1. What Local Roots is — and isn't

Local Roots is a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace protocol. Backyard gardeners list surplus produce. Neighbors buy it directly. The platform provides the rails — open-source smart contracts on Base, IPFS for listing data, decentralized payment in USDC.

Local Roots is not the seller. Local Roots is not the buyer. Local Roots is not the food producer, the custodian of payments, or the arbiter of disputes.

• Sellers list and sell directly to buyers. The seller is the food producer, the merchant, and the party legally responsible for what they sell.
• Buyers purchase directly from sellers. Funds go from the buyer's wallet, through an on-chain escrow smart contract, to the seller's wallet. Local Roots does not hold or custody buyer funds at any time.
• Disputes are decided by Local Roots ambassadors — a community of users who have earned voting rights through participation. Voting is on-chain. Local Roots staff do not unilaterally decide dispute outcomes.
• Zero platform fees. Every dollar paid by a buyer goes to the seller, minus blockchain network fees (which go to validators, not us).

By design, Local Roots operates as infrastructure rather than as a centralized service provider. This is the same model the broader open internet uses: protocols facilitate transactions; the parties to those transactions remain responsible for what they do.

2. Sellers

By listing produce on Local Roots, you agree to:

• Sell only food you grew yourself (or that came from your garden, household, or community garden plot). Reselling commercially-purchased produce is not allowed.
• Be honest about what you're selling — accurate variety, condition, harvest date, growing methods. Photos should show your actual produce, not stock images.
• Comply with local food-safety laws in your jurisdiction. Different states and counties have different rules about cottage-food sales, fresh produce, eggs, honey, etc. Local Roots does not certify, inspect, or guarantee the safety of any food sold through the platform. You are the food producer; the legal responsibility for food safety is yours.
• Honor the orders you accept — fulfill within a reasonable time, communicate with buyers if there's a problem, and don't cancel orders without good reason.
• Set fair prices and stand behind them. No bait-and-switch.

3. Buyers

By buying produce on Local Roots, you agree to:

• Order in good faith. Don't place orders you can't pay for or won't pick up.
• Inspect produce when you receive it. If something is wrong with the order, raise it through the platform's dispute system within 48 hours.
• Use your own judgment about food safety. The produce you buy comes from another person's garden. We strongly recommend washing all produce, cooking when appropriate, and trusting your senses. If something looks or smells off, don't eat it.
• Show up for pickup orders at the agreed time, or coordinate a different time with the seller in advance.

4. Disputes

If a transaction goes wrong, the buyer can raise a dispute within 48 hours of order completion. Disputes are resolved by Local Roots ambassadors (community members who have earned voting rights through their participation). Both parties submit evidence; ambassadors vote; majority rules.

Local Roots does not unilaterally decide disputes. The ambassador-voting process is on-chain and transparent. If the dispute window expires without action, funds release to the seller automatically.

5. Acceptable use

You may not use Local Roots to:

• Sell illegal substances, prescription drugs, or anything regulated by the FDA, DEA, or comparable agencies in your jurisdiction
• Sell raw milk, raw meat, or other foods prohibited by local cottage-food laws
• Defraud or deceive other users
• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users
• Manipulate the ambassador rewards system, run sock-puppet accounts, or exploit anti-fraud mechanisms
• Reverse-engineer, copy, or compete with the platform without permission

Violations can result in account suspension, on-chain seller suspension, and permanent removal from the marketplace.

6. Disclaimer of warranties & limitation of liability

Local Roots is open-source decentralized infrastructure. Smart contracts execute autonomously on the Base blockchain. The platform is provided “as is” with no warranties of any kind, express or implied.

Because Local Roots is not a party to transactions, not a custodian of funds, not the food producer, and not the arbiter of disputes, Local Roots — including its founders, contributors, ambassadors acting in their capacity, and partners — disclaims all liability for:

• Any harm caused by food sold or bought through the platform. The seller is the food producer; legal responsibility for food safety lies with the seller and applicable food-safety regulators in their jurisdiction, not Local Roots.
• Disputes between buyers and sellers. The on-chain dispute resolution mechanism is the agreed-upon process; outcomes are decided by ambassador voting, not by Local Roots.
• Lost, delayed, or failed transactions, including those caused by blockchain network conditions, smart contract bugs, or wallet/key issues outside our control.
• Loss of access to your wallet, embedded wallet recovery keys, or any consequence of losing such access.
• Failures, outages, or data exposure by third-party services we depend on (Privy, Pinata/IPFS, Base/Ethereum, payment processors, hosting providers). These services have their own terms; you accept those when you use them.
• Use of the platform in jurisdictions where peer-to-peer food sales, cottage food sales, or cryptocurrency transactions are restricted or prohibited.

You use Local Roots at your own risk. If you're unsure whether you should buy, sell, or use this platform in your jurisdiction, don't.

Maximum aggregate liability: in any jurisdiction where the above disclaimers cannot be fully enforced, Local Roots's aggregate liability to any user is limited to the amount that user has paid Local Roots in the preceding 12 months. Local Roots charges zero fees, so this amount is zero.

7. Privacy

What we collect:

• Account info — your email or social login (via Privy), and an embedded wallet address generated when you sign up
• Profile info you provide — name, garden description, photos
• Transaction data — orders, listings, on-chain events (these are public on the Base blockchain)
• Pickup & delivery addresses — stored privately and only shared with the counterparty after a confirmed order
• Sage conversations — your gardening AI chats are stored so Sage can remember your garden across sessions
• Approximate location — encoded as a geohash, used for buyer-seller matching by neighborhood

What we don't do: We don't sell your personal data. We don't share contact info between users without an active order. We don't advertise to you.

Third parties we work with: Privy (authentication), Pinata (IPFS image hosting), Vercel (hosting + KV storage), Anthropic (Sage AI), Base (blockchain). Each has its own privacy practices.

Your rights: You can delete your account data by emailing us at feedback@localroots.love. On-chain transaction data cannot be deleted (it's the nature of public blockchains), but we can disconnect your wallet from your profile and remove off-chain data we hold about you.

8. Changes to these terms

We'll update these terms as Local Roots grows and our legal review formalizes them. Material changes will be announced on the platform. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.

9. Contact

Questions, complaints, abuse reports: feedback@localroots.love

Local Roots is operated by Common Area, a Delaware LLC.