Tradeblock is reshaping how sneakerheads discover and trade rare and collectible shoes. What started as a fantasy sports-inspired idea among childhood friends has evolved into a sneaker trading platform where community, trust, and culture are core to the experience.
At the center of that vision is Mbiyimoh Ghogomu, Tradeblock's Co-Founder and CEO, who—along with childhood friends Tony and Darren—built the platform to reflect the authenticity of real-life sneaker culture, where trust and relationships matter just as much as the shoes themselves.
But building trust in a peer-to-peer marketplace, where users ship valuable goods to strangers, is no small feat. That's where Stream came in. By integrating Stream's Chat API and AI-powered moderation solution, Tradeblock scaled human conversations without sacrificing safety.Â
The result? An engaging, authentic platform with a virtually scam-free messaging experience—all without hiring a dedicated trust and safety team.
Chat Wasn't in the Plan—Until Users Made It Clear It Had to Be
When Tradeblock launched its app in 2020, the team initially avoided implementing chat. They believed direct messages might lead users to send messages requesting personal contact information to bypass the platform entirely, undermining its value and security protections. But user demand was overwhelming.
"People were telling us, 'I'm ready to trade—I just need to ask one question or request another photo,'" explains Ghogomu. "Without chat, we were losing transactions."
By adding chat, Tradeblock could unlock a better way to finalize deals, enabling quicker decisions, better vetting, and more trades.Â
Why Stream Was the Right Choice to Power Trusted Trading
After evaluating several chat providers, including Sendbird, Tradeblock chose Stream Chat for its modern SDKs, rich media support, extensive documentation, prebuilt UI components, and developer-first design. The integration was fast and painless, enabling users to start messaging, sharing images, and negotiating trades directly in the app.
Ghogomu says, "We didn't need to reinvent the wheel. Stream gave us the rails to launch chat quickly—and the extensibility to make it feel native to our brand."
Once integrated, chat became a foundational feature, not just a support tool. It enabled collectors to negotiate deals, build trust, and share detailed photos before shipping valuable shoes.
Ghogomu adds, "Chat is the glue that makes trading possible. Without it, you'd never reach an agreement."
Unlike traditional marketplaces, Tradeblock's users aren't always buying. Many are swapping high-value shoes—a more nuanced transaction that requires trust, conversation, and nuance.
Key Chat Use Cases at Tradeblock:
- Pre-trade negotiation: Asking clarifying questions before accepting an offer.
- Photo sharing: Requesting close-ups of soles, tags, or blemishes for quality inspection.
- Exploratory outreach: Messaging users with mutual shoe interests before making a formal offer.
- Trade trust building: Getting a feel for the other person's experience, tone, and vibe before committing.
Today, chat is one of the app's most-used features and a critical part of the user journey. It allows Tradeblock members to communicate with confidence, trade with clarity, and stay on a platform that protects them.
Stream's AI Lets Tradeblock Moderate at Scale—With Zero Full-Time Staff
A new challenge came with the spike in chat adoption: protecting users from scams, spam, and platform bypass attempts. Like any peer-to-peer marketplace, Tradeblock became a target for bad actors looking to exploit trust and redirect trades off-platform.
First, a shady competitor cloned the app and built bots to spam Tradeblock users via DMs, encouraging them to switch to the knockoff platform.
Then came a bigger threat: a wave of sophisticated phishing attacks. Tradeblock suspects they were mistakenly targeted because the company's name was confused with a defunct crypto startup that hackers were scraping from old token and exchange lists. Ghogomu says, "At one point, we were getting hundreds of phishing messages a day."
The Tradeblock team knew it couldn't scale a traditional moderation model. They had no trust and safety department, no full-time content moderators, and no intention of hiring one. Instead, they needed a smarter, more efficient approach that could grow with the community, especially as forums and group messaging were on the roadmap.
A Two-Phase Moderation Strategy
Phase 1: Manual + Rule-Based Defense
- The team started by leveraging the Stream Chat API's auto-moderation blocklists.
- They manually created over 100 keyword rules to catch suspicious phrases.
- They blocked platform bypass attempts (e.g., "pay me on Zelle" or "DM me on WhatsApp") and displayed warning messages to users attempting to engage.
Phase 2: AI-Powered Moderation at Scale
- Stream's dedicated AI Moderation API was integrated to replace basic manual filters.
- It used machine learning to detect scam behavior, phishing patterns, and evasive message variations (e.g., Unicode spoofs or spaced-out letters).
- Tradeblock enabled automated actions like message blocking, shadow banning, and link suppression.
Ghogomu explains, "Instead of playing whack-a-mole with new spam variants, the AI catches things we hadn't considered. It's smarter and faster than any human moderator."
The Result? Nearly Scam-Free Chat
What once required constant manual oversight is now fully automated. Tradeblock's support lead occasionally checks the moderation dashboard for audits, but no full-time resource is needed.
"We squashed the issue entirely. What used to be hundreds of scam messages per day is now effectively zero. And we didn't need a team of moderators to do it," Ghogomu shares.Â
The impact? Users now trust the platform more than ever. Phishing attempts have dropped to near zero. Platform bypass has been contained. And moderators can focus on fostering community through conversation, not putting out fires.
Why It Matters:
- Zero trust and safety headcount required for day-to-day enforcement
- Platform bypass messages auto-flagged and blocked in real time
- Phishing attacks neutralized using AI, not 100+ basic manual rules
- Moderation dashboard used for strategic insights, not constant triage
- Scam attempts halted before delivery, preventing reputational damage
Ghogomu says, "If you're still relying on humans to read every message, you're already behind. Stream's moderation tools let us stay ahead of threats without falling behind on product."
As Tradeblock rolls out groups and forums, AI moderation is no longer a luxury—it's essential infrastructure. It's the reason a lean startup can run a high-trust marketplace without compromising user safety or stretching its team thin.
What's Next: From Trading Platform to Sneaker Community
Tradeblock's journey with Stream has gone far beyond just enabling messaging. With secure, high-performing chat and AI content moderation in place, the team has laid a strong foundation for what comes next: community at scale.
Ghogomu emphasizes, "Stream saved us from needing to build a trust and safety team. We scaled secure messaging and eliminated fraud—without slowing down our product roadmap."
Tradeblock plans to expand its product experience from 1:1 chat to group-based forums and social engagement. These new features are designed to bring sneaker collectors together through:Â
- Size-Based Group Chats: Auto-assigned rooms for users who wear the same shoe size (e.g., "Size 10 Crew" or "Size 13 Collectors")
- Interest-Based Channels: Open forums for enthusiasts of specific styles, like "Kobe Fans," "Retro Jordans," or "Dad Shoe Lovers"
- Threaded Discussions: More structured conversation formats for debates, trade offers, and sneaker news
- Story-Style Video Posts: User-generated content that showcases "kicks of the day" and other trade-worthy pairs
- Broadcast Trading: Shift from individual negotiation to community-wide opportunity sharing
All of these experiences will be built on the same chat and moderation infrastructure, which has already proven reliable, secure, and developer-friendly. Critically, moderation will remain AI-first and community-powered.
Instead of traditional moderators, Tradeblock plans to empower top traders and power users as community cultivators who spark conversations, post stories, and model healthy engagement. Their role isn't to police content but to foster culture and connection.
As Tradeblock scales, so does its trust strategy, proving that smart infrastructure and thoughtful product design can keep communities safe and vibrant without compromising growth.