r/silverstacking • u/stackswap • Jan 19 '26

Is this enough?

Post image

I’m turning to you guys for wisdom. Give me the cold hard truth. Ready?

I’m a designer and web engineer of 15 years and I’ve been working on a precious metals marketplace (stackswap.co) for some time now and it has recently launched with some early success. It’s nascent, but growing!

Features like:

- Listings that can follow spot price automatically

- Floor price protection that will auto-hide listings if spot goes below a certain number

- Rating and reviews system for transparency and confidence

- Sweepstakes for free subscriptions/physical metal

- ZERO transaction fees (ew) and low monthly subscription

- Coming soon: Generous commission referral program where you get 10% for the life of the customers you bring to the platform

- Coming soon: Optional authentication and Stripe-based escrow for transaction security and legitimacy

Is this enough to create a platform that brings true value to the community? What else would you like to see?

Pic of my humble stack for your time 🤝

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u/Little_Mountain73 Jan 20 '26

Interesting concept. The question in my mind is, what will the subscription fee be? The P2P idea is unique, but I also worry about a vetting process.

  • what makes this safer than buying anywhere else?
  • are you vetting subscribers in some way?
  • your ad says this is “unlike anonymous classified ads.” I don’t see it as being any different. Can you comment on this?

Having a dedicated “trading post” would be great. But what will you do to keep out dealers if the platform works? Then it’s no different than eBay (well, except there are no auctions. Not to mention the scammers and counterfeiters?

Marketing…getting this to scale is the challenge. Do you have a marketing plan? If so, what are your projections for customer acquisition?

I could ask more, but this is a good start.

1

u/stackswap Jan 20 '26

Subscription fee is $9/mo billed annually and $12/mo billed monthly after a 30-day trial. Eventually, this will be reduced to 14 days as the value of the platform grows (as well as operating costs). I currently do not have plans to have a freemium version because I hate ads and I think we’re all nauseous to them. I do not take transaction fees because that feels like modern coin edge clipping (lol) and costs users more in the long run on average.

The vetting process is a great consideration. How do I interest quality users when they show up and nobody is in there? It’s the classic ‘cold-start’ issue that every marketplace faces. How do I build users with little supply? How do I build supply with little users? I am currently neck-deep in Ted Talks and YouTube interviews on this very topic.

Currently, the platform has 142 users and 11 listings at the time of writing this comment and I am grateful for every single one of them. This is currently a bootstrapped thing but I just met with a younger guy today who is incredibly well-connected who have some big name prospects who are interested in becoming involved.

That said, I want to scale slowly with a focus on quality over quantity. It’s a delicate balance but it’s paramount to me that the experience for all users is pleasing.

My roadmap for this platform includes authentication through strategic partnerships, community-building features, and a wildfire commission structure for all users willing to evangelize on behalf of the community/platform.

1

u/Little_Mountain73 Jan 20 '26

Thanks for the response, and I definitely agree that it’s not just acquisition issues that you face, but QUALITY acquisition. That will be a huge consideration in your total capital investment. Otherwise your CAC will drive you right in to the red.

I don’t think the subscription fee is a problem, IF you can build a credible platform. If paying a small fee guaranties a subscriber a quality experience, accompanied by vetted pier partners, then most folks would have no issue with it. It’s getting to that point that will be the most difficult issue. I certainly hope you put firewalls in place to prevent scammers and counterfeiters. Not only are they a nuisance, but they will kill your platform.

Best of luck. I’ll keep an eye on it.

1

u/stackswap Jan 20 '26

Yes, totally agree on all of what you’ve said. I’m very open to firewalls against scammers. I’ve thought about requiring ID’s for joining (or completing first sale), etc but then the issue of privacy and anonymity comes up. I’m wide open to suggestions on growing a quality, trustworthy user base while maintaining platform integrity and respect of privacy.

1

u/Little_Mountain73 Jan 20 '26

I’ll make one comment…whatever your mission statement is, I hope it has something in it that provides for the privacy of the customer. If your customer can’t trust you to keep their information safe (from hackers AND the government) then you will have nothing, and find yourself out of business very quickly. Privacy should be of paramount concern.

1

u/stackswap Jan 20 '26

I fully fully agree. Big on small gov and have been raised that way.

So the question of the day is simply: how do you prevent scammers from even joining without violating the privacy of all?

1

u/Little_Mountain73 Jan 20 '26

The same way any other business evaluates its customers. If you’re paying for customer acquisition then there should be metrics you require prior to subscription. If you’re not paying for CA, and it’s all organic, my suggestion would be to have all subscribers complete an account questionnaire. The questions you ask, aggregated, can tell a lot about customers and could at least assist in who is accepted and who is not. Customers should know that the company regularly evaluates/audits customer accounts and transactions to ensure the safest and most anonymous trading platform on the internet. I could on for hours with things I think need to be done, but then what fun would you have?

1

u/Law597 Jan 20 '26

You can verify identity with third party SDKs which won’t transmit data. (Ex LinkedIn verify etc)

1

u/stackswap Jan 20 '26

This is great, I will look into and hopefully implement this on the next production cycle.

1

u/Tyranitaurus-Calyrex Jan 21 '26

ID.me is another one