system is very smooth and easy to use."
Serving Patrons from Both Black and White Markets
Bitcoin.com investigated how many listings for illicit goods, such as cannabis, could be found. A search on DUO revealed 350 cannabis listings selling actual flower, oil, and other marijuana accessories. Roughly a third of these listings are actively selling the drug online at various prices. Other narcotics available include Kratom powder, Opium seeds, Molly (MDMA), Psilocybin, and a few designer drug listings.
Openbazaar does not yet have as many black market listings as centralized DNMs like Dream, Libertas, and the Wall Street Market. However, the decentralized market also offers a wide range of legal products: socks, stickers, comic books, DVDs, cookies, Nintendo games, iPhones, Opendimes, Trezors, and more. Sales and transaction history are far more advanced than the previous version, including dispute resolution data.
Software Quirks, but Significantly More Action
During testing, Bitcoin.com noticed occasional errors when running Tor, causing search queries to fail. Additionally, some users may dislike the high fee estimation in the platform's native wallet, though the setting can be changed from "priority" to "economic" to reduce costs.
Despite these initial software quirks, there is considerably more activity on Openbazaar since its 2.0 launch compared to the previous 1.0 version. The number of products, services, and vendors has increased dramatically. For those interested in "chemical calisthenics," the improved search feature makes it easier to find relevant listings.
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