Bitcoin Startup OpenBazaar Funded $1M For Decentralized Marketplace

With a vision of making trade free for everyone, everywhere, the decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar announced yesterday (June 11) it secured a $1 million round of seed funding.

As far as funding is concerned, a startup raising $1 million may not seem like big news, but the online commerce platform, which works using BitTorrent file-sharing software and bitcoin, is attracting a great deal of attention, The Wall Street Journal reported.

OpenBazaar prides itself on offering a new way to trade online. The network isn’t controlled or regulated in any way, meaning it requires no fees and remains free of censorship.

“The Internet has decentralized communications, and bitcoin has decentralized money, but online commerce still relies on numerous intermediaries,” lead developer Brian Hoffman said in a company release. “OpenBazaar removes the intermediaries and gives everyone – individuals to large companies – the ability to directly engage in trade with anyone in the world, for free.”

The company confirmed the funding will enable several full-time resources to finish up the development of the platform, which is currently in its fifth beta release. In a blog post announcing the new capital, OpenBazaar announced the participation of Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and angel investor William Mougayar in the round.

“With their history of helping build networks with large user bases and their focus on new decentralized technologies such as bitcoin, Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz are the perfect partners to help OpenBazaar become widely adopted,” the post continued. As a board member, Mougayar is said to bring many years of experience in startups to the OpenBazaar team.

While some can’t help but see the marketplace as the next Silk Road, Hoffman told Business Insider he is determined to move the conversation away from the site’s potential misuse and instead focus on its potential to revolutionize online commerce. The full implications of a site like OpenBazaar may not be fully realized until it launches publicly later this year.

“If OpenBazaar works, it could open a new can of worms,” The Wall Street Journal said. “While software is amoral, of course, this platform could be used as an even more powerful Silk Road-type marketplace, one without any central point of control.”

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