[BETA] Dark Exchange: a 100% decentralized p2p exchange

[Sultan]

Is there still no way to make an offer and have it available for others to view when you go offline?

I understand this is very difficult to do in a decentralised manner, but I feel this problem is halting Dark Exchange's community growth.

It is quite clear that when people log on only to find themselves online, thus no offers, it makes it look like you have entered an empty hall expecting a bustling market. If this happens I believe more people will use it.

My suggestion is to have some kind of 'pass-the-parcel' technique where a node locally stores tgeir offers, and before it logs off it passes those offers to any online nodes before logging off, and thatnode does the same thing, and so on.

When a node comes back online, it can reclaim those offers so that it can broadcadt them itself.

Any thoughts?

[morpheus]

I forgot to run i2p before Dark Exchange the first time I ran it.

It appeared to work find though, creating a username etc. But then I noticed no peers. There should be something to monitor network activity so we know what's going on.

Would also be nice to make more than one search at the same time... or search for multiple offers because I haven't been able to find any yet.

I'll look into adding a warning message if the I2P network cannot be found. Issue 48: https://github.com/macourtney/Dark-Exchange/issues/48

Obviously, multiple searches and searching on multiple payment types is a popular feature request. I already have searching on multiple payment types as an issue: https://github.com/macourtney/Dark-Exchange/issues/37

I just added a new issue for running multiple searches at the same time. Issue 49: https://github.com/macourtney/Dark-Exchange/issues/49

[morpheus]

Is there still no way to make an offer and have it available for others to view when you go offline?

I understand this is very difficult to do in a decentralised manner, but I feel this problem is halting Dark Exchange's community growth.

It is quite clear that when people log on only to find themselves online, thus no offers, it makes it look like you have entered an empty hall expecting a bustling market. If this happens I believe more people will use it.

My suggestion is to have some kind of 'pass-the-parcel' technique where a node locally stores tgeir offers, and before it logs off it passes those offers to any online nodes before logging off, and thatnode does the same thing, and so on.

When a node comes back online, it can reclaim those offers so that it can broadcadt them itself.

Any thoughts?

There is still no way to make an offer and have it available when you go offline. The 'pass-the-parcel' technique likely won't work since you don't really log off, but just disconnect from the network.

How about every node in the system keeps track of every offer (for now, only a subset in the future). If you're not online, it doesn't matter, someone somewhere has your offer. It would get tricky to keep track of the offers as they are accepted/rejected, but it would be possible.

Would that work for you?

Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to work on Dark Exchange lately. I'm in the middle of adding a trust score to the system. When I have that in, I can look into something like this and fixing other issues.

I didn't realize there was still so much interest in the project.

[morpheus]

I forgot to run i2p before Dark Exchange the first time I ran it.

Ha, now that you mention it, I did exactly the same Now it works, but I can't find anything... I created a offer and searched for it, but it won't find it.

Suggestion: OP, can you add a "in person transfer in <region>" option for trading?

I would like to add an in person option, but that would require some significant changes which I'm not prepared to do yet.

I've added another issue for in person transfers: https://github.com/macourtney/Dark-Exchange/issues/50

I make no promises on when I can get to it. Of course, if anyone implements it for me, I'll be glad to merge it in.

[Sultan]

Is there still no way to make an offer and have it available for others to view when you go offline?

I understand this is very difficult to do in a decentralised manner, but I feel this problem is halting Dark Exchange's community growth.

It is quite clear that when people log on only to find themselves online, thus no offers, it makes it look like you have entered an empty hall expecting a bustling market. If this happens I believe more people will use it.

My suggestion is to have some kind of 'pass-the-parcel' technique where a node locally stores tgeir offers, and before it logs off it passes those offers to any online nodes before logging off, and thatnode does the same thing, and so on.

When a node comes back online, it can reclaim those offers so that it can broadcadt them itself.

Any thoughts?

There is still no way to make an offer and have it available when you go offline. The 'pass-the-parcel' technique likely won't work since you don't really log off, but just disconnect from the network.

How about every node in the system keeps track of every offer (for now, only a subset in the future). If you're not online, it doesn't matter, someone somewhere has your offer. It would get tricky to keep track of the offers as they are accepted/rejected, but it would be possible.

Would that work for you?

Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to work on Dark Exchange lately. I'm in the middle of adding a trust score to the system. When I have that in, I can look into something like this and fixing other issues.

I didn't realize there was still so much interest in the project.

Yeah, I think this is the best idea so far. That way as long as there is one person who is online they can act as a server to start with. As the community grows it will be more distributed.

If private/public key signing was used then we can guarantee who made the offer and who accepted the ofefer. For example an accepted offer can be timestamped so that whenever somebody.accepts an offer that has already been made the accepted offer is rejected.

Ideally the objective is for a critical mass of nodes are always online making sure the orderbook is always up-to-date.

Is there anything I can do to help out, morpheus?

[btc_artist]

Has this project gotten any traction?

[morpheus]

Yeah, I think this is the best idea so far. That way as long as there is one person who is online they can act as a server to start with. As the community grows it will be more distributed.

If private/public key signing was used then we can guarantee who made the offer and who accepted the ofefer. For example an accepted offer can be timestamped so that whenever somebody.accepts an offer that has already been made the accepted offer is rejected.

Ideally the objective is for a critical mass of nodes are always online making sure the orderbook is always up-to-date.

Is there anything I can do to help out, morpheus?

There will be some issues in the details of making sure everyone has an up to date list of all offers, and keeping the data clean. I can think of a few now, but once I start implementing it, I'm sure more will come up.

I think there will be some issues keeping time on the network synchronized if we try to base everything on a timestamp. Plus, more than one person can accept an offer at the same time anyways. Though, I don't think it matters, since the one making the offer can choose which trade to fill in the end.

I don't remember your skill set Sultan. Can you program? Do you know Java? Do you know Clojure?

[morpheus]

Has this project gotten any traction?

While there seems to be plenty of interest, there aren't many people using the program.

[finway]

I can start it, but i can't find nobody.

[morpheus]

I can start it, but i can't find nobody.

Funny, I'm on and can find myself, and the DarkExchange node.

When did you run it last? Is I2P running? Have you downloaded all of the peers?

[freemoney458]

Hi morpheus,

I think you are heading the right way with the DarkExchange client. Do you know any other projects in this category?

The last days, I thought a bit about decentralized, fully automated exchanges. At least in Europe, it would be possible from a technical point of view, see this post:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45751.msg746894#msg746894

Any comments are welcome.

[matthewh3]

I've put an order up tho only connected to two peers 

[K1773R]

awesome tool, how about adding altcoins? i dont get it why ppl dont use this!

[jago25_98]

As much as I love this project I think the hassle of running i2p in addition to needing critical mass has killed it somehow?

Perhaps a fully web interface to #bitcoin-otc would be more successful? - this could then be moved to a eepsite / hidden service / distribute the rep database.

[Lethn]

This projected really needs to be revived, we can't have stock exchanges going down left and right because of a few stupid scammers.

[Ryland R. Taylor-Almanza]

This projected really needs to be revived, we can't have stock exchanges going down left and right because of a few stupid scammers.

Well, it wasn't really a stock exchange, but I like the idea of reviving it anyways!

[Herodes]

I haven't tried this. But what would be the advantage to this over bitcoin-otc ?

[Lethn]

This projected really needs to be revived, we can't have stock exchanges going down left and right because of a few stupid scammers.

Well, it wasn't really a stock exchange, but I like the idea of reviving it anyways!

In that case we need a proper stock exchange BLAH!

[K1773R]

This projected really needs to be revived, we can't have stock exchanges going down left and right because of a few stupid scammers.

Well, it wasn't really a stock exchange, but I like the idea of reviving it anyways!

In that case we need a proper stock exchange BLAH!

how about cryptostocks?

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

Hey Morpheus, need a designer to help work on the project? I have a couple of months summer break from UNI and I want to work on a Bitcoin project. I could create graphic designs such as branding, I can also design websites and I (should) also be able to help you rank high up on Google with SEO. I would be happy to work on this in collaboration if interested. I can code in HTML & CSS however I do not have technical knowledge to developer programs such as this. Some promotional work might help public awareness!

If you are interested let me know and I will create some sample ideas.