Patent ID: 8335822

Claim:
A system comprising: a network-based interaction environment including 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, the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes including a first peer-to-peer client, a second peer-to-peer client, and a third peer-to-peer client; a first peer-to-peer client application running on the first peer-to-peer client to process persistent item information on the first peer-to-peer client, the persistent item information being related to an item being offered by a first user of the first peer-to-peer client application; a second peer-to-peer client application running on the second peer-to-peer client to cache search results including the persistent item information on the second peer-to-peer client; and a third peer-to-peer client application running on the third peer-to-peer client to request a search of a cache of the second peer-to-peer client for the search results including the persistent item information related to the item being offered by the first user, the third peer-to-peer client to maintain persistent buddy information on the third peer-to-peer client, the persistent buddy information including a buddy list identifying trusted peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the search results including the persistent item information being cached on the second peer-to-peer client is encrypted in the second peer-to-peer client cache and decryptable at the third peer-to-peer client and decryptable at any trusted peer-to-peer nodes identified on the buddy list of the third peer-to-peer client.