Re: OpenBazaar: Decentralized markets for online trade

(P.S. Sorry Steven if misunderstood what you meant by Pandora's box.)

--
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On Mar 6, 2015, at 12:50 PM, Tao Effect <contact@taoeffect.com> wrote:

> Sorry to jump in, but someone mentioned OpenBazaar, drugs, and Pandora's box right next to each other.
> 
> Let me point out that we've already opened Pandora's box. OpenBazaar is going to close it back shut.
> 
> The world we experience every day is one where millions of people (over the course of a few years) have died because our governments decided to open the Pandora's box of prohibition.
> 
> We should all welcome the day when we will all be safer thanks to the end of prohibition.
> 
> Let's watch our rhetoric and not allow the rhetoric of politicians to infiltrate it and distort reality, truth, etc.
> 
> Cheers,
> Greg Slepak
> 
> --
> Please do not email me anything that you are not comfortable also sharing with the NSA.
> 
> On Mar 6, 2015, at 12:44 PM, Steven Rowat <steven_rowat@sunshine.net> wrote:
> 
>> On 3/6/15 2:29 AM, Anders Rundgren wrote:
>>> It depends, notarization isn't for free and explicit paying for such
>>> services probably won't be terribly popular.
>> 
>> Popular to who? To you?  ;-)
>> 
>> AFAI understand, OpenBazaar is attempting a revolutionary worldwide system that might be able to do things that have never existed (but have been dreamed by many, including on this list).
>> 
>> If they can present a system that does these things -- including close to zero transaction costs in an industry that takes 3% commonly and skims another 2% or so behind the scenes for currency exchange -- wouldn't there be room for a thriving notary business that could charge, say, half a %, and still keep many users happy?
>> 
>> Plus, it occurs to me that for digital sales -- downloading digital works of science, art, music, software -- the notary might not be as important. IMO people have always traditionally been taking a calculated risk with buying information, based on various combinations of trust and previews. It appears that their web of trust could be part of this tradition.
>> 
>> Interesting that they're moving head-on towards a confrontation with governments, by saying "Yes, you can sell drugs with it. You can do whatever you like with this, we just made it, we're not responsible".
>> 
>> Pandora's box...?
>> 
>> Steven Rowat