It has been coming for a long time, but OpenBazaar successfully integrated Tor support. It was only a matter of time until this change took place. The OpenBazaar team wants to ensure their marketplace services can be used with all protocols, including those which provide more anonymity. It is now possible to run a darknet marketplace off one’s own computer, albeit that may not be the best course of action.
To put this news into perspective, OpenBazaar has always been compatible with Tor. It took a bit more work to get everything set up, the marketplace protocol was never opposed to Tor to begin with. The bigger question is whether this news will help the software project gain more mainstream traction. OB Remains one of the most promising decentralized projects the world has seen to date.
Decentralized marketplaces are direly needed, yet the association with Tor can reduce its appeal. Many people think of Tor as something that is only used for illegal online activity. That is not the case, of course, yet the public perception may not work in OpenBazaar’s favor. Developing a proper decentralized marketplace does require some proof to show the idea works. Giving people an option to transact illegal goods is one way to do. After all, the team developing the decentralized technology is not responsible for the listings posted.
A Big Step Forward for OpenBazaar
In the end, solutions such as Openbazaar will prove to be beneficial to everyone. Criminals will look to take advantage of the technology first. Slowly but surely, mainstream consumers and enterprises will see the merit in decentralized marketplaces as well. It is pretty normal for disruptive tech to start gaining traction in the fringe markets first. Projects such as OB may not be all that different in this regard.
As is the case with any project introducing Tor support, the code can be vetted on GitHub. It is important independent coders take a look at this implementation. A proper security audit is scheduled to take place before Openbazaar 2.0 will be introduced. Until then, everyone is welcome to check the code and make any suggestions as they see fit. The bigger question is what effect this development will have on regular darknet marketplaces in the future.
With no central platform controlling the market anymore, exist scams are less likely to occur moving forward. While Openbazaar can be used to operate a darknet market, its potential use cases are virtually unlimited. All things considered, the integration of Tor is great news for the project and the cryptocurrency community. While OB is anything but perfect in its current stage, things are progressing in the right direction.
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