Decentralized Applications

Chapter 4. OpenBazaar

This chapter will take a deep dive into the decentralized market, OpenBazaar. We’ll discuss the rationale and overall structure of the transactions it supports and then talk through implementing an OpenBazaar instance as well as its potential next steps and flaws.

Why Make OpenBazaar?

Bitcoin really got people excited about developing next-generation ecommerce with speedy micropayments and better security. The first institutions to utilize Bitcoin at a large scale were centralized providers like Overstock and Dish Network. Bitcoin provided these mainstream companies with an opportunity to showcase their tech savvy, but its pseudonymity and immediate value transfer were much more suited to a marketplace for illegal goods: Silk Road.

Silk Road was like the underground version of eBay. It was a centralized website, but to gain access to it you had to use onion routing via Tor. The creator made it very difficult for casual users to access it, and it was considered the pinnacle of the “dark web.” People primarily bought and sold illegal drugs on Silk Road, particularly in jurisdictions with strict antidrug laws. Although part of Silk Road’s business might have been universally repugnant, other sales involved cross-jurisdictional sales of “light” drugs like marijuana (and even tobacco) or nondrug items like erotic art and books, jewelry, and the like.

It all worked out for quite a while, but eventually the United States government caught up with Silk Road because ...