Decentralized markets?

I'm just wondering, why aren't decentralized markets more popular? It's been years since bitcoin and DNMs became popular, and with all the DNMs closing these days, the need for decentralization is more apparent than ever. Yet (as far as I can tell) not a single decentralized market solution has gained foothold in the scene. Why?

Is it because all solutions, for example openbazaar, are not ready for regular use yet? If so, why are not more people working on software like this? I even remember the big players in the old Open Vendor Database forums talking about this back in 2011 before they shut down, seems like it would have been enough time for someone to actually make something since then.


Comments


[8 Points] thathappenedtome2:

figure out a good way to monetize a decentralized market and it will be made. Nothing gets done quickly without money motive


[2 Points] sexystick:

Is it because all solutions, for example openbazaar, are not ready for regular use yet?

This is exactly why decentralized markets aren't more popular.

There are some out there based on altcoins (forks of bitcoin) but they aren't correctly scalable and don't have a large community. There are a few respectable teams working on these that are both funded (openbazaar) and unfunded (shadowmarket). All in all, there is a steady stream of young talent flowing into cryptocurrencies and blockchain related projects; like decentralized markets.

We all know this is the future direction of privacy markets... we're just waiting patiently for launches.


[2 Points] six--pack:

I would agree that at this point no workable decentralized market platform exists that is ready for use. Other than email - which works well if the parties trust each other enough. So the lack of a working platform is the immediate cause of their lack of popularity

Other posters here have pointed out that lack of a feedback/trust mechanism and lack of escrow are problems, which is true, but there is no reason why those mechanisms cannot be built into a decentralized market. It just requires a little more thought.

The problem with OpenBazaar, other than some technical issues (which could be solved with a little effort), is that they now have funding. This may speed up development but it will also make it very difficult to use in a DNM context. Sure, somebody could fork the code, make it Tor friendly (again) and then run some onionland seed nodes and maybe that will happen but without something like that Openbazaar cannot be used.

I know nothing of Shadowcoin other than the glossy descriptions and mock-up screenshots - the screenshots look great if nothing else.

But I will tell you this now, one way or another this will happen and it will happen soon.

I like to think that many of you will be using /r/axis_mundi this time next year, or something that provides a traditional web portal into it, for your decentralized market fancies . That is unless somebody else actually pulls their finger out and comes up with something workable in the meantime.


[1 Points] InfinitelyOutThere:

Because email and bit message exist.


[1 Points] hidyhocaptain:

You know what a decentralized market is? Going on grams, searching for email info and doing direct deals. Then some people might say "no no like a website you sign into!" so like one website? so like a regular market? "No like nobody owns!" so who would run it "well they'd have some admins or something" so like how would they get paid "Well we could all chip in a couple bit coins" so like a regular market? "Well lets just make it all about the vendors!" soooo just email them directly "no but like one website"..........................


[1 Points] None:

This sounds like mass centralization.Think about if everyone used grams and vendors had to make private onion pages to list on grams(if there weren't markets) grams would have to change to a google ads setup. Worked well for the clearnet its not like google spies and records everything you do.This wouldn't lead to market manipulation, exploitation of the grams software code for higher ranked listings.


[1 Points] CookyDough:

I even remember the big players in the old Open Vendor Database forums talking about this back in 2011 before they shut down, seems like it would have been enough time for someone to actually make something since then.

Dang son, you been around for a while, huh? These 'big players' (fucking visionaries if this game ever had any rivaling DPR) had been working on that even before OVDB was a thing, but to my knowledge it was never finished. Tho there were several people who contributed code, the main guy who was working on the code quit/moved on to other things and their was no replacement coder for a long time. The project they were referring to might actually be one of these things now, but I kinda doubt it was ever completed.