Local-first exchange protocol

Trade in circles. No money. No servers. No internet.

Phones in the same room find closed barter loops of three to seven people — you teach, someone lends, someone else supplies you back. Matching runs on your device, sync runs over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct, and every step is cryptographically signed. Nothing ever leaves the room.

A closed exchange ring: Mira gives Dart lessons to Tomas, Tomas lends a scooter to Anh, Anh supplies groceries back to Mira. MIRA TOMAS ANH DART LESSONS → ← SCOOTER, WEEKDAYS GROCERIES ↑ WEAKEST HOP · 74% MATCH
A ring is only as strong as its weakest match — that is the number the on-device matcher ranks by.
0Servers, forever
3–7Parties per ring
Ed25519Every operation signed
OfflineBLE · Wi-Fi Direct · LAN
One protocol, three surfaces

The mesh does more than trade.

Module A

Exchange

Type an offer or a need in plain language. The on-device model turns it into a semantic vector, your phone gossips it to nearby peers, and the matcher searches the local graph for closed loops. Swipe to lock in.

Available at launch
Module B

Compute

Lend your phone's idle neural chip to nearby AI workloads — but only while it charges, stays cool, and sits on a network you trust. The hardware gate fails closed: if it cannot verify safety, nothing runs.

In development
Module C

Grid

Solar inverters and smart relays on your home network report surplus and demand into the same mesh, so neighbors can balance energy directly — no utility middleman, no cloud dashboard.

On the roadmap
How a ring closes

Four steps, all on your device.

  1. Say it in your own words

    "offer: Dart tutoring, two hours a week" or "need: a scooter on weekdays". A compact language model on your phone converts the text into a 384-dimensional semantic vector — no text is sent anywhere.

  2. Gossip to the room

    Nearby devices exchange signed intent records over Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi Direct. Each record carries its author's Ed25519 signature; devices verify before storing. Duplicates are discarded automatically.

  3. The graph finds the loop

    Your phone builds a directed graph — an edge exists where one person's offer satisfies another's need — and searches for simple cycles of 3 to 7 people. Rings are ranked by their weakest hop, because one unconvincing match collapses the whole loop.

  4. Lock, fulfill, done

    Each participant signs a lock for their own part — nobody can lock anyone else in. When every hop is locked, the ring is confirmed. Mark it fulfilled when the exchange happens; reputations build from signed history alone.

Trust model

Nothing to leak, nobody to subpoena.

Your data

Lives only in an embedded database on your device. There is no account, no cloud copy, no analytics pipeline. Deleting the app deletes everything.

Your identity

A keypair generated on first launch and stored in your device's secure enclave. Your public key is your identity; the private key never leaves the hardware keystore.

Every action

Creating, locking, and fulfilling are signed operations in a conflict-free replicated log. Peers verify signatures before applying anything — a forged action from any device is simply rejected.

The network

Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi Direct, and your local network. Web clients pair with a phone through a QR code and a cryptographic challenge — an impostor bridge fails the handshake and is dropped.

The cost

Zero, structurally. There are no servers to pay for, so there is no pressure to monetize your data. The protocol runs on hardware you already own.

Get Aura OmniMesh

Three ways in.

iOS

iPhone & iPad

Full mesh node: radio discovery over Multipeer, local database, and the bridge that lets web clients join your room.

App Store
Android

Phones & tablets

Full mesh node over Nearby Connections. Install the signed APK directly — tap the file, then allow install from unknown sources when your phone asks. Google Play listing coming soon.

Download APK
Web

Any browser

A lightweight client that joins the mesh through a phone on the same Wi-Fi. Scan the QR code shown on any full node to pair.

Launch web client

iOS apps install only through the App Store — that is an Apple platform rule, not our choice. The direct APK is signed with our release key; verify the fingerprint published in the repository before installing from outside Google Play.

Questions

Asked before you asked.

Does it need an internet connection?

No. Devices discover each other and synchronize directly over Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi Direct, or a shared local network. The protocol is designed for rooms, buildings, and neighborhoods — not data centers.

Where is my data stored?

Only on your device, in a local embedded database. There is no server to send it to. Deleting the app deletes the data.

What exactly is a barter ring?

A closed loop of 3 to 7 people where everyone gives one thing and receives one thing: A teaches B, B lends to C, C supplies A. Direct two-person barter usually fails because needs rarely mirror each other; rings solve that mathematically.

How are matches found without a server?

A small language model runs on your phone and converts each offer or need into a semantic vector. Your device compares vectors it has gossiped from nearby peers and searches the local graph for closed loops. Every step happens on-device.

How do I know a confirmation is real?

Every operation — creating an offer, locking into a ring, marking it fulfilled — is signed with the author's Ed25519 key. Devices verify signatures before accepting anything, so no participant can forge another's actions.

Is there a token, coin, or payment inside?

No. Version 1 is pure barter: goods, services, and time exchanged directly between people. There are no balances, no custody, and no payment processing.