This article is from:DecryptThis article is from:
, by Mathew Di Salvo
Odaily Translator |
Decentralized commodity trading platform OpenBazaar announced Friday that it is unable to continue operating due to insufficient funds.
OpenBazaar said in a public statement that its services — seed nodes, API wallets, exchange rate APIs — will be shut down unless significant community donations are received. A representative of the platform said: “As of now, we don’t have a clear (funding) goal, but for us, $100,000 should be enough to last us until next year.”
Founded in 2014, OpenBazaar is currently one of the longest-running decentralized commodity trading platforms. OpenBazaar allows users to buy and sell goods online using cryptocurrencies such as BTC, BCH and ETH. As an open source project, OpenBazaar is not controlled by a single entity like a traditional e-commerce platform, but many developers help it realize the P2P network function. Another big difference from traditional e-commerce is that there is no fee charged for selling goods on OpenBazaar, and there are no middlemen to get commission from it.
Since OpenBazaar launched, the platform has completed close to $44 million in cryptocurrency transactions. The deals were used to buy everything from sneakers to laptops to board games and chocolates. However, this figure is still pitifully small compared with various darknet markets, which according to Chainalysis 2019 data, compared with darknet markets, the average daily transaction volume of darknet markets is between 5 million and 15 million US dollars.
OpenBazaar specifically pointed out that although various prescription drugs like oxycontin and tramadol (some countries prohibit online trading of such drugs) are indeed sold on the platform, OpenBazaar has never catered to illegal trading.
OpenBazaar also said that its messaging and wallet app Haven will also cease functioning on October 1. Guidance on how users will withdraw their funds will be announced in the coming days. Additionally, OpenBazaar's search engine and Blockbook's indexer code will also be open-sourced for those who need this type of infrastructure.
OpenBazaar said that the current shutdown of services is almost a foregone conclusion, and there is only one possibility for continued operations-community support.
