OpenBazaar, the untouchable online market, inches closer to game time

An untouchable Internet-based market is on the verge of release. OpenBazaar, once just a proof-of-concept for a decentralized marketplace run on Bitcoin, entered beta 1.0 Tuesday morning.
The developers announced the beta in a blog post, paired with an accompanying tutorial and several caveats. Participating is limited to those with technical know-how who want to help test. There are risks. They warn that:
‘While you can engage in real trade, the purpose will be to test the platform, not actually run a store.’ On the other hand, if you want to test out the marketplace, whether to help or simply out of or curiosity, they posted detailed instructions.
OpenBazaar, as the market’s billed, hopes to revolutionize the likes of Amazon. Screenshots of the bazaar resembles a “normal” ecommerce site. Sellers can tag their products and buyers are able to find them through a couple of keyword searches. All parties can provide feedback on other users, buyers or sellers, in a reputation and ratings system. It is not a far cry from auction-based eBay.

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2014-09-03.