I will check out bisq, Thanks for the recommendation! privacy altcoins are fine, they can be converted easily.

don, that is the problem i am talking about, there should be no problem that requires blocking of funds. When BTC is deposited it stays as btc and that is your money regardless of where it originated or who it used to belong to. The exchanges job is not to protect us from fraud, it is our job, Use long unique passwords, encrypt your data, dont talk about having bitcoin, use dedicated machines if financially viable, Dont get phished.

But its a problem ill have to solve myself i guess, Id love to see bitcoin get back to its roots. I think we should all expect some level of anonymity if we choose to have it. Pseudo-anonymity is key to security in my opinion.

But im just ranting now, thanks for the info guys!

So i have been working with bitcoin since it started, i sold off all my holdings at 6k before the rise to the moon, but recently ive came back to buy some and all of the otc markets are gone, local traders require ID, the big exchanges either dont accept fiat or require your soul and mothers baby pictures.

So can somebody help me understand what happened? did the 2017 bubble kill off the anonymity or am i missing something? I understand the importance of a trust-circle but i am asking solely on the basis of send payment, get bitcoin using WU, cash deposit, Moneypak, etc.. without an in-group. It seems there isnt even a way anymore to find private sellers efficiently, just oceans full of buyers trying to pawn off paypal and itunes giftcards, OTC sellers requiring ID, and corporate exchanges that are even worse than mtgox.

I dont remember it being this "centralized". Shame.

So what actually caused this? Regulations shouldnt have effected the OTC market IMO.