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What is Peer?

Peer is a peer-to-peer marketplace connecting everyday payment apps and onchain crypto. Buyers pay sellers directly through platforms like Venmo, Revolut, Wise, Cash App, or PayPal, and the ZKP2P protocol verifies the payment cryptographically and releases crypto from escrow: no bank rails, no custodian, no waiting for business days.

Why it exists​

Getting between fiat and crypto is still the worst part of using crypto:

  • Centralized onramps are unavailable in much of the world and charge up to 5%.
  • KYC flows are slow and repetitive; bank transfers can take days to clear.
  • None of it is composable: you can't route "fiat in" straight into an onchain position.

Peer replaces the intermediary with an order book of intents. Sellers (makers) escrow USDC and set their price, payment platforms, and limits, like an Airbnb host sets price, dates, and rules. Buyers (takers) fill those orders by paying the seller directly on a payment app they already have.

How a trade settles trustlessly​

Two pieces make the exchange safe without a custodial intermediary holding your money:

  1. Intent-based onchain escrow. A smart contract locks the seller's tokens when a buyer signals an intent, and only releases them when a predefined predicate is satisfied: "send X USD to this account within the time window."
  2. Cryptographic payment verification. zkTLS, TEEs, and related primitives verify that the fiat payment happened without exposing the buyer's credentials or account history onchain. Security depends on the verifier implementation, enclave attestation, and signing-key controls described in Risks and Trust Assumptions.

The result: trustless (no intermediary settles disputes), private (payment data stays offchain), fast (orders settle in minutes), and cheap (no middleman spread).

Peer and ZKP2P​

Peer is the app at app.peer.xyz. ZKP2P is the open, permissionless protocol underneath: anyone can build on it, provide liquidity to it, or integrate it. The protocol is non-custodial by design: smart contracts hold escrowed tokens and release them according to public rules, rather than giving a custodial operator unilateral control. Read more in the Protocol docs. For the consumer overview of the marketplace, see What is Peer on peer.xyz.

Where to start​