Brian Hoffman leads OpenBazaar development. During his appearance on Jason Calacanis's This Week in Startups podcast, he fielded questions about how governments might respond to his decentralized comm
Brian Hoffman leads OpenBazaar development. During his appearance on Jason Calacanis's This Week in Startups podcast, he fielded questions about how governments might respond to his decentralized commerce platform.
Hoffman, who spent ten years at Booz Allen Hamilton—Edward Snowden's former employer—assumes government agencies keep tabs on his work. Hoffman hasn't heard from officials yet, though the Hacking Team leak exposed intelligence agencies' concern that OpenBazaar could become the next generation of darknet marketplace. Hoffman explained his thinking: "In terms of how we feel [about three-letter] agencies [possibly] following us, our assumption is that they probably are. We haven't, obviously, been contacted by anybody yet, but as we found out today with the leaks from the Hacking Team thing — somewhere within that is some mention of us and their concern that we're kind of the next wave of these types of [darknet] marketplaces. We do know we're being watched — I'm sure — at some level."
The surveillance doesn't confer much power. OpenBazaar operates as an open-source protocol, making it as difficult to regulate as torrent software. If authorities pressed Hoffman's team for modifications, he explained the constraints: "There's a very limited amount of things that we can do. People always ask us — you [have to] add a filter, you have to do this, you have to do that. And I'm like, well you add those things to the code — it's open — you're going to see immediately that you do that. It's just like any other project, so there's not really much we can do."
People expect OpenBazaar to become the next iteration of darknet commerce, but Hoffman resists claims about airtight privacy. Tor handles most anonymous internet traffic, and whether anyone can break it remains unclear. "I don't know if it's breakable," Hoffman said. They engage in an ongoing "cat and mouse game" that "keeps going." On government intentions toward Tor, Hoffman offered this: "I would imagine that simultaneously they're working on tools that break it. Because if they have tools that break it, then they can break it and no one else can. And they can use it when they need it."
Hoffman won't make anonymity guarantees for OpenBazaar. When asked about his position, he said: "Making a claim of anonymity is really big. It's a really big claim. I think you have to have a lot to back that up. Even a project that's existed as long as Tor has and has the backing of the governments and everything — still there's questions out there [as to] whether it's not truly anonymous or it is. So, for a small project like us to claim that I think would be unreasonable. And so we don't; we don't try to claim that."
What OpenBazaar will become remains uncertain, though supporters envision it transforming online commerce. Both government agencies and crypto-anarchists will monitor its development, yet the internet has never provided perfect security.
