Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer (P2P) marketplaces (bitcoin) remains an important tool for users to move money across borders, but their future depends on them becoming permissionless and unstoppable, according to Ray Youssef of Paxful.
Youssef is involved with Nicolas Gregory and Antoine Riard in the development of Civ Kit, a P2P marketplace that will use Nostr and Lightning Network technology to create a decentralized platform. allows to resist censorship and to shop without permission between people.
At the Surfin’ Bitcoin conference in Biarritz, France, Youssef spoke privately with Joe Hall of Cointelegraph about the project in development, which aims to release its alpha version later this year.
According to white papers Civ Kit system by Youssef, Gregory and Riard It will use the Nostr protocol for the P2P order book and rely on the Bitcoin network as the source of validation for the “web-of-stakes” market ranking paradigm..
To eliminate dependency on third parties for dispute resolution, transactions will be locked by Bitcoin contracts, while market nodes will be incentivized with privacy-protecting service credentials backed by BTC payments.
The white paper outlines the purpose of the market system to enable global trade of all kinds of products worldwide, including fiat currencies, goods and services.
According to Youssef, P2P marketplaces have a certain popularity, but they are perceived as a niche in the Bitcoin ecosystem. While most crypto users are interested in spot or futures trading and markets, Youssef said that P2P trading, or over-the-counter (OTC) currency trading based on cryptocurrencies as a level of compensation, is greater than users can imagine:

“It all started with kids trading on Bitcoin Talk, then LocalBitcoins appeared, then Paxful. Then ‘CZ’ [Changpeng Zhao] They stole my stuff and started Binance peer-to-peer service.”

Youssef acknowledges that Binance’s P2P market is currently the biggest player in the ecosystem, and notes that private conversations with Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao suggest that the offering remains a major source of revenue for the global exchange’s operations as spot markets struggle to compete. . get big returns.
The impetus for the creation of Civ Kit comes in part from fears of the potential shutdown of P2P platforms like Binance. Youssef added that the main concern is: Lack of an alternative for P2P users who depend on such services for cross-border money transfer.

“It’s not about trading, it’s not about speculation. They’re literally trying to get the money flowing and they’re using it in ways they couldn’t before. The only way forward is peer-to-peer.”

Youssef mentioned Closing LocalBitcoins in February 2023, as well as regulatory challenges that led to the temporary suspension of full of people in April. The marketplace was back in business more than a month later.

“Fraud is a very serious issue, so is regulation, and the risks are huge. It’s Operation ‘Choke 2.0’. They’re trying to close all doors in and out of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin.”

Youssef also stressed that P2P marketplaces need to be configured to make them “unstoppable” and “permissionless”, noting that both Delaware-based Paxful and Finland-based LocalBitcoins are experiencing shutdowns despite their different geographic locations.
As detailed earlier CointelegraphThere are P2P exchanges Faced with significant regulatory scrutiny and uncertainty in countries like the United States.

Translation of Walter Rizzo