Show HN: Ethereum address reviews, similar to Yelp

You are promoting this project as an Ethereum address service yet your sign up form asks for a BEP20 (Binance Chain) address.

Is this an Ethereum project or BNB project? If this is indeed Binance Chain focused then you should lead with "EVM Address" instead as it's more technically correct.

It is an Ethereum project.

But I am just using the Binance test net to make sure it is working correctly before launching on the live net.

The Ethereum test nets are not as user friendly and hard to get gas for.

I want to migrate to Ethereum end of this month if I'm happy with the state of it.

Noted, then I should use EVM address for the time being thanks.

1) The site has a nice design. Yet, the text in the buttons can be selected, but the hashes in the top lists cannot.

2) I cannot find one of the top hashes when searching for it. Shouldn't there be an entry?

3) Votes can be abused. Have you considered comments to add more depth?

4) What's your contingency plan? Who owns the data? Why should people build or defend their reputation on your platform?

5) The url for a searched hash is not compatible with forms

Overall, it would be nice if there was another trust provider on the internet. Perhaps you can generalize the concept and offer trust for all accounts. E.g. there could be an independent evaluation of Twitter and ActivityPub accounts.

Oh yeah thats the dream. To offer a 3rd party opinion on these generic forms of "verication". I mean whats the point of a twitter blue tick when you can simply buy them... And yes I do agree that it is in our interest to keep it generalized and domain unspecific.

1. Yes excuse my noob skills. I am still learning a lot. That's partly why I made it open source, so that other can contribute if they wanted. I'm still trying to get the UI polished.

2. The top addressses are from mocked data right now. Right now the only live features are registration, reporting and searching. Viewing top addresses in each category is the next feature I am finishing. Sorry if that was not clear, I'll add a disclaimer.

3. I don't want to add comments as this starts becoming a duplicate of Etherscan then. I'd rather focus on simplicity for now. We have it so that only verified users may vote, to partially stop votes from being abused.

3. The contingency plan against what exactly? Since the data is attached to a token and the token given to the user, I'd argue that the users owns their own data. We as Open Info do currently regulate the data though. But only initially. Once an address's status is determined, it is up to the community votes to second Open Info's classification

Simply put, I would recommend someone build or defend their reputation on my platform as it can always be linked back to their Ethereum address. For people who use burner addresses, this tool would be useless. However, I personally would consider interacting with a burner address as a concern. I would prefer to interact with someone who has previous payment references to use as an indication of a successful delivery of goods.

Closest comparisons to my goal with this platform would be certik. What differentiates this however is that it is aimed towards an individual using an address as payment for some service or product.

5. Once again, excuse my frontend skills. I'm not sure I understand though? Would you care to elaborate please and I'll try and improve it.

5. When you search at google, the url is https://www.google.com/search?q=vrfd, your url is https://vrfd.info/0x567d5bc5dcc2cccf1610c18240b0eddd7a621ef2

I would say that using the query parameter makes it easier to integrate the page with tools like browser address bars or third party forms.

What stops someone reporting innocent addresses?

I have the same exact concern.

Good question, I answered it above.

It is crucial that people not be falsely targeted.

Note that reporting someone does not actually classify it as reported just yet,

all reports are reviewed and factual evidence must be provided for it to be considered a succesful report. Thereafter, the evidence is displayed publicly for users to make their own assumptions from it.

Worst case scenario reports can still be revoked if new evidence comes to light.

Suppose the situation: I am going to buy something bad and see the dealer's address is here. What do I supposed to do? Is the address here just because of he sells something bad or because he is a scammer and not a seller?

You would see there address here as one of two things: 1. verified, or 2. flagged.

In the first, you would be reassured that the person has been verified by Open Info. And you would further be able to asses how many other verified users have seconded this. Giving you confidence to proceed with your sale.

Tn the second, you would immediately question the validity of the seller and you would be able to review the claims made against them and asses for yourself whether or not you whish to proceed.

I spent a year working on an NFT/crypto anti-fraud solution[0].

The most important thing I learned was that crypto is based on fraud and criminality.

If that sounds overly reductive or sour grapes I’d like to tell you about the many, many scenarios where I was literally told “Why would we want this? We make our money on fraud”.

I am not kidding, and I am not exaggerating. It is without question the sleaziest and most repulsive ecosystem I’ve ever encountered.

I applaud the attempt to do something with integrity in this space but your time and talents are better spent elsewhere.

[0] - https://fnftf.io/

Yeah it sucks that the space is the way it is...

But I am still optimistic that the blockchain itself carries invaluable utility in the way everything is openly verifiable. And for poor countries it offers a very much needed escape from failed currencies.

For that reason my goal is to rather cherry pick the real, i.e. credible and authentic, people who want to use the blockchain for transaction from this sea of scams.

Maybe my time is waste. But at least I'll learn more from it.

Congrats on picking the most unreadable font I've ever seen. I can't interact with this page meaningfully even if I wanted to, because I can't read a thing.

Oof... sorry. Thanks for the feedback. Guess the retro tech font is lost on you.

Are your referring to the application forms or the web page font?

I'll change it to something else then

The footer is in Ubuntu font at least... :/

Etherscan has had comments for years. I.e.

https://etherscan.io/address/0x1f9090aae28b8a3dceadf281b0f12...

Can be spammed and gamed, but an address with a lot of complaints is likely going to be scammy.

Oh yeah of course. And it has been super useful to view them.

My idea is not to replace this but rather amend this.

Specifically by tracking the transactions of these scammy address to also then report all subsequent ones, i.e. the ones they try to launder the money through.

> Addresses are classified as either verified or flagged on-chain through soulbound NFTs. A type of NFT that has no trade value as it cannot be sold. Once minted, it is stuck to the given address.

This should probably be called an "addressbound NFT". Is there anything that would prompt it to follow a bad user to a new address or wallet?

I'm mostly cryptocurrency negative, and have never used any cryptocurrency. I presume you've thought of a variety of means your tool can be abused and have taken action to ameliorate that abuse in advance?

The only reason it is coined soulbound is because that is what Vitalik named an untransferable token when he first envisioned it.

Yes most definitely! It doesn't follow the bad user to a new address per say, but rather flags each consecutive address to which that user transfers funds.

Yes abuse is my biggest fear. Especially for example someone who tries to falsify their reputation.

The best way we can mitigate abuse right now is to enforce a strict verification process when on boarding users.

ultimately the best way is to also do everything we do in a transparent manner, so that anyone can weigh in on their opinions.

sending 0.0000000344545784592138 Eth to 0x0008457459dfdfn384676880dsfd

Crypto transactions and address are not human readable in general imo.

With reviews there is issue with the triviality of creating a new address and/or mixing transactions.

A tool like this could be useful if it was integrated directly into a wallet, but even then it doesn't resolve above issue for now.

The Ethereum naming service aims to make it more readable. One should try and name all addresses. That would help a little. But yes you are right.

We try to mitigate that problem by having addresses be verified before they are allowed to review others.

Yes integration like that is the most valuable way this can be used. My dream is to be able to partner up with others to make things like that possible.

And yes it doesn't completely eliminate the problem, but it does mitigate it. And I'd be happy knowing I prevented at least one other person from suffering a scam like I have before.

Good luck, i hope you succeed.

Looks nice, though it would be great if it supported ENS (and perhaps UD) domains, as they are getting increasingly common.

100% agree.

ENS integration is days away. We have been working to get it out ASAP. It would be a great addition.

The navbar font is unreadable, you're using the default vue favicon, 2 of the links in "view top addresses" go to the same place.

And what stops someone from just blasting negative votes at addresses?

Damn lot's of complaints about the font. Sorry, I'll change it. Thought the retro tech look was cool but I'll restrict it to digits only.

Noted. I'll update the favicon.

Yeah CRTFD temporarily redirects to the same page as VRFD as it is still under construction. It's intended to just be showing off the next feature, I'll fix sorry.

Users may only vote once, furthermore they must be verified to be able to vote.

So the font is atrocious, you should definitely change that. But regardless, how do I check why something was flagged?

Okay noted xD. Lot's of people hate the font.

I thought it was cool at first. Like the nostalgia of retro tech. But I guess function over form.

Gonna look at reverting it now into something better.

We attach the reason for a flag as metadata on the NFT itself. So it is in metadata.json

Right now the frontend does not display this but we will be adding it soon.

I don't think there is any point to this if you don't let people read the reasons

Thanks everyone for the invaluable feedback. Changing the font ASAP xD

How would you explain it to someone unfamiliar with Ethereum?

Its like Yelp. You can openly view and search the reputation of businesses/freelancers/restaurants/individuals (but in the form of an eth address).

Or you could add to the database of reviews, either through reporting someone (provided you give evidence) or verifying that they delivered on their promises (same goes).

Roast me/it please