US Patent 8949338 Peer-to-peer trading platform

A computer-implemented method and system is disclosed in which a network-based interaction environment includes a plurality of peer-to-peer nodes being able to communicate directly with each other using a peer-to-peer protocol and a peer-to-peer client application, and a first peer-to-peer client application to maintain persistent item information on at least one peer-to-peer node of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the persistent information being related to an item being offered by a first user of the first peer-to-peer client application.