The cryptocurrency-based decentralized marketplace Openbazaar, which launched its 2.0 platform in September 2017, has seen significant growth in the months following the introduction of several privacy-enhancing features. According to Bitcoin.com, vendors from darknet markets (DNMs) are increasingly flocking to the protocol to take advantage of its new capabilities.
Privacy Enhancements Fuel Growth
Bitcoin.com conducted a thorough tour of the Openbazaar 2.0 platform this week. The new version incorporates three search engines—OB1, Duo, and Raw Flood—providing users with deeper search functionality. More critically, the platform now integrates the Tor browser, a native bitcoin wallet, Shapeshift integration, and offline store capabilities. These features have led to an exponential increase in both vendors and users, with a much larger inventory of products compared to just a few months ago.
The offline stores and Tor integration have been particularly attractive to darknet vendors. They believe using Tor over Openbazaar effectively masks a user's identity, while the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) protocol ensures stores remain available 24/7. On the Reddit forum /r/darknetmarkets, many users detailed in a long thread that selling illicit goods 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 Both Black and White Markets
Bitcoin.com searched the DUO engine and found 350 listings for cannabis-related items, including flower, oil, and other marijuana accessories. Roughly one-third of these listings actually sell the drug online at various prices. Other narcotics available include Kratom powder, Opium seeds, Molly (MDMA), Psilocybin, and a few designer drug listings. However, Openbazaar's illicit market listings are still far fewer than centralized DNMs such as Dream, Libertas, and Wall Street Market. At the same time, the decentralized market also hosts a wide range of legal products: socks, stickers, comic books, DVDs, cookies, Nintendo games, iPhones, Opendimes, Trezor hardware wallets, and more. Transaction history and dispute resolution data are significantly more advanced than in the previous version.
Minor Software Quirks, But Much More Activity
During testing, Bitcoin.com noted occasional Tor runtime errors that caused search queries to fail. Additionally, the platform's native wallet may charge relatively high fees by default, but users can adjust the fee settings from "priority" to "economic" to reduce costs. Despite these initial software quirks, the Openbazaar platform now features many more products, services, and vendors than at the time of our last review of the 1.0 version. For those seeking chemical calisthenics, the improved search functionality may help them find what they're looking for.
(Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions. This article does not constitute investment advice.)