A Quick Breakdown of BlockStamp Best Practices for OpenBazaar Buyers and Sellers
This article is part of a series on BlockStamp’s involvement with the OpenBazaar decentralized marketplace. For more background, see our previous articles on:
- an overview of how we’re getting more involved with OpenBazaar,
- an introduction to our OpenBazaar 2-level moderation policy,
- how we reach Level 2 Arbitration verdicts and how you can plan your deals accordingly, and
- anticipated OpenBazaar scams and what to do about them.
In this article we’ll break down
- our recommended OpenBazaar best practices bearing in mind BlockStamp’s current OpenBazaar solutions and
- some general ideas about where we’d like to go next.
Here we go!
Best Practices for OpenBazaar Buyers
- Use the BlockStamp OpenBazaar Listing Explorer :) You can use it to find everything for sale on OpenBazaar. But that’s not the only reason to use it — see the next point!
- Look for products that have been promoted. The BlockStamp OpenBazaar Listing Explorer allows vendors to promote their products by burning BST, the BlockStamp blockchain’s native crypto coins. For buyers, the key benefit here is being able to know that the vendor has put some “skin in the game” and is serious about selling their product.
- Make moderated purchases. This is a basic option that OpenBazaar has enabled to protect your interests. You are welcome to choose us as your moderator; we have developed what we consider to be a leading OpenBazaar moderation policy that other moderators are free to improve on.
- Build a track record of small successful purchases before making bigger ones. A solid track record of successful transactions will be your best asset in any potential disputes winding up in Level 2 Arbitration with BlockStamp as moderator. As time goes on, you may build up to making bigger, more complex deals.
Best Practices for OpenBazaar Sellers
- Promote your listings with the BlockStamp OpenBazaar Listing Explorer. No matter what you’re selling, buyers can find it with this listing explorer. You can also promote your product so that they see it first when they search with a specific term. Also, you can establish credibility by burning BST to promote it.
- Make moderated sales. This is a basic option that OpenBazaar has enabled to protect your interests. You are welcome to choose us as your moderator; we have developed what we consider to be a leading OpenBazaar moderation policy that other moderators are free to improve on.
- Don’t sell a lot of inventory to one buyer you don’t have a solid business relationship with. This is the one way an attacker could hurt your bottom line, even if the deal goes into Level 2 Arbitration with BlockStamp as moderator.
- Build a track record of small, successful sales before making bigger ones. A solid track record of successful transactions will be your best asset in any potential disputes winding up in Level 2 Arbitration with BlockStamp as moderator. As time goes on, you may build up to making bigger, more complex deals.
BlockStamp and OpenBazaar: Looking Ahead
We are exploring ways to make further open-source contribution to the OpenBazaar project.
Currently, a couple of broad ideas that have come up have been:
- Introducing small but non-negligible transaction fees even when no disputes are involved. These fees would discourage fake transactions and give moderators an additional way to evaluate buyers’ and sellers’ track records on the platform.
- Tweaking the dispute resolution software. We think it might be possible to make the OpenBazaar escrow system function smoother in case of successful, undisputed deals.
Your own ideas or recommendations are also welcome! Let us know in the comments!
Make sure you’re part of the BlockStamp social community and feel free to ask any questions there!
About BlockStamp:
BlockStamp is a Bitcoin blockchain fork hosting an ecosystem of fair play apps, including a true-odds multiplayer crypto gambling platform, a decentralized marketplace listing optimizer, and a private messenger with sword-in-the-stone encryption (launching soon).
