Bitcoin Forum

Hey . .i want to use Bitstamp to buy sell bitcoins. But it requires my personal identification, the images adderess proof and all. Is it ok to give it my personal id's. Or they will use my id in some illegal stuffs. What should i do? Also, is bitstamp, a legal? Not SCAM? For it give bitcoins at considerably lower than marketprice.  ???  ???

Most exchanges requires that identity verifications. You can check their privacy policy to know what thy are doing with the details that you are giving them.  https://www.bitstamp.net/privacy-policy/
Afaik they were hacked before but they are comoletely operational now. People still use them so I think it's safe. Any exchange is prone to hacking anyway.
Also please delete your other thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1759014.0 No need to make a multiple thread with the same topic.

Bitstamp is one of the most trusted bitcoin exchanges and they've been around for a long time. As far as I know they won't be stealing your ID. And you're allowed and recommended to use watermark on the documents to prevent that.

If you are worried about the service Itself then there is nothing to be worried about as Its the first fully licensed bitcoin exchange out there[1] so It's not a scam.
Now , for using your ID and If they are not going to use anywhere else ? I doubt it. I personally don't believe that any big company out there asks for personal information's without using them with one way or another. Still , It's up to you to share your ID or not. It kinda defeats the whole purpose of using bitcoin though , I mean bitcoin is all about being anonymous and keeping your private life.

[1] https://www.bitstamp.net/payment-institution-license/

Op, if you are worried about sharing your personal information with an exchange.
Then instead of using centralized service like BitStamp you should try either p2p trading platforms (localbitcoins, paxful)
or new decentralized exchange Bitsquare - you won't be asked for any credentials while trading there.

Expect that for reputable bitcoin exchange. Somehow they need customers information and real idendity so that they can take care of it in case of a fraud. In that way, it will minimize the works of finding the links to illegal money activities that will happen in the exchange. Also it's mandatory since they are a registered company.

Now that they are world's second largest exchange by volume, they need to be strict in their policy.

Thanks to all for the help .. I will use bitstamp to trade btc :)

Don't know what is volume there. But you can try Bitcoin.de it doesn't require documents. But yes like other guys said almost all exchanges need ID document + utility bill. They won't scam you, but they will send that info to government if they ask for it. And that site can be hacked and those pictures stolen/ID data used.

It's legit.

Know your customer/anti money laundering policies have been in place in EU for more than a decade, you'll would know this if you have ever played poker or sports betting online.

https://www.wired.com/2016/04/bitcoin-exchange-receives-approval-operate-across-eu/

Is it even possible to trade other than BTC via mobile app?? Am I the only one who can't figure it out?

Not actually traded with it yet but on mine the icon to the right of BITSTAMP at the top brings up "Select a market"

True.
But even if I choose ETH/EUR, it does not show my open orders, when I move to wallet there's only BTC address and not ETH...

UPDATE: The issue is non-security related and affects small number of users who created new bitcoin deposit address between Jan 25 4:39 PM and Jan 26 3:52 PM UTC. Our tech team is working on the solution.

Actually, your link from the footnote leads to a 404 page of Bitstamp.


Bitstamp claimed to be licensed in Luxemburg for years but has recently removed
all references from their website. In another thread a user pointed out that only
one of the Bitstamp corporate entities has the payment institution license, but
it is not the one where most users are registered. It is proving to be very difficult
to obtain accurate information about this.

However, Bitstamp has been the best exchange in my opinion so far and I have been
using them since 2013.

If anyone is looking for another alternative with a valid license, bitFlyer has recently launched
in the US and Europe as well after originally serving only the Japanese market.
They have also been granted a valid payment institution license from Luxemburg recently:
https://twitter.com/bitFlyerEU/status/955726910427820034

 Bitstamp Exchange (https://cryptochartindex.com/exchanges/bitstamp) is now listed on CryptoChartIndex , Now you can get all information regarding Bitstamp Exchange on CryptoChartIndex (https://cryptochartindex.com)!

Bitstamp (https://coincodex.com/exchange/bitstamp/) was recently sold to a South Korean company for an unknown amount, there's a rumor that it was sold for $800 Million :O

https://coincodex.com/article/2554/bitstamp-sold-to-investment-company-nxmh-for-undisclosed-amount/

Much Necro

Don't use Bitstamp.  They are currently not performing USD fiat withdrawals. My guess is some kind of money crunch or theft that they refuse to publicize. There are people that have been waiting over 2 months for their funds to be moved out of Bitstamp. There are people looking to spearhead a class action lawsuit against them.

Bitstamp is one the most reputable exchanges and I never had any problems with them.
But when did they raise fees?? I loved their zero fee Bitcoin withdrawals and EUR Sepa withdrawals had zero fee too I think. Or maybe really low fee like 0.50 EUR. I checked today and Bitcoin withdrawal fee is 0.0005 like most exchanges and fiat withdrawal is 3 EUR which is not reasonable. And even more for non-Sepa international wire where you need to pay 0.1% fee for withdrawal AND 0.05% for deposit?!
Thinking of switching to alternatives after many years of using Bitstamp 😔

It's more or less in line with what other international exchanges are charging. SEPA wire transfers are cheap, non-SEPA can get expensive with each intermediary bank charging a fee. Their fees are the least of their problems, really, plenty of people getting stuck in the KYC circle of hell.

There has recently been a very rapid and quite alarming increase in horror stories about Bitstamp freezing people's money indefinitely using impossible to answer KYC/AML questions. Check out the bitstamp trustpilot recent reviews and it's the same story over and over again. Using KYC/AML laws against customers in order to deprive them of their funds. It's not just a conspiracy theory anymore, there's way too much of this going on.

Other reputable exchanges operate KYC/AML but the difference is that Bitstamp will never complete the KYC/AML by simply freezing accounts with significant funds in, and never responding to answers, or taking literally weeks or months to respond to your answers, often with yet more questions. It just goes round and round and round in a circle. I suspect they are hoping a lot of people simply give up, which a lot of people sadly do, and this yields them huge profits if you think about just confiscating just a thousand or two accounts with mid five figures to low six figures.

There are also posts about this on the Bitstamp reddit, some with tens or even hundreds of replies describing similar experiences. Who knows what the actual total is. It's made even more sketchy by the fact that they're hiding somewhere in eastern Europe. I understand about secrecy for security's sake, but when there are so many accusations of theft of huge amounts of money, Bitstamp's unwillingness to say where they are actually located becomes suspicious. Their London and Luxembourg offices are just mailboxes.

I would be very curious to know the total amount held frozen by Bitstamp, money held illegally because if true crime is suspected upon good faith AML investigation, then that information would surely be turned over to law enforcement. But that's the minority of those with funds frozen, most are just regular traders who can't account for every single satoshi since the dawn of time, because for example they bought it in cash or so many years ago they forgot, or they mined it many years ago, and so on. In the case of these legitimate traders where no criminal activity can be ascertained, if Bitstamp is truly uncomfortable with doing business with such customers, then Bitstamp should simply close that customer's account and most importantly, return funds back to them. This is what regulated banks do if they close your account due to violation of terms and conditions, which Bitstamp legally has a right to create and enforce but this doesn't protect it from abiding by the law itself.

For all these people stuck in that so-called "Bitstamp KYC/AML circle of hell" closure of account and timely return of funds is what is done by regulated financial institutions operating legally, apart from in the minority of cases which genuinely warrant further investigation by law enforcement. I don't know whether Bitstamp is doing this as a very profitable side-gig to its dwindling market share after the emergence of far bigger exchanges such as binance and coinbase (they already doubled their fees to nearly 10x binance), or whether this is an indication of something yet more sinister such as a Mt gox like exit scam. Mt gox used such KYC/AML pretext to delay customers' withdrawals as long as possible before it all collapsed.

Even if Bitstamp has been good to you, there are so many exchanges out there that won't put you through this, that it's not worth the risk. If you're thinking about any kind of significant amount of funds, especially as a % of your net worth, it's definitely better to be cautious and avoid Bitstamp. And if you read this or other reviews like it and still deposit a load of coin with Bitstamp, then you can't say you haven't been warned. No one knows 100% what's going on until it unfolds, but it's very suspect at the moment. No FUD here, go and search about it for yourselves.

And for anyone already stuck with significant funds: lawyer up. Really. That's only when they take you seriously.