<story><title>OpenBazaar is a decentralized Dark Net market that&apos;s &apos;untouchable&apos; by police</title><url>http://www.dailydot.com/politics/openbazaar-is-next-after-silk-road-2-falls/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jasode</author><text>I see several comments questioning the &lt;i&gt;legitimate&lt;/i&gt; value of a peer-to-peer marketplace.  Some cannot see any use other than illegal commerce (drugs, porn, etc).&lt;p&gt;It is true that such illicit trades will take advantage of that network but is it really impossible to envision &lt;i&gt;legal&lt;/i&gt; business as the major activity?  Yes, cars can be used as getaway vehicles from bank robberies and also smash terrorist bombs into government buildings.  However, cars also have tons of other legitimate uses.&lt;p&gt;Consider that ebay has about 200 million users.[1]  Their fees have been going up every year and they are now at 10% (which does not include the separate insertion fees.)[2]&lt;p&gt;If one can sell a &lt;i&gt;legal&lt;/i&gt; item such as a $50 book on ebay, why not sell it on a p2p marketplace and avoid paying $5 of that sale to ebay?  If not OpenBazaar or similar p2p architecture, what alternatives do folks propose?&lt;p&gt;Do 200 million ebay users have &lt;i&gt;lawful&lt;/i&gt; reasons to avoid paying ebay commission fees?&lt;p&gt;At this point, I believe low-volume selling is too dependent on proprietary platforms such as ebay or amazonmarketplace.  As an analogy using email, I&amp;#x27;m glad that SMTP won over closed systems such as CompuServe, AOL, and Western Union&amp;#x27;s EasyLink.  Even though SMTP email has many bad uses such as phishing, malware delivery, and spam, I&amp;#x27;m still glad it won.  The good uses outweigh the bad.&lt;p&gt;Can a more open platform for sellers &lt;i&gt;without the stigma of illegal activity&lt;/i&gt; be realized?&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+&amp;quot;200+million+users&amp;quot;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;search?q=ebay+&amp;quot;200+million+users&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+raises+fees+10%25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;search?q=ebay+raises+fees+10%25&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>krapp</author><text>&amp;gt;Can a more open platform for sellers without the stigma of illegal activity be realized?&lt;p&gt;Probably not.&lt;p&gt;Cars weren&amp;#x27;t invented to make bank robberies more difficult to stop. These networks were invented, to a degree which shouldn&amp;#x27;t be dismissed when considering their acceptance by the mainstream, to make enforcing laws against trading in &lt;i&gt;anything&lt;/i&gt; more difficult, if not impossible.&lt;p&gt;I think most people (not most people on HN, or in tech, but most people in general) would rather pay the extra few dollars than support the premise of a truly free market. While I would agree completely that there are perfectly legitimate uses for these networks, and there is nothing at all evil or malicious in the technology itself, I also think it would be disingenuous to state that their use in illegal activities is somehow orthogonal to their purpose.</text></comment>
<story><title>OpenBazaar is a decentralized Dark Net market that&apos;s &apos;untouchable&apos; by police</title><url>http://www.dailydot.com/politics/openbazaar-is-next-after-silk-road-2-falls/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jasode</author><text>I see several comments questioning the &lt;i&gt;legitimate&lt;/i&gt; value of a peer-to-peer marketplace.  Some cannot see any use other than illegal commerce (drugs, porn, etc).&lt;p&gt;It is true that such illicit trades will take advantage of that network but is it really impossible to envision &lt;i&gt;legal&lt;/i&gt; business as the major activity?  Yes, cars can be used as getaway vehicles from bank robberies and also smash terrorist bombs into government buildings.  However, cars also have tons of other legitimate uses.&lt;p&gt;Consider that ebay has about 200 million users.[1]  Their fees have been going up every year and they are now at 10% (which does not include the separate insertion fees.)[2]&lt;p&gt;If one can sell a &lt;i&gt;legal&lt;/i&gt; item such as a $50 book on ebay, why not sell it on a p2p marketplace and avoid paying $5 of that sale to ebay?  If not OpenBazaar or similar p2p architecture, what alternatives do folks propose?&lt;p&gt;Do 200 million ebay users have &lt;i&gt;lawful&lt;/i&gt; reasons to avoid paying ebay commission fees?&lt;p&gt;At this point, I believe low-volume selling is too dependent on proprietary platforms such as ebay or amazonmarketplace.  As an analogy using email, I&amp;#x27;m glad that SMTP won over closed systems such as CompuServe, AOL, and Western Union&amp;#x27;s EasyLink.  Even though SMTP email has many bad uses such as phishing, malware delivery, and spam, I&amp;#x27;m still glad it won.  The good uses outweigh the bad.&lt;p&gt;Can a more open platform for sellers &lt;i&gt;without the stigma of illegal activity&lt;/i&gt; be realized?&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+&amp;quot;200+million+users&amp;quot;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;search?q=ebay+&amp;quot;200+million+users&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=ebay+raises+fees+10%25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;search?q=ebay+raises+fees+10%25&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>doctorfoo</author><text>When OpenBazaar seems more mature I will definitely consider listing (my entirely legal) items on it first, at least to experiment. Lower fees + I&amp;#x27;m happy with Bitcoin = Win.</text></comment>