Drop Zone 
Drop Zone is a Ruby command line client that facilitates trade and secure messaging between buyers and sellers, using nothing but the Bitcoin network. Testnet is used for communications. Mainnet is used for the storage of listings, buyer profiles, and reputational events.
Getting Started
With ruby 2.2.1 installed:
$ gem install dropzone_ruby
Find a list of commands with:
$ dropzone help
Online help for individual commands can be obtained like so (example for chat list):
$ dropzone help chat list
Fund a testnet key with tBTC or a mainnet key with BTC
Create a seller or buyer profile
Author's Manifesto
To whom it may concern,
Markets are objects of censorship and always have been. There is a presumed division, that renders commerce distinct from the notion of free speech. But I will allege that the act of commerce is, itself, indistinct from speech. Where or how one spends their value is a decision as personal and poignant as any words ever spoken or letters ever written.
As a unfortunate consequence of freedom, bad actors will engage in repugnant trade that impinges upon the rights and freedoms of others. It is the job of humanity to cooperate and see to it that trade, such as this, becomes unprofitable. Whether it is accomplished through technological achievement or through the adjustment of social mores, or perhaps a simple appeal to the underlying natural law, it is not the job of bad acting third parties to force into hiding commerce that must be dealt with by means of an adjustment to the global, social conscience.
Cooperation, in the manner I was just speaking about, has never been plausible
until the invention of The Blockchain. I will not foist upon Satoshi's humble
creation such impracticable possibilities as the achievement of world peace.
But in approaching Drop Zone, I am attempting to do nothing more than what is
possible and possibly more efficient than what exists. I wish for Drop Zone
to be nothing more than an appendage to The Blockchain. As such, it is every
bit as much Bitcoin as Bitcoin itself. Just as a fungible Bitcoin enables the
exchange of spaceless value with near impunity, Drop Zone removes the ability
of unwelcome parties from glancing over the shoulders of those in the act of an
exchange, whatever it entails. This technology disrupts the ability of buyers
to gain insight into the identities or movements of suppliers making supply
chains far less vulnerable to disruption. It is this innovation that separates
this project from all other decentralized market solutions.
Whereas Bitcoin forces us to consider the nature of money and value, Drop Zone will do the same for commerce. At its root, Bitcoin is a message passing system. Those messages that are passed, unlike any electronic message that's come before it, articulate value. Commerce is, and has always been, similarly inclined toward message passing. Whether in-person, over email, or through large, online shopping carts, fundamentally, commerce is composed of messages that are in service of the transaction wherein a final message of value is sent to a recipient in exchange for a negotiated good or service. As such, Drop Zone is a secure message passing protocol inasmuch as it is a platform for commerce. And while the problem is far beyond the scope or capabilities of the protocol in its most fundamental form, the observant might even see the tenuous skeleton of a full-fledged reputation system. Such a project is, in itself, as important and difficult as any facing this decentralized ecosystem.
I hope that Drop Zone lets us all dream of a day when no man will any longer be made to suffer indignity for simply engaging in unpopular or stigmatized commerce. May all commerce be created equal.
Today is a Beautiful day,
Miracle Max quia omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur et qui se humiliat exaltabitur
Errata
- The white paper expressed 8 digits of precision for the listing radius. This implementation instead uses 6 digits. If additional precision is later deemed necessary, a field can be added to the listing to accomodate enhanced precision
- The white paper expressed pkeys (addresses) as being encoded ints. These are instead encoded as variable length strings.
- The white paper expressed transaction ids as being encoded ints. These are instead encoded as variable length strings.
Changelog
- v0.1.2 - Cleaned up the chat listing interface (renamed communication to chat). Fixed issue with new session create
- v0.1.1 - Addressed bugs in Listing find and buyer profiles
- v0.1 - First Release