Open Bazaar Hosting

I think it's great all of these vendors are jumping on the decentralized bandwagon and setting up shop on OpenBazaar. One thing that definitely concerns me, where are most of these vendors hosting their shops? For a normal buyer, running OB on Whonix with traffic routed through TOR seems sufficient. But Vendors leaving a TOR machine with their vendor shop running 24/7, effectively running a market in their home office, just seems like a bad idea. Hopefully most vendors are hosting their shops on VPS's in foreign countries.

If any vendor wants to chime in and maybe make me feel better about this, feel free.


Comments


[9 Points] PM_ME_DRUGPORN:

you dont have to host a shop? shop is available if you are offline


[3 Points] vizy93:

OpenBazaar2 uses IPFS so vendors don't have to stay online to keep vending. Even with OB1, where they did have to keep their computers online, even a TAILS box would probably be sufficient in terms of security. The "sniper attack" that was used during Operation Onymous to fundamentally break Tor was only worthwhile for extremely high value targets, like the operators of darknet markets. Individual vendors are likely valuable targets to law enforcement as well, but unlikely to be valuable enough to spend the amount of resources that a successful sniper attack costs.

Also, another note about hosting. There is more to picking a proper hosting provider than just picking one that is in a foreign country. Just because the host is out of your country doesn't mean your country's government won't cooperate with theirs to apprehend you. Check mlat.info for information on mutual legal assistance treaties, and to find a list of countries that your country has treaties with. Also, you should consider that, more often than not, your host really doesn't give a shit about you and won't go to great lengths to protect you in the first place. Your $45 per month payment isn't worth keeping if it means they have to tangle with a global law enforcement agency.


[2 Points] basjin:

hosting illegal shit on a vps is a bad idea, real server or nothing.


[2 Points] stabBarbie:

Why isn't running it in a VM good enough?


[2 Points] Danny-Fuckin-Dyer:

i had a discussion with u/OnionJuiceUK about this in another sub

not sure if im allowed to link to other subs here but if you click on my name and got to submitted its the thread called "IPFS & Offline Stores - how well does this work"

you definitly dont need to have the server runnign all the time and you can use public wifi when you need to update the server.

luckily for me im surrounded by open wifi so dont have to worry about it


[2 Points] MDMangle:

I believe agoristhosting.com, which hosts https://freeross.org as a public service, is accepting customers specifically for openbazaar hosting. Yes. agoristhosting.com/openbazaar


[1 Points] None:

I thought whonix does the trick?


[1 Points] ForLol_Serious:

Your flair made me lol irl


[1 Points] 2happytimes2:

If they are using a bridge, the ISP that is servicing them does not see they are connected to tor anyway. But correlation attacks are real and should have some kind of consideration when using OB2.

Edit: although keep in mind vendors logged into a site constantly has the same effect, the difference being now unlike a DNM OB2 does not have 1 point that has all the server information (because it's a network), and is controlled by some admin you dont know.


[1 Points] MassAppeal_UK:

You are hosting a virtual onion service which, when isn't 'on' or 'open' is hosted by nodes that have connected to you in the past.

There's loads of ways to do it, you just have to find the best set-up for your self.