In an period the place centralized exchanges dominate cryptocurrency buying and selling, Vexl stands out as a peer-to-peer (P2P) utility designed to attach Bitcoin customers inside their private networks for direct, non-custodial trades. The app facilitates shopping for and promoting Bitcoin with out intermediaries, emphasizing in-person conferences for money exchanges whereas additionally supporting fiat transfers organized privately between customers.
As Viliam Klamarcik, CEO of Vexl, defined in an interview with Bitcoin Journal, “we’re an utility that helps folks to purchase and promote Bitcoin immediately with one another, with none intermediaries, with out KYC. Vexl works with out custody, so peer-to-peer, however what’s most essential is that it’s all the time inside your personal group, that means we’re not a worldwide market. We’re principally a peer-to-peer discover board the place you’ll be able to join along with your first and second-level connections.”
At its core, Vexl prioritizes privateness, functioning as a high-trust discover board inside your private social community, relatively than an trade. It doesn’t escrow Bitcoin or fiat, it doesn’t maintain consumer funds, nor retailer balances, messages, or private knowledge. All communications happen by way of end-to-end encrypted chats, and trades occur off-app, inserting duty on customers to confirm counterparts. This design aligns with Vexl’s mission to help non-KYC Bitcoin acquisition and native economies, as confirmed on the app’s official web site, which states, “We don’t retailer any private info or any of your messages, interval.”
Person connections in Vexl are constructed on a web-of-trust mannequin, drawing from imported cellphone contacts to create a customized order ebook. Provides are seen solely to first- and second-degree connections—your contacts and their contacts—enhancing liquidity whereas sustaining excessive belief by way of shared social hyperlinks. This limits publicity to strangers, lowering rip-off dangers, and usernames stay nameless till customers mutually reveal identities. Klamarcik famous, “The largest distinction between Vexel and the opposite functions is, initially, its internet of belief, which suggests you don’t commerce with customers; you commerce with folks with whom you’re related by way of actual social hyperlinks.” The app’s privateness measures embrace hashing contact knowledge and separating parts like profiles, chats, provides, and contacts into microservices that converge solely on the consumer’s gadget, guaranteeing no centralized database exists.
To allow this method, Vexl requires a cellphone quantity for registration, serving as proof of humanity to discourage bots and facilitating contact imports. Privateness issues are addressed by way of encryption and hashing; as the web site affirms, “Your chats all the time stay encrypted, whereas the cellphone numbers are hashed.” Klamarcik acknowledged imperfections however emphasised its necessity: “The cellphone numbers are an enormous subject, and we’re conscious of that. And it’s not excellent, but in addition it’s in all probability the most effective answer that we’ve got on the market to construct belief upon that.” This mirrors mechanisms in apps like Sign and main social networks, primarily as a spam-prevention and authentication instrument.
For customers hesitant to import full contacts—significantly in privacy-focused areas like Germany—Vexl provides “golf equipment,” curated teams managed by native moderators, typically meetup organizers. These act as public rooms the place members can view provides with out broad community sharing, although belief shifts to the moderator. Entry requires a one-time code or QR scan, regenerable for safety, offering an onboarding increase for newcomers till they construct direct connections.
Vexl is on the market on each Android and iOS, however iOS customers face restrictions. The app isn’t formally listed on the App Retailer, restricted to TestFlight beta slots or sideloading within the EU, as a consequence of Apple’s claims of “reckless habits” for encouraging in-person trades (Tinder, nevertheless, stays in iOS with out restrictions). Android provides seamless entry by way of Google Play or APK downloads, making it the optimum platform for unrestricted use.
Vexl runs underneath a non-profit basis mannequin, accepting donations and grants to protect its privateness and peer-to-peer ethos. On the subject, Klamarcik mentioned, “From the very starting, Vexl was supposed as a present to the Bitcoin group: an open-source instrument constructed to assist folks transact peer-to-peer, with out custody, surveillance, or extracting worth from customers. The challenge operates as a non-profit with an important aim in its core – to maintain bitcoin usable in on a regular basis life and accessible to anybody, anyplace. Funding by way of donations and grants permits Vexl to remain targeted on constructing easy, resilient instruments for freedom. As an open-source challenge supported by SatoshiLabs, the creators of the Trezor {hardware} pockets, Vexl follows a protracted custom of constructing infrastructure first.” Vexl is totally open supply and is a challenge by Satoshi Labs, the creators of the Trezor {hardware} pockets.
The non-profit mannequin has grow to be more and more well-liked amongst privacy-focused initiatives, as for-profit incentives are likely to result in knowledge assortment enterprise fashions like commercial, whereas Bitcoin-specific privateness apps have been actively prosecuted on the idea of monetizing “cash laundering”. Samourai Pockets’s founders have been accused of cash laundering conspiracy, although finally have been solely imprisoned for unlicensed cash transmission costs, after facilitating over $2 billion in transactions by way of a non-custodial Bitcoin pockets. Twister Money confronted U.S. sanctions in 2022 for billions in quantity, underneath comparable costs for a service that profited from giving Ethereum customers primary monetary privateness. These circumstances spotlight how privacy-focused entities are being focused by governments.
Trying forward, Klamarcik signaled growth: “This 12 months is hopefully going to be the 12 months once we really go abroad and in addition give attention to markets exterior of Europe when it is sensible.”
