We all know Amazon, ebay and all this P2P buying / selling platforms. It is very common for us to acquire an item or sell it, as the case may be.
These platforms are centralized and obey policies established by their creators which can be modified at any time. There is also the point of fees applied to list items and sales commissions.
But what would happen if this type of trade were really from person to person, without an intermediary, without fees, fully distributed and without a central government system?
This is already a reality with OpenBazaar.
It is not a company or an organization; It is a free open source software, therefore there are no marketing fees, registration, listing or sales commissions. The idea is to provide everyone with the possibility to buy and sell freely.
User Experience
The process is very simple: You just have to download and install an application on your device. Then you set up your own virtual store.
You list the items you want to sell by placing the price, a representative image and other necessary information such as shipping conditions and stuff.
I did it and it was very easy.
Payment Methods
Payments in OpenBazaar are made with the use of 4 cryptocurrencies so far: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Zcash.
Since you have an internal wallet, you just have to recharge your balances in the currency of your choice.
Of course, the record of all your transactions will remain. You will not need to pay any commission per transaction.
Disadvantages
Since the transactions are carried out from person to person there are no instances or authorities that regulate this process. Therefore buyers are exposed to fraud and the risk of fraud is imminent.
In fact I was a victim of fraud. The seller offers in his shop an exchange between cryptocurrencies. In my case, I wanted to change Zcash to ETH. Once the seller received my transfer, he did not complete the sales process and did not make contact again by chat.
Fortunately it was a test I did and I only lost 5 usd. But the vulnerability to which buyers are exposed due to lack of authority was demonstrated.
Moderators Service
It is a multi-signature custody service. Buyers and sellers can choose to accept a third-party OpenBazaar from mutual trust before starting an operation, and then the buyer sends their bitcoin to a escrow account. Those Bitcoin can only be released when two of the three parties agree where they will be sent. Normally, the buyer and the seller are both parties to the agreement, but if there is a dispute, the third party will come to resolve the dispute. These third parties that offer dispute resolution are selected in an open market. It is important to choose a moderator that is reliable for both parties.
The moderators provide their services in exchange for a percentage of the amount traded.
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