Software:OpenBazaar

From HandWiki
Short description: Decentralized darknet marketplace
OpenBazaar
OpenBazaar logo
OpenBazaar logo
Original author(s)Amir Taaki (DarkMarket), Brian Hoffman
Developer(s)OpenBazaar Team
Initial release4 April 2016; 8 years ago (2016-04-04)
Final release
2.4.10 (Desktop Client) / December 30, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-12-30)[1]
Written inGo, JavaScript
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, OS X, Linux
Size130 MB
Available inEnglish
TypeOnline marketplace
LicenseMIT License

OpenBazaar was an open source project developing a protocol for e-commerce transactions in a fully decentralized marketplace.[2] It used cryptocurrencies as medium of exchange and was inspired by a hackathon project called DarkMarket.

History

Amir Taaki and a group of programmers from Bitcoin startup Airbitz created a decentralized marketplace prototype, called "DarkMarket", in April 2014 at a Bitcoin Hackathon in Toronto.[3] DarkMarket was developed as a proof of concept in response to the seizure of the darknet market Silk Road in October 2013.[4] Taaki compared DarkMarket's improvements on Silk Road to BitTorrent's improvements on Napster.[3]

After the hackathon, the original creators abandoned the prototype and it was later adopted and rebranded to OpenBazaar by a new team of developers.[5] On April 4, 2016, OpenBazaar released their first version, which allowed users to buy and sell goods for Bitcoin.[6] The company announced the closure of their servers on January 15, 2021.[7]

See also

References