Buying & selling on Nostr
Nostr has an open standard for classified listings, so a listing you post in one app can appear in others. Here’s how it works and how to trade safely.
How Nostr listings work
A listing is a special Nostr event defined by NIP-99 (“classified listings”, kind 30402). It holds a title, description, price, currency, photos, location and status (active or sold). Because it’s a standard event, any app that understands NIP-99 can show it — the listing isn’t trapped in one marketplace. Reventioned and other NIP-99 apps such as Shopstr read and write the same format.
There’s also an older standard, NIP-15, for “stalls” with products, used by some shop-style apps.
Listing an item in Reventioned
- Open Reventioned and go to the marketplace.
- Add photos, a title, price and condition, and optionally a rough location.
- Publish. Buyers can message you privately (end-to-end encrypted) from the listing.
- When it’s gone, mark it sold so it stops showing as available.
Paying
Many Nostr sellers accept bitcoin over Lightning, which settles in seconds with tiny fees. Some also take cash for local pickup. There’s no built-in escrow or buyer protection on Nostr, so trade the way you would on any classifieds site.
Staying safe
- For local items, meet in a public place and pay on pickup.
- For shipped items, start with small amounts or sellers with a history of posts and followers you can check with the profile lookup.
- Be wary of prices that are too good, pressure to pay fast, or requests to move to another app.
- Never share your private key (nsec) or wallet connection string with anyone.