belts.trade has closed.

Somewhere near you, someone has a belt they are not wearing. Somewhere near you, someone's trousers are falling down. That was the pitch.

It was also a chicken-and-egg problem. Nobody lists a belt until there are borrowers. Nobody looks for a belt until there are belts. Both sides wait for the other and nobody moves.

In nine days the site got one registered user, and it was me. I listed no belts. I borrowed no belts. I did send a message reading "Hi, i want your belt", which went unanswered, because the person I sent it to was fictional.

The money never worked either. Every revenue model I sketched needed features the joke did not want. Deposits. Insurance. Subscription tiers. Shipping. A belt is worth about eleven euros. It cannot carry a funnel.

So it stops here, while it is still funny.