OpenBazaar Tutorial: Installation

Tutorial Prerequisites: Installation files or source code for compilation (downloads below).

Downloads

Openbazaar Tutorial: Installation and Setup

What is OpenBazaar?

Openbazaar (OB1) is a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace that utilizes bitcoin and the blockchain as its payment method for eCommerce transactions. Think Amazon,com without the Amazon.com or the Amazon.com fees.

OpenBazaar is a quantum leap forward that empowers free trade using Bitcoin, and this is only the beginning. If you have access to the internet, you can start offering goods and services to a global marketplace for free and without having to ask anyone's permission!” - Washington Sanchez, OB1 Co-founder

To get started with OB1 you'll have to download the client application and install it. Although OB1 uses the internet it is not hosted on any single web server. Instead the application communicates with other installations of the application forming a network of computers serving as either browser or a web-server of its own for vendor listing ultimately constructing the OB1 market place.

Installing The App

You h ave two options with the software. You can download the binary executable and install the software or you can download the source code, compile the code, and then install software. The latter being the safer method however dinbits.com has reviewed the code and run virus scans on the compiled software and we can report that the software is safe. However, we cannot guarantee anything and you should certainly run your own virus scan or select the method of installation you are most comfortable with.

Either one is straight forward as far as downloading. Then the install and setup is fairly painless as well.

1. You need to download the application. You can locate the downloads at the following locations if you haven't done this already (above).

Downloads

2. Once you get the installation files and begin the install, you will be met with a series of questions steps asking you what country you are in, your currency preference, the language you prefer and things of that nature.

3. When you get to screen 6, you may want to pay attention to this setting: the NSFW switch. NSFW stands for "not safe for work" and it means exactly that. It's generally language, pornography, and other things that would be Rated R in a movie theater. It is set to off by default.

4. Once the initial setup is complete you can enter the browser space and customize your settings as we did here. There are various tabs for administering your settings. 

Basic Navigation

At any time you can click the button to search the OB1 market place. The button is located at the top right next to the button which displays notifications. You can click your avatar, in our case the  button, and this will get you directly to your home page.

Browsing

OB1 uses handles similar to twitter with an @ in front of the username. For example our handle is @dinbits. Each store also has a specific unique address. 

The store ID for Ledger is: ob://f71cc867c98c171ddbf0d093cf1046294e81279/store 

The store ID for dinbits.com is: ob://5bce85c0724fa763e11718ce0d3c4f08b0ec7b07/store

In the address bar, you can put the @handle, store ID, or search for a product like "alpaca socks" much like a web browser works for browsing the internet.

The Ledger OpenBazaar Store

Above is Ledger's (hardware wallet) store and below is the dinbits store.

From the logo button you can also setup your store and create listings. We'll go over that in the next tutorial.

Creating Listing.

Summary

The OpenBazaar P2P marketplace is live. With some software downloaded and installed, a simple setup process will have you on your way to selling for bitcoins or spending your bitcoins on merchandise and services in the OB1 market. 

It will take some getting used to, when first entering the marketplace you feel like you are in a web browser, but you are not. You'll also see stores go online and offline as individual vendors turn off their computers however we are up 24/7 since our store is now running on a dedicated server so if there's nobody around swing by and say hello. We'll be there.

If you have any questions, comments, or concern regarding this tutorial, please contact [email protected] for further assistance.