Bitcoin Forum

I am looking to trade some bitcoins today for cash on the site.

I am a new member, and never done cash transactions before. Is it safe?

Also can I trust members with 100+ 100% feedback to do a bank transfer to my account / paypal?

Just had a long and bad experience with mtgox.

I did a transfer on Local Bitcoins a couple of days ago and it worked fine. I suggest that you require that traders submit a picture of government-issued ID when they purchase for the first time (or if they have a low number of trades). That way, if the funds get frozen by your bank you'll have some evidence of the fraud.

Buying the coins with cash should be safe but I suggest you follow the guide https://localbitcoins.com/guides/cash-exchange-howto (https://localbitcoins.com/guides/cash-exchange-howto) on their website on how to conduct the trades safely.

Also, just because I'm curious, what happened on Mt Gox?

Mt Gox let me deposit bitcoins, but couldn't withdraw them without ID. Fair enough (maybe), I spent over a week submitting government issued documents, which they kept declining as valid.

In the end, after 15 - 20 emails, they accepted a picture of a printed copy of an internet bill. Something I could have typed out myself.

They really didn't want to give me my bitcoins.

That's pretty shitty. Glad you got the coins in the end. I had to close my Mt Gox account because they don't let people under 18 get an account, and I couldn't be bothered whipping out Adobe Photoshop to edit my Driver's License

They work in odd ways. The proof of address I ended up giving them was even for a different address. Didn't seem to bother them.

Yeah local bitcoins has worked so far for me, just make sure to conduct any face to face deals in public so you don't get mugged.

I done the deal, all went fine. Kinda hard to count £1000 in a very public place, was more worried someone else was going to mug me, not to mention it looked like a drug deal.

You can get around that by just announcing at the top of your lungs "THIS IS NOT A DRUG DEAL". That should keep your £1000 safe

What's it like trading face to face?
Do you have to wait for six confirmations?

And what's to stop a guy from just taking the cash and running away?

I don't know why but once I had a same feeling. Never used drugs so it must be because of movies :)

@forevernoob
First confirmation is enough, no way back so no need to wait all six.
Don't go alone if it's bigger amount.

Sometimes 1 confirmation can take a few minutes. Kinda of awkward having to wait around I would think.
Do you up the TX fee or how do you deal with this?

Well he had like 3000+ transactions with 100% feedback. I guess if he made a runner, I could just set up another deal as someone else.

Also, I transferred direct to his address. He didn't seem to care about checking it, but I insisted anyway. Checked block chain, even though it had 0 confirmations, he was happy enough. His balance was 1600btc+

I bet he is even more happy that the value has now gone up by £300 in the 3 days!

Best to go with a friend.

Always meet in a public place, especially one with many security cameras.