How Buying and Selling Works on Pelagora

Every centralized marketplace controls the transaction. They process the payment, take a cut, and own the relationship between buyer and seller. ACP routes everything through Stripe. Meta handles it through Meta Pay. Shopify runs it through Shopify Payments.

Pelagora doesn't sit between you and your buyer.

How it works today

Pelagora is a peer-to-peer marketplace. When a buyer finds your listing through the PIM protocol network, they connect with you directly. You arrange the exchange — meet locally, ship it, accept Venmo, cash, crypto, whatever works for both of you.

There's no platform fee. No forced payment rail. No middleman deciding whether your transaction is allowed.

This is how the earliest and most enduring marketplaces have always worked — two people agreeing on a deal. Pelagora just makes discovery peer-to-peer too.

Why this matters

When a platform controls payments, they control you. They can freeze funds, change fee structures overnight, or delist you without explanation. Your transaction history, your reputation, your customer relationships — all locked inside their system.

On Pelagora, the relationship is yours from the start. Your node holds your listings, your reputation, and your data. No one can take that away because no one else has it.

What's next

In-protocol payments and escrow are on the roadmap. When they ship, they'll follow the same principle — open rails, no single processor, seller choice. More on that soon.

Get started

npm install pim-protocol

Documentation: docs.pelagora.org

Join the conversation: GitHub Discussions