Buy and sell bitcoin in your neighbourhood with cash (my open-source project)

[bitcoinwarriorAU]

A while back, I posted on reddit about creating a website allowing you to find buyers/sellers of bitcoin in your local area with cash, face to face and without KYC or ID.

The idea was inspired by leafedout.com, a website allowing you to find cannabis vendors in your area. The site uses Google Maps with custom markers and is p2p. Although illegal in my country (Australia), the site works flawlessly. I could make purchases face-to-face with cash and buy confidently as I could rely on ratings left by other users.

With many exchanges and banks being forced to clamp down on Bitcoiners, I decided it was the right time to create such a site. In Australia, our banks have already started limiting transactions to exchanges and freezing accounts associated with Bitcoin, and it's almost impossible to buy/sell bitcoin without KYC in any amount (even at ATMs).

While I love the idea of applications like Bisq, I found it too clunky and difficult to use. The UX is poor, requiring you to download and run an application (which doesn't even work out of the box on macOS).

With all that in mind, I decided to create CitySats.com. It allows you to create a marker on a map and locate, contact and rate buyers/sellers of bitcoin in your location.

The website is still a bit janky, but you can already start using it. I would love to hear your feedback.

Website: https://citysats.com

Source code (MIT licence): https://github.com/bitcoinwarrior1/CitySats

Screenshots of the site:

* https://imgur.com/Wd0EAJq
* https://imgur.com/IzmlF7b

[1714788727]

1714788727

[Vod]

I could make purchases face-to-face with cash and buy confidently as I could rely on ratings left by other users.

While you may be able to trust a rating left by a stoner who just wants to feel good, there will be rampant fraud you will need to deal with.  I can even envision robberies being planned using fake accounts.

Better have your ducks in a row with this one - keep your finances from the site different that your own, should you be sued.

Other than that, welcome to the inventors club! 

[joniboini]

I tried opening your website but it doesn't show anything when I block the location access. Is location permission required just to see the map/available buyers/traders on your platform? That discouraged me a little bit. It would be nice if you could at least allow people to see the map without asking for permission. I don't see why you need location access to do that either. Even if you need a location to redirect your user to the right area, a user should easily move the location with their mouse.

[SFR10]

@bitcoinwarriorAU
Vod is right... Until you can find a way that doesn't allow users to abuse those ratings, none of the ratings left by others should be trusted!
On the FAQ page, you mentioned "not to worry about leaking our privacy", but considering that your platform uses Google services in connection with limited sign-in options from certain websites, I don't think it's possible to completely remain under the radar ^{[I hope I'm wrong]}.

[Bright Venus]

How do you think this can go bigger? And do you think it can be usable in Brazil?

[dkbit98]

The idea was inspired by leafedout.com, a website allowing you to find cannabis vendors in your area. The site uses Google Maps with custom markers and is p2p. Although illegal in my country (Australia), the site works flawlessly. I could make purchases face-to-face with cash and buy confidently as I could rely on ratings left by other users.

Nice idea, but is it possible to replace g00gle maps with some alternative, let's say OpenStreet Maps that are open source?
I wouldn't be surprised if bigbrother g00gle starts to report trading locations soon.
I also see that you are using g00gle, github and reddit sign in, that is not something I would do.

In Australia, our banks have already started limiting transactions to exchanges and freezing accounts associated with Bitcoin, and it's almost impossible to buy/sell bitcoin without KYC in any amount (even at ATMs).

This trend is sadly expanding to other countries, but you can still use p2p trading, and maybe someone can fork PeachBitcoin app (to work outside Europe) that is dead simple to use.

[bitcoinwarriorAU]

@bitcoinwarriorAU
Vod is right... Until you can find a way that doesn't allow users to abuse those ratings, none of the ratings left by others should be trusted!
On the FAQ page, you mentioned "not to worry about leaking our privacy", but considering that your platform uses Google services in connection with limited sign-in options from certain websites, I don't think it's possible to completely remain under the radar ^{[I hope I'm wrong]}.

I'm in the process of adding LNURL-auth, and it's important to note that it is easier to create a burner reddit account than it is to create a burner email address. I am considering switching to OpenStreetMap as an alternative to Google Maps, but that is still TBD.

Thank you for checking it out!

[bitcoinwarriorAU]

I tried opening your website but it doesn't show anything when I block the location access. Is location permission required just to see the map/available buyers/traders on your platform? That discouraged me a little bit. It would be nice if you could at least allow people to see the map without asking for permission. I don't see why you need location access to do that either. Even if you need a location to redirect your user to the right area, a user should easily move the location with their mouse.

That's a bug, thanks for spotting it! I just fixed it.

[pinggoki]

Is this like some kind of a bitcoin P2P but the scale is smaller since you're only target demographic is your neighborhood, maybe you can do what Binance is doing where fiat goes first and then if there's no money that will transfer from your wallet then you won't release the bitcoin that you've both agreed to sell for an amount.

[didIplaywell]

Hey! I just published my flatcoin project today in this forum, look for "From Fiat to Bitcoin through a Flatcoin".
In the whitepaper you will see that a fully decentralized and trustless P2P fiat-to-btc platform was designed as a complement for the project. It might be of your interest!