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I do not like to see people using P2P for centralized exchanges. The centralized exchanges has been confusing people about it. P2P means the exchange should be without any intermediary but the exchanges are the intermediary which make them not to have P2P but another thing entirely.

P2P are:

• exchanging bitcoin directly with another person like on this forum
• the use of decentralized exchanges

If we want to call centralized exchange P2P, what should it be called? We need a name on this forum to be calling them. The centralized exchanges have stolen what P2P is. Even many people on this forum are calling them P2P.

What about CEP2P? It means centralized exchange P2P.

You are right, but we can not just make any metaphoric words in place of P2P trading which we could use all over the place. Because to do that that word should be agreed upon by all universe. (It should be in universal set if unit hehe) just kidding. I think CEXs p2p and DEXs p2p is enough for now to differentiate between them.

Otherwise we and newbies all know that there p2p is not only p2p there is third person involved too to manage the funds. So they must not be confused instead they must be aware of such thing.

Weren't they called centralized P2P exchanges to start with already? Technically they're still somewhat P2P anyway, it's just that the centralized exchanges acts as the escrow for the transaction.

P2C2P :D

To be peer-to-peer network the whole network should consist of "peers" which means participants or nodes that are at equal level with equal privileges. If any part of the network has more privilege than others (eg. the server that everyone relies on) that stops being P2P.

Otherwise if we start bending the definition we start calling a lot of other things P2P that aren't P2P for example CEX like Coinbase since you are technically trading with other people not with the company!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer

As much as like the idea that there's no intermediary when it comes to P2P, I don't want to be a victim of a scam or anything malicious like that because when it's a raw P2P trade, the possibility that the other party won't commit to their agreed trade gets much higher and they don't have to crafty about it unlike having a middle-man/intermediary where they need to fake some confirmation to even pull off shit like that. Also, I don't get how it's confusing, you're just using the exchange as a platform to conduct a P2P trade, it's not like they actively meddle in the trades itself.

The main problem in certain local p2p transactions is the fear of being cheated by anyone claiming to be an intermediary because the possibilities of being defrauded are quite high. I've had a similar experience, even though it was in a Telegram group or channel where they claimed to be actual p2p and I was duped by them. That is why I prefer utilizing CEX p2p to avoid such scams, even though they are not completely reliable due to centralization, but they have a reputation.

It is straight-forward, and you have nothing to fear since the exchange will be the middleman in the transaction; you have to receive your money before you release crypto for the buyer, which is a bit safe.

I don’t find anything bad in doing this with any exchange; all I always avoid is leaving my coin in their custody. I only send funds to the exchange when I am ready to convert them to FIAT.

Trading peer to peer is risky and you must understand how that Peer-to-Peer trading platform works from create your offer, open a trade, communicate with your trade partner, how and when you should release your coin. As well as how to differentiate between real moderators and impersonators, how to file a dispute with solid evidence for your trade. Many things but initially, don't let the high margin of profit attracts you because such too good to to be true offer should come from scammers.

Trade Peer-to-Peer via marketplaces, trading platforms will help you avoid risk with Escrow from a single person you know in life. He can scam you and your trade partner too so don't trust any middle man as an Escrow.

Agreed, based on sources of the fund, the transaction is still P2P. Both fund came only from the parties involved, so it still peer-to-peer, not like exchange when the fund is pooled into market before someone bought them.

Just because you don't like it make it less P2P, it's your opinion. But it's still a P2P transaction since the exchange has no say over your transaction. They however has control over your coin in case of deviancy and that's a measure to minimize scam during P2P transaction. That intermediary is very necessary to ensure smooth and secure transaction and does not completely make the transaction less of P2P. You can decide to call it another thing but you should know that it will hardly impact what's already established and people already use and familiar with. Sometimes we should just let go of some things that have little or no impact to the reality.

Let's rename all the abbreviations we don't like. Since this topic is in the newbies section, if we use our own invented language on the forum, the newbies will get even more confused.
P2P will remain what it is, but you always have the right to use it on which exchange. It's good to be skeptical, but it's always better to use simple things that have been invented for a long time without racking your brains over names.

Bitcoin is decentralized. Having your coins on centralized exchanges is the opposite of what bitcoin is. The centralized exchanges have more control and they are the middle man because you have your coins with them and they have the complete control to your coins. That is not P2P. No intermediary in P2P.

I agree, but we are not talking about how trading are on centralized exchanges, we are talking about the name we should called them.

Everything is simple, newbies are here to learn just like I was here to learn when I came. People that do not learn will not move forward. I will start using some words in addition to differentiate them from P2P.

The concept of Peer-to-Peer can confuse newcomers in the industry. This is because they can be deceived to believe that what is done in centralized exchanges is P2P. Hence there is a need to always emphasize and educate newbies that the main workings of P2p is to facilitate Bitcoin transactions without any intermediary or middleman. It should be you dealing with another person directly which nobody in the middle coordinating or facilitating the transaction. Any centralized platform that brandishes a service as p2p is just offering centralized p2p.

Then DEP2P should also mean decentralized exchange P2P.

I think doesnt matter what its called or what. If you are referring to idea of P2P on cex like what Binance did, the purpose is still the same. Binance did only was set up the place or a hub for people to conduct transactions on which people are relax to know that they are dealing with some legit people. P2p is also good not using cex if you trusted someone your dealing with but isnt it take time to deal with someone first without knowing him but with the Binance set up which require users to be liable when they scam is something good isnt it?

Anyway Id did both and theres really an advantage of cex p2p to dex p2p for me since the money can be encash easily on your remittance app if you dont like bank transactions.

Peer to Peer. It’s self explanatory. If you go to a shop and tell the cashier you wanna buy the next person a drink, it’s not from you to them. You give the cashier the money, the cashier gives the next guy a drink.

pooya’s term is closest to this. P2C2P, although do we need it really? It’s much easier to say centralized exchanges aren’t peer to peer which is common sense too, because, well, they’re quite.. centralized??

This is exactly what I was thinking, too. I know what I went through to get used to some popular words here in this forum before I became familiar with them, and I can now easily flow with them when I come across them being used to make a comment, which shows that I have been learning and adopting. P2P is an already-known word, and it's been used for years now to represent transactions that concern two parties exchanging goods or products, irrespective of which platform is being used.

To someone who knows the true purpose and meaning of decentralization, You know what your own definition of P2P should be; using the name for both exchanges, P2P, does not change your beliefs. We can give those P2P exchanges a personal name that best describes how we view them, but making it a thing of being generally accepted or suddenly replaced over night is what I don't see happening.

If anyone advertises P2P when it's not, it should be illegal. I have no idea what type of P2P you are talking about but most of the centralized exchanges I know does a P2P keeping itself as a escrow system. Having a escrow in P2P don't make than non-P2P.

Doesn’t escrow make the transaction non-p2p? Here you got me confused, I thought p2p means from me directly to you?

The centralized exchange plays a crucial role as an escrow service, securely holding both cryptocurrency and fiat currency from both parties to facilitate trustworthy transactions. In contrast, decentralized exchanges face challenges, particularly in peer-to-peer transactions involving fiat from banks. Nevertheless, the centralized exchange fulfills its purpose effectively, and I am satisfied with its performance.

OP, I think you are right, but when generalising it, you call it all P2P, but if you want to be specific, then you can specify which one you are really talking about. like CEX-P2P, DEX-P2P, and normal P2P, which doesn't even involve any intermediaries. Like, for example, If you find any real person in your location who wants to sell their Bitcoin for USDt, and perhaps you are interested, you can just pay him the dollar value of his asset, and he will transfer it to you. That's the real P2P you mean. Generally, all are P2P, just that anyone you are involved with, you should know the type of P2P it is without being told.

P2P meaning already expand just like staking which is originally to pledge your token to help for blockchain delegation which is now also use on DeFi as staking meaning holding your tokens on a smart contract address in exchange for profit yield.

The currency P2P that being use by the exchange is what many average joe crypto people understand its meaning and not the real peer to peer network like the Bitcoin transactions. Exchange use P2P concept because trader directly trade to each other without interference of exchange. This is the centralized P2P like staking on DeFi. We can't control what will be the definition of a P2P because there's no copyright on this word.

P2P isn't must to be no KYC or decentralized, as long as the trade is only involve with both of parties, it's still P2P.

There's nothing wrong if the centralized exchange claimed to have P2P service, what make people need to pay attention is they need to read the terms and conditions of the P2P service.

What those centralized exchange wrong is when they say their exchange is a safe place to hold your coins.

Yes, P2P simply means peer to peer, and their use of P2P services in their exchanges goes against the definition of P2P. Someone who is well-versed in the crypto industry and often uses exchanges will not be perplexed by what it implies and will understand what the exchanges are referring to.

However, a newcomer using a centralised exchange for the first time will only notice that if they are really smart and know what they have learnt about it previously, as well as the meaning and how it works better. It would be preferable if the P2P working principle followed what it means, but an escrow mechanism (the exchange) makes it more trustworthy than simply exchanging through a random individual you don't know.


Why not just scrap the P2P name, so that we all know it’s not a P2P service anymore.


Exchanges advertises P2P, which does not portray what P2P is, yet it cannot be considered unlawful because it is the means that brought the two parties together to trade funds.  It's even safer and more transparent to use a system like that when trading funds online.

I think the concept of p2p in each case differs as Decentralized exchange works on automated market maker and a available crypto that will be swapped at the instant while cex p2p requires human intervention as it involves crypto to fiat exchange and vise versa. As it maybe, in as much  as fiat remains valuable, cex p2p plays crucial role in enhancing fiat to crypto conversion. The best thing is for you to know the difference and how they both work.

This is just semantics and shouldn't be a problem. They are still Peer-to-peer maybe just another type. Assume that I live off-grid and really need to change some of my bitcoins to a local currency to enable buy something, if I don't come across one person in my environment who can do it for me as the OP explained, CEN P2P will help make the connection for fast withdrawals and save my life. This is why I said CEN P2P is just nother type of P2P.

You may habe the challenge of teust with wvom you may be dealing with on the exchange rate you may try to buy or sell your bitcoin,most people prefer exchanges because they know that they are reliable in that aspect, p2p with centralized exchanges is still p2p but the exchange used is centralized.


Best use case but we have to be sure the exchange we are using are truly decentralized.


There's nothing bad in that but we should still be aware that it makes no difference in the se se that they are still identified as p2p despite being under centralized which would obviously mean that we call the other one DEp2p

Thanks to these new features which we don't find in any of the exchanges before, we escaped the local exchanges' bullying which they asked for a high amount of payment when they convert your crypto into fiat which doesn't really make sense at all. But with this new feature from most of the popular exchanges, we can trade it easily to other people and they pay a reasonable price for your bitcoins which is closely the same as the current market price. As for me, I don't have to worry about what they gonna call it because all I can say is the feature is super convenient and good for newbies to try.

I have experienced today's p2p exchange services on a platform like Binance, and I don't think it's any different from popular platforms like localbitcoins as both have some centralized mediation to them, if anything the centralized involved expedite the trade to avoid open trades from running without the other party playing their part to complete the exchange.

Besides, there is very little involvement that comes to play on these centralized exchanges as everything is pretty much between the two peers unless some illegal transactions are about to happen.

From how this has been explained,  this actually also protects users from being sold fake coins as the centralized exchange will only credit your account if the real coin is it used, it's not everything about a CEX that is bad ::)

Your opinion is not wrong. Because p2p exchanges exist in trading crypto assets, basically trading directly between the seller and the buyer, without having to use third-party media. But now, crypto exchanges such as for example Binance, already provide p2p features in it, and maybe the question is, can this be called a p2p exchange? In my personal opinion, this can still be said to be a p2p exchange, because even though the p2p is done on an exchange like Binance, still, buying and selling transactions are only carried out by both parties (seller and buyer). So in my personal opinion, the p2p features that exist on centralized exchanges can still be said to be p2p. It's just that the room for conducting transactions is provided on an exchange.

Indeed, it is a bit disturbing the authenticity of a real p2p exchange, as it must be decentralized and there are no third parties. But for me, if it's not detrimental to myself personally. I will still enjoy it and will not bother with it. Because for me personally, to do p2p exchanges without using crypto exchange media like binance, for now it's still a bit difficult sometimes. Because right now, I still don't have many friends, who are ready to buy crypto assets (p2p). So when I have a need, I still rely on p2p features on crypto exchanges to sell my assets.

I thought even with P2P, there is usually an escrow who used to hold the fund until the buyers sees the token and then credit the seller.
I think in the case of the centralized exchange, they play the role of an escrow and I don't think it will be wrong if it's still referred to as P2P

Centralized exchange are making people ignore the importance of decentralization in the industry, they have been doing this for a very long time and all in attempt to take away all the decentralization in the industry and it's just getting annoying. They aren't just taking over P2P but also taking over decentralized exchange. For exchange Binance dex is just a joke but we have people believing that they're making use of a decentralized exchange when they use Binance Dex not knowing they're using a disguise. We don't have to change the name of what a P2P is but we have to use every opportunity we have to enlightened people on what truly a P2P is and why it's important to be used on a decentralized exchange.

What's crazier is that the P2P on centralized exchange are taking the decentralized P2P out of business because they're not getting enough volume due to people preferring the centralized P2P as they're more easier to use and more secured (to them) since they don't have to deal with scammers on a high volume as everything is moderated but this is the making the advancement of decentralized P2P to be slow. Immediately a centralized body is Involved, P2P can't be in the name anymore if we wanted to renamed it because there's no peer 2 peer transaction going on the exchange. 

If any third party holds the funds, then it is not peer to peer. In a p2p transaction there is no extra person/entity that is involved in the trade, if it is a physical trade, you'll exchange your Bitcoin directly with the other peer, in exchange for whatever the both of you agreed. Having said that, if it is an online trade, the network has a certain feature that protects p2p traders from scam, without needing any escrow or third party, and that feature is a multisignature transaction, this is what decentralized exchanges use, thus the buyer and the seller will both hodl the funds until the seller confirms the payment.

i guess the definition of p2p exchange already evolved into something what we have today. this is because a lot of scammers are on the loose without the 3rd party escrow. so just like binance, a lot of traders have confidence to trade on this platform because they have assurance that they won't get rekt. i, for one, is more confident on transacting my p2p trades with binance if i want to convert my crypto to fiat. whereas, for other noncentralised platforms, you have your worry that the other party may not release your funds.

I can't think of any name to replace centralized P2P. But I share your interest in having it changed. Centralized and P2P can't go together. As a matter of fact, I sense the urgency for this. I've read and heard a number of times how people are recommending Binance, for example, when somebody asks for a good P2P platform. It has sort of become common that when inquired where one usually does peer-to-peer trades, many would cluelessly respond with a centralized platform. I think this should somehow be rectified. A new name might indeed help.

It's still from Exchange wallet to Exchange wallet. It's somewhat P2P but in a centralized exchange. The main concept of P2P does not have any 3rd party involved. If there are any 3rd parties involved, it's not a real P2P. The problem is that most new people think centralized exchanges P2P is the real and only P2P. Most of the time, new people know about Bitcoin when they search how to make money online and find some video or articles about trading Bitcoin which refer them to centralized exchanges.

The first time they see the P2P word is on exchanges. Only a few percent of people know about existing of this forum, and they barely know about Bitcoin Whitepaper. People start using Bitcoin without understanding what it is and what it is good for.

Don't get me wrong, if you feel confident trading in Binance, then by all means do it, the thing is, it is not a peer to peer trade. A p2p trade doesn't involve a third party escrow, to ensure you don't lose your funds to scammers it is preferable if you trade with parties that you trust, if you don't have any, then use a p2p exchange like bisq and you cannot be scammed because buyer and seller control the funds that will be locked in a multisignature transaction until the seller receives the payment.

Thanks for the correction, I appreciate. I have had a wrong perception about P2P and I didn't even know. Thanks for the enlightenment, it meant a lot.

I think the point the OP is trying make is that maybe they should try to use another name for it on centralized exchange, that it shouldn't be called P2P, because it doesn't in any way represent it when you consider the definition of P2P.