I Built a Crypto-Native Craigslist with Manual Escrow - Here's Why and How

The Problem

There are millions of people holding crypto who want to spend it on real things - hire a developer, buy a script, sell design work. But where do they go?

• Telegram OTC chats → chaotic, no protection, scam-heavy
• Forum classifieds → threads get buried in hours
• P2P exchange sections → designed for fiat conversion, not commerce

I decided to build a dedicated marketplace for this.

What I Built

CryptoBoard - a classifieds platform with Web3 wallet authentication. 🔗 https://crypto.my-board.org/

Tech decisions:

• Auth: Wallet-only (MetaMask, Trust Wallet, WalletConnect). No backend user database with emails and passwords to get hacked.
• Listings: Icon-based instead of user-uploaded images. Keeps the UI clean and avoids the "flea market" look.
• Messaging: Built-in chat between buyers and sellers.
• Escrow: This is the interesting part (see below).

The Escrow Problem with Digital Goods

Traditional escrow works like this:

1. Buyer sends money to escrow
2. Seller delivers product
3. Buyer confirms → escrow releases money

But with digital goods (source code, design files), step 3 is broken:

• The buyer can receive the files, say "this isn't what I wanted," request a refund, and keep a copy
• The seller has no recourse
• The escrow service has no way to verify the claim

My Solution: Human-Powered Escrow

Instead of just holding funds, the platform admin becomes an active verifier:

1. Seller sends product + testing instructions to admin
2. Admin installs/runs the product on their own machine
3. Admin performs agreed-upon tests and records a screencast
4. Buyer watches the screencast - verified by a neutral party, not the seller
5. If satisfied, buyer sends crypto directly to seller
6. Admin verifies the on-chain transaction
7. Admin delivers files to buyer
8. Admin deletes all copies (per agreement)

Is it scalable? Probably not infinitely. But for high-value digital transactions ($100-$10,000+), having a human in the loop is actually a feature, not a bug.

Design Philosophy

I deliberately chose not to allow user-uploaded images. Every listing uses icons from a built-in collection. Why? Because user-uploaded photos on classifieds boards almost always look terrible - blurry phone photos, inconsistent sizes, stock images. Icons keep everything uniform and scannable.

Try It

The site is live. If you have a Web3 browser wallet, you can:

• Connect and browse listings
• Create your own listing
• Message other users

🔗 https://crypto.my-board.org/

I'd love to hear your feedback - especially on the escrow model and the no-images design decision.