It's actually quite Eloquent. Congrats.

Localbitcoins will be jealous.

Here are 2 ideas for getting the leg-up on them:

1. Lamassu machines are due to be mass produced this summer... They say they've already got hundreds of orders from around the globe. Make sure you get every new owner in your system as soon as they start business... Perhaps even make a special marker on your map just for their locations, to differentiate them from the average user.

2. Find a way to build-in escrow, even if just a link to a 3rd party, for people that just want to trade online.

Thanks!  I'm super excited to be building something valuable for the community. 

Re: your points --

1. Thanks for the heads up!  In contact...

2. In process...

In follow-up to back-end security --

I host the web server and peer server in-house.
Analytics utilized (Piwik) are self-hosted as well, in-house.  I also plan to let users opt-out of ananlytics, but haven't had time yet to set this up.  
All JS is self-hosted as well, in-house.

Basically this means no external logging occurs, except for the tile server (for the time being) and any other ISP related logging.

Tile server uses ssl, but is currently hosted through MapQuest and serves Open Street Map tiles.  I'd like to bring this in house, but the hardware requirements are a bit beyond what my stuff can swing at the moment.  For details on the data they collect, check it out here -- http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/terms-of-use
Specific section in their ToS is: ACCESS AND USAGE DATA > Usage Data

Thanks!  Definitely will.  The plan is to open source everything this week.  Once that goes live I'll do one more post to let everyone know. 

I'm also going to be starting up a new threat just for Elqnt so I don't further clog up this one

Max Keiser mentions a concept reminding of what we have proposed in this thread: a distributed exchange for any asset, based on blockchain

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-01-19/bitcoin-20-aka-ultra-coin-bitcoins-derivative-layer-allows-virtual-control-re
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPmkeio3jJQ

Check out https://www.cointouch.com/ (my site)

CoinTouch uses the Facebook social graph (traversing friends of friends) to find bids and offers for bitcoins. It's P2P in the sense that all transactions happen directly between individuals. There is a single point of failure - the cluster that hosts the site.

I'd like to explorer a BitTorrent-style model to remove this dependency, although we'd need to pre-seed clients with a list of supernodes, right?

The social network "inferred trust" issue is a flaw in my model, yes.

Perhaps some people would be willing to offer escrow to people in the social graph (i.e. if they are the link between two people, they could be an intermediary and take some cut of the transaction?). That way people only have to trust their direct connections.

Hi,

I just wanted to say that a p2p exchange is desperately needed, and I'm very glad to see this thread, and like several others, I have also been thinking about this for some time. Bravo!

My vision of a p2p exchange differs from the one here. My concern is that the market micro-structures that deal with liquidity and volatility are already fairly well described and at play in major capital markets, although the lack of transparency encourages fraud, kleptocracy and worse.

Any attempts at a p2p exchange need to understand these basic components and then use the technology to extend the ease of use, creating resiliency and efficiency in the market. Changing the roll of brokers, creating virtual-exchanges inside of a p2p exchange, and discounting the roles of market makers are all examples where some of this OT runs amok.

However, having the exchange be decentralized is the right way to go. Creating a 'slow' exchange that rebuffs HFT is precisely the RIGHT way to go.

Trading physical assets is a waste of time, there are already markets and exchanges for that trading-- the cryptoshpere is what needs an efficient market! The role of clearing should be included *in* the p2p code; while brokers may have legal obligations and regulatory responsibilities, the clearing should be automated from the outset. There is no need for Class A and B brokers-- however there may need to be Level I, and II and III data (to see beyond the main book orders, like dark, block, other brokers, or uniformed market makers). Fees-- they most certainly should be taken from the trading parties, not from the brokers or exchanges! The fees are what repay the brokers and exchange community (those who run nodes) for their risk/expense/time.

Bottom line, I am looking to see time-tested approaches to how we exchange & trade capital, currencies, futures etc, and have those principles overlaid with transparency onto the crypto world. The current need is to create an efficient market, so that BTC (et al) can grow and is not replaced by centralized hybrids of its trustless protocol and ledger.

While there are many great minds here, we must be careful to not re-invent the wheel-- the real innovation will come once the cryptosphere has matured to accommodate (subsume?) old-world capital (fiat). We are waiting on efficiency to build more interesting applications. Let's get this done correctly and swiftly. I don't think gollum is off the mark in terms of his identification of the needs and ideation of the components, but there are some easily available answers that lead to a reordering/restructuring of the proposed moving parts & pieces and create an efficient p2p exchange (where exchange is the place that traders meet).

How can I participate and what is the current status of the p2p exchange development, if anyone wouldn't mind helping me understand better? I am intending to write my white paper on this subject this spring (while in Bali!), and am looking to develop it and bring it to the community. I would as happily share it with one team as build my own team. All thoughts are welcome.

Cheers,
Stormy

Why not cut out the crypto currency and use mastercard? ;-)

Early adopters need a reason to use it, and if getting rich is that reason, then you must accept that. The alternative is that nobody is going to start using your idea, and it will never take off!

The idea that an assetcoin will always have an intrinsic value is too expensive for words - that is what countries with central banks are able to offer - nobody else is big enough!

Can I be the first to say it will never work? ;-)

There's also the Mycelium Local Trader route *hint hint nudge nudge OhIWorkForThemNow...  *