Apply HN: Obaas – OpenBazaar as a Service

6 points by Vertrauen 10 years ago | 9 comments

OpenBazaar is a brand new, decentralized marketplace. It cuts the middle man and puts all control in the hands of the users. But it comes at a big cost: Users need to install and run software to take part in it. Vendors even have to run the application 24/7. And they have to set up their store and all of their products. Obaas takes away all of that pain. All functionality of OpenBazzar is available via a web interface. Obaas automatically imports your products from Shopify, Magento, Ebay or Amazon and sets up your OpenBazaar store. If you already sell products on one of these marketplaces, you will be able to sell on OpenBazaar in 5 minutes via Obaas.

merterdir 10 years ago |

Nice idea.

But the whole idea of OpenBazaar is that it's decentralized. I guess you'll be the "center" in this case. If OpenBazaar becomes big enough, I think this will work (and face competition from hundreds of clones) but if it stays the niche it is today, I'd assume this won't work because currently the only people who use it are people who care about the "decentralized" part. The reason for that is everything else at OpenBazaar currently sucks. (Early stage problems)

I could be wildly wrong though, I'm not an expert in this domain.

Vertrauen 10 years ago | |

Yes, OpenBazaar has to gain traction for this to work.

Obaas is like the exchanges for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is decentralized in the same way as OpenBazaar. Most people use exchanges to take part in the Bitcoin network. So if OpenBazaar takes off, the first webservice that makes it accessible to the masses will have a nice headstart. Similar to how Mt.Gox had a nice headstart. When it was still active, 60% of all bitcoin trades were done via Mt.Gox.

merterdir 10 years ago | | |

Great argument, I'm convinced.

Referencing Mt.Gox is a risky move, though :)

bestattack 10 years ago |

I've never heard of openbazaar so you'll have to explain that part to me in your pitch. This pitch would probably make sense if I was a storeowner who wanted to use openbazaar but didn't know how or it was too complicated. But your whole business depends on people having heard of this thing that I haven't heard of. Can you explain to the storeowner why they would want to be on openbazaar?

ryporter 10 years ago |

Random feedback on your name -- my brain automatically added an "m" between the two a's in "Obaas."

Vertrauen 10 years ago | |

It is just a working title. I am open for better ideas.

fiatjaf 10 years ago |

Where is the link?

Vertrauen 10 years ago | |

As of yet, it is only an idea.

fiatjaf 10 years ago | | |

I'm sorry, I got confused about the thread. I thought this was at Show HN.

Considering it as an idea, I like it a lot. I'm not very familiar with OpenBazaar, however. Are there many people using it?