What you run
A single Rust application (Axum) with a PostgreSQL database. No JavaScript is served, no third-party services are required, and the server never needs a wallet, a view key, or any secret capable of moving funds — by design, it has nothing worth stealing for money. Sellers bring signed subaddress pools from their own wallet software (a small helper tool ships with the project; publish its SHA-256 checksum with your instance so sellers can verify it).
Deployment profiles
- Demo — stagenet, seeded fake data, for evaluation.
- Stagenet — the default for real testing with play money.
- Production — mainnet is refused unless the production profile is selected and the operator types an exact acceptance sentence. That friction is deliberate: flipping a market to real money should never happen by accident or by a copied config file.
The easy path: Manioc Server
If you want your market as a Tor onion service from a computer at home, Manioc Server carries Polyculture Markets in its app catalogue: PostgreSQL and the marketplace run in its sealed app slot, the first admin account is created in its setup wizard, and the instance is locked to stagenet in that recipe. Standalone installation on your own server is equally supported.
Your responsibilities
- The law where you are. Running a marketplace can carry legal obligations that vary by place and by what is sold. Get counsel before a public mainnet instance — the project is doing the same for its own guidance, and this page is not legal advice.
- Your instance, your rules within the software's design. You set your market's name and terms, and enforce them: moderation in this software is account closure — a closed account's listings come down, and its history stays visible for its counterparties.
- Backups and updates. Your database holds listings, orders, ciphertext messages, and reputation history your users rely on. Back it up; apply signed updates.
Pre-launch status: the source release for public audit, the operator legal guide, and the GPG usability test are still ahead. Running the demo and stagenet profiles for evaluation is the intended use today.