Normalized distributed exchange system

An exchange system whereby each of a plurality of users of the exchange system may exchange one or more items with other users of the plurality of users over a network, the exchange system comprising:

• means for receiving information related to items offered for exchange by each of the plurality of users;
• means for providing access to the received information to the users of the exchange system;
• means for allowing the users to select items contained in the received information to be received in exchange for items available to the respective users;
• and
• means for determining an optimal number of exchanges that may be consummated between the plurality of users who have selected items for exchange.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having software for establishing a normalized distributed exchange system (“NDES”), the computer-readable medium comprising:

• logic configured for receiving information from each of a plurality of users using the NDES related to at least one item that each of the plurality of users is willing to exchange for other items held by other users on the NDES;
• logic configured for providing each user with access to the received information related to the other items held by the other users on the NDES;
• logic configured for allowing each user to select from the received information at least one item that each user is willing to accept in exchange for the at least one item each user is willing to exchange;
• logic configured for creating a chain link for each item that is selected to be received in exchange by any of the users;
• and
• logic configured for using a trading scenario algorithm to generate all possible permutations of closed chains of exchanges utilizing the chain links.