Fixing The Problem of Privacy Online
Most of us want our personal information to be kept private when we’re online.
Nowadays, this seems nearly impossible.
How is it that privacy is a considered a fundamental human right, yet no one has the expectation of privacy online?
As the internet becomes more and more a part of our lives, we are giving away more and more information about ourselves to various companies who make it their business to know as much about us as possible.
That information is sold or shared between other parties — even governments — and can also be stolen and used in identity theft.
We know this is a problem, but it seems like the only way to ensure we have privacy is to avoid using the internet altogether!
If this worries you then you’re in good company, but don’t despair: there’s a whole new class of services and applications that are letting us take back our privacy.
DuckDuckGo is a private search engine whose traffic has been increasing about 50% year over year since 2014. Signal Messenger is a private messaging application that raised over $50 million in funding in 2018. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin allow for payments which are more private than credit cards and other payment methods.
These apps and networks are slowly letting people carve out areas online where they can be private. But one area has been missing: commerce. There hasn’t been been an online marketplace that focuses on letting users engage in trade privately.
Until now.
Introducing: Haven
Haven is a brand new super-app that lets you conveniently shop, chat, and send cryptocurrencies privately from your mobile device. You keep your data and your sensitive financial information entirely to yourself because no company is collecting your data or monitoring your transactions.
How is that possible?
This is a global marketplace where you can buy and sell goods and services and interact with others online without having your information or real identity tracked because you never have to enter it in the first place.
There are no logins or passwords on Haven. No credit card or bank information is required to use it. All of the transaction information you do enter or generate lives on your device and not on someone else’s servers, vulnerable to hacking as it sits among millions of others.
Haven is built with the groundbreaking OpenBazaar and IPFS protocols to give you a completely unique shopping and connecting experience on a decentralized, peer-to-peer network.
Think of it this way:
The majority of websites and internet platforms allow you to rent space with them much like you do with an apartment in a complex.
When it comes down to it, your landlord calls the shots with an apartment rental. A great landlord can make the experience enjoyable but a lousy one can really mess up your day to day life. And year to year they can radically interfere with your plans by jacking up rent amounts or changing your terms and if you don’t like it…well, your choice is to deal with it or leave!
When you own your own home, however, you call the shots. Owning a home means that you are not subject to the changing whims or policies of a landlord and you get to run your space how you want to, day to day, year to year.
That’s how Haven is. You get to have your own little slice of the internet that lives directly on your device, under your control, where you can do what you want.
Peer-to-Peer Grows Up
Peer-to-peer software has historically been pretty difficult to work with. It can take a long time to do things on the network and the applications that exist have been confined to desktop computers only. With Haven, you can now join the network in under a minute using your mobile device and even set up your own store to sell items — no technical expertise needed.
If you know how to use a smartphone, you can use Haven.
Browse the marketplace and shop for what you would like to buy with your choice of four cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash and Litecoin. Ether and more coins are also coming soon.
Manage your own wallet.
Chat privately with end-to-end encryption. Post publicly in the social feed and like, comment and repost to connect with others.
“Haven is OB1’s most advanced project representing our mission to bring a convenient but private social marketplace experience to users.” Says Brian Hoffman, CEO of OB1, the company who developed Haven. “We believe users should be in control of their own financial information and are inspired by how cryptocurrencies allow them to trade with one another around the world without the risks of traditional banking. Users can connect this way now without needing access to centralized payment processors or using giant ecommerce platforms that collect all their personal data.”
Want to learn more?
Check out this interactive demo for more information.
Originally published at https://gethaven.app on January 28, 2019.
