We’re all so used to paying out the “middleman” when it comes to doing business. Whether it be transaction fees from banks, currency conversion rates for international transfers, markup costs from retailers or sale fee’s through third party vendors like Amazon or eBay – there’s always some sort of hidden expense to pay.
It’s unfair and downright annoying. But what if I were to tell you that now there exists a service that allows you to trade freely, all around the world, without any transaction fees whatsoever!
In this episode I spoke with Brian Hoffman, the founder of OpenBazaar, a platform which provides new way to buy and sell almost anything online over a completely decentralized peer to peer (p2p) network. With the simple click of a button you can have the program installed and ready to go in minutes. Once connected, you are free to trade with other users in real time, all across the world.
It’s not every day you meet someone who has plans to radically change how the world does business. However, after speaking with Brian I truly believe we are now at the forefront of a limitless, globalized marketplace where consumers have the upper hand and are no longer left in the dark.
When I first heard about OpenBazaar, I must admit, I did have some mixed opinions. After all, it is a p2p network, which means almost infinite possibility when trading online. History has shown us with networks like Napster, KazaA and even The Silk Road, that there is an incredibly fine line between right and wrong and once unleashed to the general public things can get messy extremely fast. Governments can be swift when enforcing the law against such networks and their controllers so it was interesting to dive in deeper with Brian and discuss these sorts of issues.
I really think you will love this episode. We are on the verge of so many great innovations and there has never been a more exciting time to witness such incredible leaps forward in technology. With the continued use and proven reliability of Bitcoin projects like OpenBazaar are truly powerful and infinitely scalable.
This project is open source, which means the code is publicly available for people to review or audit, as well as contribute code to make it better. Open Bazaar can be scaled without any limitation and it’s because of the incredible community of talented developers around the world that this project has even been made possible.
So without further ado, let’s dive in to this week’s episode with Brian Hoffman.
In this episode you’ll discover:
1:15 – Why Brian decided to start Open Bazaar & what makes it a better option than eBay or Amazon.
3:22 – A simple step by step walk-through for buying something as a new user.
6:52 – The biggest challenges Brian overcame to launch OpenBazaar and the things he learned.
10:55 – Brian’s thoughts on The Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht and any precautions he has about developing an open and decentralized marketplace.
12:45 – Other types of cryptocurrency that may be introduced in OpenBazaar.
13:59 – Brians market opinion of Bitcoin.
15:20 – Marketplace statistics on OpenBazaar.
16: 44 – Recommendations for the types of stores that would do well on OpenBazaar.
17: 53 – Brian’s advice and personal accounts on how to go about pitching and getting VC funding.
19: 49 – Brian’s thoughts and precautions on why crowdfunding can be risky.
23: 45 – The Path to Freedom round:
- Where Brian sees the biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs today.
- The single most important characteristic of success.
- The legacy question: Brian’s ultimate set of instructions for succeeding in life and in business.
Key Takeaways
“Our mission is to shift global trade onto a decentralized platform, OpenBazaar”.
“Bitcoin and OpenBazaar together make online commerce cheaper and more free than ever before.”
“Users should have freedom to reveal as much personal identifiable information as they want, when they want”.
“OpenBazaar is not a company; it’s not a business. We don’t have servers in some data center collecting all this data and controlling our users. It’s just a protocol. It’s just a bunch of computers talking to each other, so what happens on that network is up to the whim of the users.”
“If you can create something that solves something for someone else you’re almost always going to instantly have a business”.
Important notes from this episode:
- Open Bazaar Tutorial: An in depth tutorial to help you get started with installation, navigating the network, and making purchases.
- Deep Web film: Learn more about Ross William Ulbricht, the convicted 30-year-old entrepreneur, creator and operator of online black market Silk Road.
- ShapeShift: The safest, fastest asset exchange on Earth. Trade any leading blockchain asset for any other.
- Z Cash: A decentralized and open source cryptocurrency that aims to set a new standard for privacy through the use of groundbreaking cryptography.
Connect with Brian:
- On twitter @brianchoffman or @openbazaar
- Chat with Brian in real time on Slack
Thanks for listening!
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