I have long viewed having a web store that will let users buy real world items with Steem as a way for the common person to have an easy understanding of the value of the ecosystem.
I've invited many friends to join us here on the platform. It usually goes along the lines of "you're already using social media why not get paid for it?" They will then respond with how awesome that concept is but how does the money come to me? I'll then explain you get Steem but can convert it to BTC or eventually even just distribute it straight to cash. By this point I can already tell I'm on a losing battle.
If there was a web store with items they would normally buy with fiat it would allow a new conversation to happen. Instead of explaining trading crypto I could say you head to Amazon and just spend it instead of spending cash. Unfortunately I don't see Amazon making that change any time soon so we need small stores to fill that gap.
Here's my contribution towards filling that gap:
By no means do I consider this a work of art. This is a minimal viable product in the complete sense of the words. It only has some products loaded (mostly gaming items), limited UI that needs a deal of work, products are too costly due to limited connections and we can only ship to US addresses at this point. That being said if you can get past those issues it should work!
The store is based on WooCommerce and utilizes @sagescrub's Steem payment tool. This tool enables anyone to deploy a store and accept payment without any third party vendor. I want to say a huge thank you to @sagescrub for their work on reviving this plugin.
Originally created by @recrypto the plug stopped working after updates made it incompatible. I fooled around with the code and even asked others like @chansetheguy to have a look but was never able to get things working again. Thanks to this fine plugin stores like this are now possible again!
While I'm a huge fan of Steem I love Bitcoin. The store also features a deployment of BTCPay's payment server that allows us to accept bitcoin payments directly without relying on any third party processor. If you're also a fan of Bitcoin we've deployed a Bitcoin Lightning node that you can also use to pay for items. Just remember to not be too #reckless!
If you have suggestions for the site please let me know in the comments below. As I said before this is just a MVP but I want to make this into something much more. Your help with certainly make this reality! I'd also be interested in hearing what all you'd like to buy with Steem. This will help me focus on finding the right products we should focus on curating and bringing to the market!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://patrickulrich.com/2019/03/buying-stuff-with-steem/
Thank you so much for the mention! I am very glad to see that the [WooCommerce Steem Payment Method] plugin is being put to good use out there! I will include your website in my next plugin update :) Please consider writing a review in Wordpress for this plugin, which will help others make a decision to try it out or not!
What are the odds that you would allow people to list their own stuff on the store?
It was the original intent of the site! I still have a couple items listed from Steemians like @calimeatwagon, @snowstorm231 and @gattisstatus but am very open to having more here too!
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If I could lost my own items eBay style, I would totally sell a bunch of my Magic cards right now. Maybe even a few Keyforge decks...
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Unfortunately it doesn't support that feature yet but it does give me an idea for @sagescrub. Currently items listed need to either be digital that can be hosted within the store or distributed from a hub that can interface with our domain.
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I have some ideas regarding a steem marketplace. Are you on discord? Feel free to DM me :)
I am but I don't think we share any servers. Here's a short link to one I just started for the store if you would be up to join in.
http://discord.shopsteem.com
I'm helping!
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