OpenBazaar Could Just be the Future of E-commerce

Can OpenBazaar deliver on its mission to allow any individual to trade with another freely? Bitcoin’s technology has opened the door to a new wave of entrepreneurs. The global sharing economy has enabled users to access a service that was hard to obtain in the past.

We are living in a world that is embracing decentralized business models. Uber and AirBnB are great examples of this, although, they are still based on centralized business models. OpenBazaar on the other hand is completely decentralized. No central authority can shut it down or impose changes.

The blockchain company called OB1 has developed a blockchain based online marketplace. There goal is to disrupt the global e-commerce industry valued at roughly 25 Trillion ZAR per annum. OB1’s CEO is Brian Hoffman says “Pretty simply OpenBazaar is an online marketplace that anyone, anywhere in the world can sell anything and you accept Bitcoin for the payment of those goods and services”

It has been called “Ebay on acid”because of the nature of the community and the interesting products that can be found on there already. If you would like to browse the products available we recommend duosear.ch, the openbazaar search service. There are all sorts of arts and crafts and interesting items available, many of which ship internationally.

It doesn’t host the listings or capture buyers details. OpenBazaar is an open source, peer-to-peer network for selling goods online. To run OpenBazaar, you need to run and install the software which can be downloaded at openbazaar.org. It is similar to BitTorrent, everyone who runs the software is a node on the network.

OpenBazaar doesn’t charge any fees for buyers or sellers. Moderaters on the platform charge a set fee of their choice to arbitrate transactions. Moderation fees are on average around 1% of the transaction, which is great for sellers. Ebay and Amazon charge roughly 15% in fees to sell on their platforms.

The game-changing aspect of this software is that there are no limits what you can sell. Now you may be thinking, doesn’t this facilitate illegal transactions, something reminiscent of the Silk Road? Critics say that this will be it’s downfall, but they say it is much bigger than that. It is more about building a free market, not just an illegal market.

The truth is, anyone who is hosting an open bazaar store is making their IP address public. That isn’t ideal for illegal transactions. If you open OpenBazaar, you will not be flooded with drug listings, Instead, you’ll find a host of interesting wares from comic books to t-shorts, badges and handmade goods.

OpenBazaar raised 1 Million USD in a seed round (2015). And while they only have about 140,000 users, they are growing fast. What do you think? Is OpenBazaar going to be the next Amazon or Alibaba?

Get Free Bitcoins Doing What You Love

Do you wonder where you can get some free bitcoins? For many of us, the discovery of Bitcoin is like the discovery of organic foods. We can see the benefits of using them but find it difficult to justify the cost, and then there is the risk that we’ll be getting a bad deal since we don’t know what we’re doing. In Bitcoin, it’s like every organic food store has someone out front, offering free samples. Also, there’s a library everywhere you look, but only a few of those libraries have any good information. The largest traders would benefit a great deal if everyone just jumped blindly into Bitcoin, investing large chunks of their life savings in the process. That would be just fine by them, but it’s unlikely to happen. More likely, people are going to get involved with Bitcoin either by necessity, by chance or because someone was willing to give them a few bitcoins to get started with.
Now, before we begin discussing the places out there to get free Bitcoin, let’s just be clear: there is no way to get wealthy without working or investing for it. It is impossible to make an income in bitcoins or any other currency just by clicking around on some websites. However, that being said, cryptocurrencies are unique in that clever marketers can make a profit doing exactly that, giving away money. This would not be possible in other currencies, where they simply can’t be broken down small enough. The operator will usually make less than a penny. If they were forced to give you a penny or more, there’d be no way to be profitable. Getting free bitcoins is not a way to get rich, and certainly not the most profitable use of one’s time, but if you’ve got some free time and would like to pick up a small amount of extra Bitcoin now and then, then this definitive guide will is a great place to start.

1. The Blockchain Game

Since our last publishing of this guide, perhaps the most fun way to earn free bitcoins, Bitcoin Flapper, has gone by the wayside. The company which operated it no longer do, and appears to only operate iPhone apps with various titles that don’t seem to pay out in bitcoins. Other options in the Google Play Store have arisen to fill the void. Chief among them is the Blockchain Game. You sign up with a two-step sign-up process which involves giving over your e-mail address and then your Bitcoin address.

The game pays out once per week. It’s important to note that like most free games, the Blockchain Game has a lot of advertisements. This is how they are able to afford to pay others. In one sense, Bitcoin faucets and free Bitcoin games could be seen as a method of advertising profit sharing.

Playing the Blockchain game is fun, challenging, and mildly addictive. The frequent interruptions by advertising are, of course, less than ideal, but a necessary evil. Gameplay involves getting to the top level, which has the highest reward. One has to assume that this is based on skill and that the maximum reward is simply the most the company behind it, free Bitcoin veterans Bitcoin Aliens, is willing to pay out for one game.
Getting to only the first level is easy, but each level after that requires that you place the block directly above the previous level. This can be difficult because the block moves on its own and it moves faster with each level. Every ten levels, you get the option to cash out or go further. Here’s what gameplay looks like:

As you can see in the last screengrab, if you fail to place a block, you get the option to continue for watching a short ad.

Saxo Bank Says Bitcoin Price Could Triple in 2017

Saxo Bank wouldn't be surprised if the bitcoin price saw big gains this year.

The Danish investment bank recently published its annual "Outrageous Predictions for 2017", a collection of speculations that it stressed represents more of a fringe outlook than anything official. At the same time, the bank said that these "outlier" predictions represent its attempt to get those in the financial industry to think about more extreme possibilities for the year ahead.

In addition to off-the-cuff calls that the UK won't actually leave the European Union and that Italian equity prices will soar on the back of an EU-led bailout, Saxo Bank said that, under the right conditions, the price of bitcoin could skyrocket to more than $2,100.

Chief among its reasons was the potential for the incoming Trump administration to cause turbulence in the US economy (a reason given by bitcoin traders for recent price momentum).

Saxo Bank explained:

"If the banking system as well as sovereigns such as Russia and China move to accept bitcoin as a partial alternative to the USD and the traditional banking and payment system, then we could see bitcoin easily triple over the next year going from the current $700 level to +$2,100 as the block-chains decentralised system, an inability to dilute the finite supply of bitcoins as well as low to no transaction costs gains more traction and acceptance globally."

Though the prediction doesn’t represent an official position, it's not the first bullish indication the bank has made.

In 2014, then-current CEO Lars Seier Christensen discussed his "personal" interest in bitcoin with CoinDesk, describing it as an opportunity for investors.

At the time, he had also hinted at early testing of the tech within the bank as well, though later Christensen would go on to argue that liquidity problems at the time were keeping banks on the sidelines.