The decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar is set for a comeback after being shut down over two years ago, as evidenced by social media and GitHub updates.
A new version of the marketplace is being built, with progress being made as recent as April 12, according to a GitHub repository. Brian Hoffman, former project lead at OpenBazaar and CEO of OB1, tweeted on April 9 about the progress being made on a “new” version, saying it is “getting more interesting by the day.”
Hitting 1,000 lines of code on the new @openbazaar repo. This is getting more interesting by the day.
— brian hoffman (@brianchoffman) April 8, 2023
In response to questions about how the marketplace will be different this time given its previous financial issues and poor user growth, Hoffman emphasized “freedom of exploration” and inferred that outside influence had contributed to its initial downfall.
I’m letting it go where it goes. No investor input or outside influences. Freedom of exploration.
— brian hoffman (@brianchoffman) April 9, 2023
Hints of OpenBazaar’s relaunch emerged on March 28 when Hoffman tweeted about working on a new version of the marketplace using the programming language Rust. Shortly after, OpenBazaar’s official account tweeted that “it is now time to grow again from the ashes,” adding to speculation that the marketplace will soon relaunch. Additionally, the OpenBazaar website currently bears the message “openbazaar 3.0 — coming soon.”
OpenBazaar was first launched in 2014 as a decentralized eBay alternative. It allowed users to make transactions directly with each other using Bitcoin (BTC).
Cointelegraph has reached out to Hoffman and OpenBazaar for comment.
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