OpenBazaar is a great concept, and from the moment I learned of bitcoin, I kept wanting to build something like this myself (though sadly I never got around to it).
I think the beauty of the idea is that since it's decentralized by nature, anyone can build their own 'eBay' site/app to list the many products/services available throughout OpenBazaar. It would be like if eBay was open source and you didn't have to ever go to 'ebay.com' to buy/sell anything. I think early on this sort of concept would be best opened to developers to build applications/sites through which the later wave of public users could actually use. At this stage, it's too early for wide usage.
The major flaw though is that there is no incentive for arbitrators because there are no fees. And because there are no incentives for arbitrators, there will be a lot of scams abound ... or you'll have to rely on building trust over time; trustworthy buyers and repeat customers. So, I don't see this turning into eBay per se, but more of a decentralized e-commerce platform for shops, though still, it can easily become scam central.
Really, in the end, unfortunately it will work best for dark markets, which may in effect possibly drive up bitcoin transactions more than legal markets. Regardless of how much the OpenBazaar team claims to be against the sale of illegal goods/services, this platform will be best used for that purpose.
For it to work well for legal goods/services, there would have to be a fee structure with incentives for arbitrators/escrow services.
I agree. And the reputation system at this point seems quite complicated with algos behind the scenes. I am guessing as time goes on, it might get even more complicated.
Still, it is the reputation system that will make or break this project. If they figure out a way to make this happen, it can be one of the greatest markets and a true internet 2.0 market.
There will be fees to the arbitrators if arbitrage is needed. No fees apply only if the trade goes smooth.
I think this could potentially result in arbitrators receiving a higher then warranted level of trust within the community. The arbitrator could "oversee" hundreds of transactions and never have to intervene with their trust getting built up, however their judgement nor their ability to be trusted would be tested. This could result in people being able to scam because the arbitrator does not know how to tell a scam is being pulled off or because the arbitrator is in on the scam