Topic: [2017-09-11] Openbazaar 2.0 Beta Launches with Tor, Offline Stores, Shapeshift.. (Read 3045 times)

These are the two main sites you can use to search for stuff, I've no idea how comprehensive it actually is though or whether there are better ways of doing it.

https://duosear.ch/

https://bazaarbay.org/

Is there any aggregate of vendors on openbazaar with their products? I would download if there's anything that interest me...

We know what they can collect, which is your IP address; referrer field (what website you came from); information that you give them (like an email subscription); and information about your blockchain transaction.

If you use a VPN and you try to obscure the "source" of your BTC before you choose to use Shapeshift, I don't see the problem.  It's by far the most anonymous way to exchange between coins.  It's not like you can go on Bittrex and exchange over 1 BTC at a time instantly without even creating an account.

If you don't want privacy, it's just a very simple way of exchanging coins quickly within your client.
True.  I was just there out of curiosity until they're out of beta anyway.  Maybe the full release will attract some more users.

What is the point then for adding it in the first place ? We don't know exactly what data Shapeshift collects from customers so anyone who is concerned about privacy should avoid it

It downloaded and fired up absolutely fine, I just couldn't find anything to buy on there. The search function was non existent. What ads did pop up were for bizarre junk or had been on there for months. I seem to recall it froze or crashed after a few minutes of desultory browsing.

Really?  Personally, I just downloaded it once (for 64-bit Windows) and it was sorted within a couple of minutes.

After I got through the security warnings, it went pretty smoothly and had a simple UI as well.
I think they know that their customers are likely to be privacy-oriented individuals who will have Tor, especially when they're going to be buying and selling items for Bitcoin in the first place.

Having privacy-oriented features doesn't mean that they'll just be a drug market - it looks more likely that they'll just be a market for whatever Bitcoin users are interested in (and that includes a fair amount of legal items as well as illegal ones).
If the user is already trying to stay anonymous, they'll probably just be using Shapeshift with a VPN/Tor and they'll have tried to cover their tracks in terms of blockchain analysis.

Looks like they failed pretty bad here. By including TOR looks like they try to encourage sales of drugs and other contraband but they add Shapeshift ? We all know that if needed Shapeshift does not mind working with governments...

Well yeah, I guess it depends how much one really needs uncensorable commerce, most people don't care (likely including, bizarrely, drug dealers themselves, many of whom are more likely to trust their smartphones than Tor or darknet platforms).

The store seeding feature in 2.0 should improve the experience a great deal, these are mostly small independent businesses whose inventory is not going to cost customers of the respective businesses much disk space to host themselves.



Yep, the feature-set of 2.0 makes this outcome a great deal more likely, not to mention another nail in the coffin of the so-called war on drugs (where the most powerful adversary, the state itself, includes corrupt elements that fights both sides of the "war", and hence has zero incentive to ever "win")

I think I've downloaded this about three times now and gave up in disgust each time.

It looks like they've given in to the inevitable and this will become the drug market that should always have been.

Openbazaar 2.0, a major upgrade from the previous version, has been released. The fully-functional public beta expands the peer-to-peer app with several new features including Tor integration, improved search, a bitcoin wallet, new vendor tools, and stores that stay online.



Openbazaar announced on Saturday its 2.0 beta release, after a month of alpha testing. The free, peer-to-peer, eBay-like marketplace already allows anyone to buy and sell all kinds of goods and services for bitcoin without censorship or fees.For the first time, however, Openbazaar 2.0’s many new features can be used with real products instead of test data. The announcement states:





One of the biggest complaints users had with Openbazaar before now has been stores going offline when vendors are not running their store apps. With version 2.0, even when the computer running the store is offline, other network nodes can display the store and still let customers place orders.

This is due to a major networking addition known as the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) protocol, which distributes store information between other Openbazaar users to help with store uptime and product availability. The team detailed:






Version 1 did not have a bitcoin wallet built in, making it harder for new users that were not already bitcoin owners to start using the platform. New for version 2.0 is a full-featured bitcoin wallet, which recently integrated Segwit. This “does allow us some transaction fee relief,” commented Openbazaar developer and founder Washington Sanchez.

In addition to bitcoin, version 2.0 supports bitcoin cash as well as many altcoins through Shapeshift’s “shifty button.” Any coins available through Shapeshift can be used at Openbazaar stores.




One of the most anticipated features requested for Openbazaar since its origins as a project called “Darkmarket” is the inclusion of Tor routing to preserve user’s privacy. Openbazaar version 2.0 includes the option to both shop and run a store using Tor. However, the option is not turned on by default and can be tricky for new users to set up properly. This video shows how to run Openbazaar with Tor on Windows.

Although the platform does not cater to those selling and buying illicit goods, Tor will allow many darknet market participants to set up their own storefronts using Openbazaar instead of the dark web. This would provide them with feature-rich e-commerce shops, often not offered by darknet marketplaces. The stores are also decentralized, offering a new level of protection to marketplaces like the Silk Road from being tracked and shut down by law enforcement, according to the creators of the software.




Openbazaar version 1’s search functionality was inadequate due to the intermittent nature of the stores’ availability. Finding goods to buy in the app was easier done offsite using 3rd-party services like Duosear.ch, which aggregates Openbazaar’s product listings and displays them on its website.

A new OB1 search engine has been built into Openbazaar version 2.0. The app lets users choose between the new search engine and Duosear.ch from inside the program. The team detailed:


" Third party search providers are now accessible from within the client. Search results are much faster and more accurate than they were before. "


https://news.bitcoin.com/openbazaar-2-0-beta-launches-with-tor-offline-stores-bitcoin-cash-and-segwit/