Since #Nostrica2023 I've been inspired to dig through the exciting developments occurring primarily in "social" while looking to find a project built on the protocol but for an alternative use case. Yesterday, I may have found what I've been searching for. 🔥
While currently very early and running on lightning test net, I've seen a fully functional P2P ride sharing application using Nostr relays and HTLC. Riders and drivers bid for the fee and the HTLC ensures there's no risk of double spend or rugging.
As cool as the above tech was for me to see, the 🤯 part for me, was when it was explained that this open source project is built to seamlessly integrate within existing clients that choose to recognize the "kind". So a mobile client like Damus or Amethyst could allow (filter) the data kind to populate the user's notes, open a map to drop navigation pins etc and transact all within the user's preferred client, thus leveraging/enhancing these popular tools and their respective network effects.
Eg: The rider sends out a request for a car at 40,000 sats, driver can accept and reply with an HTLC based invoice, or respond with a counter offer invoice of the same (market dynamics).
Star rating, feedback etc. needs to be added, but the framework is there and operational.
My goal would be to get this working in Cuba where taxis, collectivos, private cars are essential for travel by Cubanos. Drivers can link their npub and details independently. Why Cuba? They are hurting badly since lockdowns, there is a humanitarian need and cars are critical transportaional infrastructure there. Independent banking, circular economy etc etc all add to the appeal. Cuba is using $USD so you can fill in the blanks from there.
I'm in contact with the Dev of this MVP, who is building this primarily on the backend. He needs front-end and design help, he needs more testers (the LN test net being the limiting factor as most users are not on test net), some dev funds/sats wouldn't hurt and guidance from the knowledge base in abundance here on Nostr would be huge!
Full disclosure: I have no investment or claims in this project. I'm merely hoping to mentor and bring some grey-beard experience to keep the pace of the progress achieved thus far.
If this interests you or someone you may know, please ping me, we can make the introductions and see where it goes.
Building on #Bitcoin and #Nostr - let's re-imagine our world 🙏
