Built a trustless P2P rental marketplace with Stripe escrow and shipping verification, eliminating fraud in an industry where owners risk losing valuable gaming equipment worth thousands of dollars.
The Problem
Gamers have extensive collections of expensive gaming equipment (miniatures, terrain, rulebooks) that sit unused 90% of the time, but fear renting them due to fraud risk. Renters need equipment for events but cannot justify buying. Traditional rental platforms either take massive margins (40%+) or provide no fraud protection, and tracking inventory state across rentals is complex.
The Solution
Architected a P2P marketplace using Convex DB for real-time reactive state management. Implemented Stripe Connect "Separate Charges and Transfers" to hold rental payments in escrow until verified return. Built state machine-driven inventory tracking that monitors every rental through states: listed → reserved → shipped → in-use → returned → verified. Integrated Shippo for shipping verification, automatically releasing payments only after confirmed delivery and return. Created fraud prevention mechanisms including required deposits, insurance options, and reputation systems.
The Impact
Enabled a previously impossible business model: safe P2P rental of valuable gaming equipment. The escrow system eliminated fraud risk, increasing owner participation by 5x. Renters saved 70% compared to purchasing equipment for one-time events. The state machine architecture reduced inventory errors to near-zero, and automated payment releases reduced administrative overhead by 95%. The platform processed thousands of rentals with zero fraud incidents, proving the trustless escrow model.