In a world where digital commerce is policed, platformed, and perpetually monitored, a rebellious new marketplace is emerging from the cryptographic underground—one that hands power back to the people, one satoshi at a time.
Meet Shopstr: the permissionless Bitcoin bazaar built on Nostr, where Silk Road’s ethos collides with 21st-century privacy tech, and every transaction is a quiet revolution.
Born from Calvadev’s disillusionment with Big Tech’s soul-crushing grind and a fascination with Ross Ulbricht’s unfinished legacy, this audacious project bypasses regulators, dodges middlemen, and turns every user into a sovereign merchant. 
How did a lone developer crack the code for censorship-resistant trade? Why is Chaumian ecash the secret sauce for onboarding the masses? And what happens when a marketplace can’t be shut down, even by its creators?
First Steps in Bitcoin
- What pivotal moment or vision led to the creation of Shopstr, and why focus on a “permissionless” Bitcoin marketplace?
First off, one of the biggest inspirations was definitely Ross Ulbricht. I didn’t realize until I got into bitcoin my sophomore year of college and learned about him, but I actually attended his undergrad university.
After discovering bitcoin, I wanted to contribute to the ecosystem in some way, but never felt like I had anything of value to build, and that’s where Nostr came in. After Jack Dorsey first posted a tweet sharing the Damus Nostr app, I jumped into playing around with it and got interested in it as a communications tool.
I eventually got around to reading the protocol spec and saw that it was so flexible and widely applicable, which then triggered my thinking that this could be a great way to allow for the spread of the use of bitcoin as money.
Having learned about Silk Road and it’s takedown, and seeing as most of the development at the time in Nostr was centered around social media apps, I thought of filling in my desire of having a place to permissionlessy buy and sell products and services natively with bitcoin.
Using Nostr as the base layer for the infrastructure of the system also allowed for flexible and resilient commerce, as the buyers and sellers would be in complete control of their identity, money and data. With Bitcoin, and now Nostr, free commerce over the internet could actually be realized.
- Share an inspiring story from the platform’s early days.
It’s basically still early days, but I guess if we’re talking from the start, something that could be inspiring is just the journey of getting where things are today. With the product alone, when I look back to how the site first looked and worked, things have GREATLY improved.
It’s funny to see what I used to think was good enough and now realize that it’s not good at all; makes me excited to see how Shopstr will grow into the future! More personally, I started off as just a Bitcoin enthusiast working in Big Tech and feeling absolutely devoid of meaning with regards to work.
The thing that really started changing things was me just having the confidence to put something out there into the world and take whatever judgement came with it.
Just by taking the leap, I realized that simply doing something, anything, was enough to get the ball rolling and help improve my ability, especially with all the feedback that comes from doing so in an open space.
Building in Bitcoin
- Who is Shopstr designed for, and how do you balance catering to Bitcoin enthusiasts vs. mainstream users?
Shopstr is being built for anyone who wants to be able to receive money over the internet for the products and services they are selling; bitcoin and Nostr just happen to be the best way to make that happen in a permissionless way, but of course with the potential hurdle of getting people to use bitcoin as money.
The fact that bitcoin enthusiasts are the first adopters and users of this type of tool I actually see as a positive due to the fact that bitcoiners, and especially now Nostr users, are a bit more understanding of bugs and issues that come up, which removes some pressure from me as the only developer working on the project actively.
The use of Cashu, which is an implementation of Chaumian ecash built on top of bitcoin, also makes it very easy for novice bitcoin users and those who have never even touched or heard of bitcoin to transact on the site, as Cashu makes sending and receiving money as easy as texting.
The goal is to make private and permissionless transactions over the internet accessible to the masses, and while Shopstr isn’t there quite yet, it’s well on its way to achieving that.
- Why prioritize Bitcoin over cryptocurrencies, and how do you address challenges like transaction speed/fees?
All other cryptocurrencies have the flaw that they are essentially permissionless systems governed in a permissioned way. The fact that there are recognized founders and legal entities that oversee, drive, and control the development of these other cryptocurrencies leads to a faulty foundation to build anything on top of. At any moment any entity with guns can threaten to overtake or shutdown those systems.
Bitcoin has no oversight board, no leader, no formal entity controlling it; it is a naturally organized system that is built for the people by the people, which Nostr similarly compares to.
Bitcoin also has other protocols built on top of it to allow for more cheap and scalable transactions. Lightning and Cashu in particular are what Shopstr uses when facilitating payment, which allows for nearly free payments that are also private.
- Without central oversight, how does Shopstr prevent fraud or disputes? Explain your approach to escrow or smart contracts.
For the most part, fraud and dispute handling is at the buyer and merchant’s discretion. Sometimes there are bugs that cause people to lose money, which is where I would then assist and issue a refund if it really was a fault on Shopstr’s side, but aside from that we leave it up to both parties.
Having more trust needed in a transaction also makes us more conscious of the things we buy, which is generally a good thing. Also, on an open network like Nostr, the simple act of publicly calling out a merchant can be enough to deter scams as a loss of reputation can be costly.
That being said, there are plans to implement an escrow system to aid in dispute resolution where it seems feasible.
- How did you assemble your core team, and what roles are critical to Shopstr’s success?
Currently I am really the only person working on it full-time, but I do have a couple people helping me. One once reached out for help with using the site, and eventually started suggesting and planning features to implement. He then brought on another dev more recently who has been helping build out the site and improve performance and reliability.
At this stage, and at any stage really, not only are the team, but customer’s really important to Shopstr’s success. Without feedback and people actually buying and selling on the site, we wouldn’t be able to follow demand and help grow the circular economy.
- How are you attracting vendors and buyers, and what incentives exist for early adopters?
To date, vendors and buyers have generally come from Nostr directly. We don’t really do any advertising or outreach (yet); posting product updates and interacting with customer’s on Nostr is the biggest draw at the moment.
The primary incentive is really just building up a reputation, showing that you’re an honest and consistent user. Soon, we’ll be adding some loyalty perks, like domain verification, custom URLs, and the like to thank our supporters.
- How does the platform adapt as transaction volume grows?
Tools for managing and processing orders are definitely becoming more important to focus on. The buying experience is generally quite seamless, but there are a lot of ways it can be even easier for merchants to manage their shops, which is where most of the focus will be.
Support, escrow, and trust systems will also need to be built and adjusted as it becomes more difficult to stay on top of all the user requests.
- How do user suggestions shape Shopstr’s development?
Since it’s basically just me working on this project full-time, I do my best to message and communicate with anyone and everyone who is interested in, confused about, or actively using Shopstr.
I keep a list of bug reports, feature requests, and general comments that anyone I get messaged or tagged by asks about or sends to me, so as long as a user knows my Nostr npub, github, or email, they have a part in pushing Shopstr’s development forward.
- How do you navigate legal gray areas, especially with global regulatory shifts?
Since Shopstr is essentially just a “window” into the Nostr marketplace world, and we run no infrastructure apart from hosting the website, it is simply a neutral piece of software. The users are in complete control of what they see and what they choose to use to pay.
At some point we might have to start running moderation of some kind, but the beauty is that we can do that on infrastructure that we run but that the users don’t have to use due to the relay structure of Nostr. This allows us to comply with any regulatory shifts while still preserving the freedom of our users.
It is also impossible for us to take anything down or stop transactions; if you control your Nostr keys, the most we could do is filter the content from showing up on our servers, but anyone could also take our code and run a version that doesn’t implement that.
- What unexpected challenge tested the team, and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was probably when my original co-founders stepped aside. Trying to build a startup is already tough and can feel somewhat lonely at times.
I’m super grateful for their help to get it off the ground, and Shopstr definitely wouldn’t be where it is without them. The thing that helps is that I’m incredibly passionate about realizing the vision and even the hard days feel more like interesting challenges and problems to solve rather than problems and issues I have to deal with.
The bitcoin and Nostr community is also super supportive, and I’ve surrounded myself with a great community that I can support and is supportive.
- If you could rebuild Shopstr from scratch, what would you do differently?
I honestly don’t think I would change anything. The way things are going and the journey to get here feels rather serendipitous and I’m super excited to see how the future unfolds. If I HAD to choose something, I guess the only thing I could really say is I wish I started sooner.
Community Engagement and Influences
- Are you partnering with other Bitcoin projects or developers to expand functionality?
Any developer is always open to contribute! We’re open source, so you can submit feature requests, bug reports, request code changes, and the like at any moment, and all suggestions are taken into consideration. We are also exploring certain integrations with some existing solutions for merchant tools, but nothing concrete yet.
- How do you simplify the experience for non-technical users unfamiliar with Bitcoin wallets?
For one thing, there is a simple bitcoin wallet that is built-in to the application, so users don’t even have to have a wallet to get started on the site. By using Cashu, it makes sending money exactly like sending a text, and when users get paid, they can immediately deposit their money into their Shopstr wallet or cash out once they’re already familiar.
As a buyer though, you would have to already have some bitcoin, but due to the use of Nostr, you don’t even have to use a normal exchange to get onboarded onto bitcoin as you can earn some sats for posting memes or notes and immediately be able to use them to purchase something.
- What’s a fun tradition or habit within the Shopstr team?
I guess building, lol. The three of us who work on it are in quite different parts of the world and have never physically met each other, so we sync up to talk shop and get straight to work.
What’s Next?
- Where do you see Shopstr in 5 years, and how could it reshape global e-commerce?
My goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to transact with Bitcoin around the world. I can see Shopstr handling the trade activity for local farmers markets, bitcoin communities, and circular economies all over the place and in a liberty-preserving way.
Having money freely flowing in this way opens up so much potential to further humanity and increase cooperation, and we want to be a part of leading that future.
- How can the larger bitcoin community contribute to Shopstr’s mission?
By testing things out, listing items, supporting merchants, and giving back any general feedback. More broadly, the goal is really to see the usage of Bitcoin as money grow, and anything that further realizes that is great for Shopstr.
