Quick question for those more familiar: I know that more and more merchants are accepting bitcoin but is there anyone out there who is working on or has established a bitcoin marketplace yet?
There used to be one. Bitmit.
But they closed down a few months ago.
A centralized marketplace would probably attract scammers and give Bitcoin a bad name.
In theory, yes, that could easily happen. But the ever-present issue of scammers in bitcoin also presents an opportunity for an entrepreneur to develop a site with built in escrow to eliminate the possibility of scammers. Right now, the whole no chargebacks thing that is an inherent feature in Bitcoin only benefits the sellers. If a site had a strong enough reputation (like Amazon does) and did this with all the transactions, it would eliminate the possibility of scamming. I know I'd shop at a site that did this.
(I know but it helped me get the point anyway), and figure if there is (or is about to be) a dedicated marketplace for bitcoin only that can only be a good thing.