Decentralized Marketplace OpenBazaar Now Accepts Bitcoin Cash

Decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar has added support for bitcoin cash.

OB1, the startup that oversees development of the marketplace protocol, said Wednesday that it had integrated bitcoin cash, the breakaway cryptocurrency that forked away from the main bitcoin blockchain last year. In addition, OpenBazaar has also added a beta release for Zcash support, the firm said, with both currencies being added as part of the project's version-2.1 release

OpenBazaar first launched in mid-2016, and since then has added features such as support for The Onion Router (Tor) network. And as announced at December's Token Event, OpenBazaar is planning to integrate a token of its own, a move expected to take place this year.

In statements, the startup behind the protocol positioned the integration as a nod toward demand for more payments options among the marketplace's user base.

Brian Hoffman, CEO of OB1, said of the launch:

"OpenBazaar was first built in 2014 as a way to transact using bitcoin which was the largest and most used cryptocurrency at the time. It was pretty much the only game in town. Today several cryptocurrencies have emerged that demonstrate different use cases and we have learned that choice is an important part of what buyers and sellers want to see in OpenBazaar."

The startup has raised more than $4 million to date, with backing coming from well-known VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures as well as industry investors like Digital Currency Group and Berlin-based BlueYard.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in OB1 and Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, developer of zcash.

Bitcoin and computer keyboard image via Shutterstock