Introducing: Fully Non-Custodial Trade Settlements

Published:

Dear users,

Thanks so much for being a part of our platform. Our love for you is eternal ❤️

The platform trade settlements have been switched to fully non-custodial mode.

Now that this is activated, when a seller finalizes a trade the platform will first generate a wallet with a random seed that's offset by the seller's password, then send the coins to the generated wallet, and finally sign the transaction to the final destination, which is the buyer's settlement wallet.

Our platform is only used to generate the wallet and broadcast the signed transaction, we retain no control of the seller's per-trade-generated wallet, as this requires knowledge of the seller's password.

Here are all the changes from the perspective of the user experience:

I. If you're buying

The main change from the buyer's side is that from now on you'll be required to specify your settlement address. When a trade finalizes, the coins will be sent to this address. The settlement address cannot be an internal LocalMonero/AgoraDesk address.

1. If you're responding to a seller's ad:

If you are responding to someone else's offer, you'll be asked for the settlement address when creating the trade. Here's a GIF demonstrating how it'll look like:

buyer responding to trade settlement address dialog
2. If you're posting your own buy ad:

The only difference here is that you'll need to also specify your settlement address when creating the ad. This will simply be a new field in the ad creation process:

buyer creating ad settlement address field

During the transition period after non-custodial settlement is activated, existing ads that don't have a settlement address specified will continue to work as before. Any attempt to edit those ads will cause an error unless you add the settlement address.

You must add a settlement address as soon as possible, otherwise you risk your ads being hidden from the search results. Remember, you have the ability to filter and mass edit ads in your dashboard. This will be a perfect time to use it:

buyer filtering buy ads and mass editing them to add settlement address
3. The coins may take a bit more time to arrive at your settlement address, and the network fee will be subtracted from the total amount.

It may take up to an hour (usually much quicker, though) for your coins to appear in your pending incoming transactions on your settlement wallet. Please be patient.

Also, because the settlement will now be non-custodial, the amount you will receive will have the network fee deducted from it.

II. If you're selling

You will now be required to input your password when you finalize a trade. Your password is then used in conjunction with a random seed to generate your non-custodial wallet and sign the settlement transaction.

seller inputting password when finalizing trade

Because of this, if you change your LocalMonero/AgoraDesk password, make sure you save your old password somewhere to retain access to your per-trade-generated settlement wallets.

III. API changes (ignore this part if you don't know what it means)

Our API will also change a bit.

  • /contact_create/{ad_id}: New required property buyer_settlement_address for starting trades from *_SELL ads.
  • /ad-create: New required property buyer_settlement_address for creating *_BUY ads.
  • /ad/{ad_id}: New non-nullable property buyer_settlement_address for updating *_BUY ads.
  • /wallet and /wallet/XMR: New proprety related_trade_url added to transaction objects of outgoing transactions associated with settling a trade.
  • /trade/contact_release/{trade_id}: A password is now required to release a trade.
  • /contact_info/{trade_id}: New properties transfer_to_buyer_settlement_wallet_transaction_id (both parties),transfer_to_buyer_settlement_wallet_transaction_key (both parties),buyer_settlement_address (both parties), seller_non_custodial_wallet_mnemonic (seller only),transfer_to_seller_non_custodial_wallet_transaction_id (seller only) and arbitrated (both parties).
IV. FAQ
1. Will there now be a fee associated with opening and cancelling a trade?

No! Opening and cancelling trades does not require any network fees or any other fees, just as before.

2. Will I have to wait for 10-60 minutes whenever a new trade is opened or cancelled?

No! Opening and cancelling trades is instant, just as before.

3. Does this mean that trades are no longer protected and the seller can now run away with my coins?

No! All trades are protected, just as before.

4. Does this mean that after finalizing a trade the buyer won't see the coins instantly?

Yes, after a trade is finalized the buyer will have to wait around 10 minutes before they see the BTC in their settlement wallet, and around 30 minutes for XMR. However, in the case of XMR, after the new Monero protocol called Seraphis is rolled out we expect to cut down the settlement visibility time down to around 10 minutes, like with BTC.

5. Is there anything else I need to do or be aware of other than what was described in section I as a buyer or section II as a seller?

Nope, all the relevant changes have been described and everything else stays as is.

Conclusion

As always, if you have any questions about the changes feel free to contact us on all the usual support channels:

This is the most major update to our platform ever. We hope you'll love it as much as we do!

Due to the sweeping nature of this change, despite our best efforts to make it as smooth as possible, there may be some potential hiccups along the way. If you encounter any problems please let us know!

Happy holidays!

Love,
The LocalMonero/AgoraDesk Team