Abstract

In the wake of centralized exchanges, early decentralized exchanges led the DeFi movement using order books and liquidity pools. Yet DeFi users still lacked a fully decentralized way to onramp from fiat to crypto and offramp back to fiat.

P2P Protocol reflects a departure from fiat escrows and traditional custodians by using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs for non-custodial KYC, making on/off-ramps privacy-preserving and governed by users' collective interests.

Currently deployed on the Base network, with Solana deployment planned as the next step toward a multichain architecture, P2P Protocol trustlessly matches buyers and merchants on-chain based on staked USDC, settles trades with on-chain coordination, and resolves disputes through on-chain governance settlement rather than platform custody. The $P2P token launches on Solana to establish network effects ahead of the protocol's deployment there; Solana is the planned hub chain, with Base and future high-performance chains as supported spokes. This paper formalizes design goals, protocol flows, reputation, dispute resolution, pricing, security and privacy models, governance, and token economics.

The end-state is a credibility-based DeFi ecosystem where peers transact, save, and build services on top of an open Proof-of-Credibility graph—useful, easy to use, privacy-first, and not reliant on over-collateralized mechanics for every everyday action. This paper lays out that vision, the principles guiding it, what works today, and the path to a mature, protocol-neutral, global network by and beyond 2026.

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