NWHacks 2022
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-RqCoTL1eM
Swop is an online item-trading app allowing users to swipe on products that they want to trade with others. You simply create an account and upload items you want to trade, according to your own custom price and location ranges. Once a match is made, you can chat with matches on the messaging page to negotiate or set up meetings. You can also rate your interactions with other users via star rating.
A novel feature in our app is that it allows for not only one-to-one trades but multi-party trading. For example, say you’re willing to trade your macbook for a Samsung TV. The user with the Samsung TV is willing to trade their TV for an office chair. And a user with an office chair wants to trade for a macbook. Then a three-way trade is established, and all three users are matched. Thus the trading system can work to set up trades with an indefinite amount of users.
Swop encourages community interaction with a focus on sustainable consumerism. By enabling more proximal obtainment of items we can lessen the use of non-local purchases and delivery. Reducing our carbon footprint in this manner can actually have a substantial impact; a paper by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation highlights that up to 45% of global greenhouse emissions arise from the production of things we purchase and use daily. A study done by Christoph Meinrenken, a scientist at the Earth Institute’s Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management, found that the average product produces carbon emissions 6.3 times its own weight. Thus we can see that reducing the number of purchases and instead focusing on community trade benefits both individuals and the environment.
