Top 5 Things People Are Buying on OpenBazaar
OpenBazaar is the first-of-its-kind global decentralized market with thousands of products available for sale. But what are the most popular items right now? Here are the top five selling types of products on the global peer-to-peer marketplace.
Also read: Ethereum-Competitor Lisk Unveils Roadmap
‘Hot’ Products for Bitcoin
Since it’s not uncommon for Bitcoin to be associated with the dark market, the average person might expect things like illegal drugs or North Korean cigarettes to be high on the list. While those items are indeed available, one of the most common things people buy on OpenBazaar is actually “dangerously spicy” hot sauce.
Yes, red pepper hot sauce might just be the top product on the P2P marketplace today. But because transactions on OpenBazaar are completely peer-to-peer, the platform cannot get more accurate data on what and how much exactly is being bought and sold.
Operations Lead at OpenBazaar, Sam Patterson, explained to Bitcoin.com:
We don’t know when trade occurs, meaning we can’t create a completely accurate list of the most popular items on the network at the moment. But by talking to buyers and sellers, as well as looking at reviews that people leave (optionally), we can make educated guesses.
Top 5 Product Types
Here are the most popular sellers in random order and based on OpenBazaar’s best educated guess.
1. Food
There are over 400 listings labeled “food” on OpenBazaar right now. These range from freeze-dried beef for preppers to squid snacks and dangerously spicy hot sauce. One vendor, Sweet Express, has sold hundreds of his homemade waffles from Croatia.
2. Cigarettes
There are at least two stores selling cigarettes exclusively, and a few more that sell unique cigarettes, including North Korean smokes by the carton, as part of the inventory.
3. Seeds
Several stores sell seeds of various plants. The Russian Heirloom Seed store sells black winter radish seeds and far east cedar seeds. Tygg’s Seedery also has a wide variety.
4. Comic Books
There are over 900 comic books listings for sale on OpenBazaar, and the majority come from one vendor: Crypto Collectibles, a vendor that was recently highlighted on OpenBazaar’s blog.
My daughter reading a 1971 Casper comic from @cryplectibles, bought on @openbazaar! She loved the old advertisements pic.twitter.com/DfzaNaShVV
— Sam Patterson (@SamuelPatt) April 12, 2016
5. Clothing & Accessories
Many stores sell clothing or accessories. An eastern European store, for example, sells vintage clothing. A store in Thailand has more than 600 listings for soccer shirts, shorts, and socks, and a US store has hundreds of handbags for sale.
It Ain’t Free If It Ain’t P2P
OpenBazaar’s decentralized P2P model is probably the closest thing to a truly global and free market that the world has seen to date. Thus, as more people realize the benefits of decentralized marketplaces, the Top 5 list could certainly change in the future.
But in the meantime, you can try it out for yourself and spend some bits (which you can also do at Bitcoin.com here and here). On the other hand, to earn bitcoin, you can set up your own shop, receive payments directly without any middleman fees, and make your product available on the global market.
“It’s been exciting to see the variety of goods and services listed on OpenBazaar, from all over the world, and to know that all of this trade is being done exclusively with Bitcoin,” OpenBazaar CEO, Brian Hoffman told Bitcoin.com. “We want OpenBazaar to become the default marketplace for people to use their Bitcoin — a decentralized marketplace for decentralized currency.”
Users can download OpenBazaar to find unique items or sell your own products. You can also use Duosear.ch to browse products available for purchase on the web.
What kind of items have you purchased or would be interested in buying at OpenBazaar? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of OpenBazaar, PexPeppers, Sweet Express, China Numba One!!!, Tygg’s Seedery, shutterstock.
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