Localbitcoins sell via bank deposit

[pegasus7293]

Just had a few questions about how this site works.

Does the site use the same type of device as localethereum.com?
Buyer or seller loads a multisig address both have to hit confirm to start the transfer of bitcoins?

How does this work when selling? Does the buyer send a bank transfer before or after you send the bitcoin to them? Is there any chance for theft?

Thanks for any advice / details. (I wanna never use a centralized exchange again)

[Bitfort]

It's quite time ago I used them and things could have changed but here's my experience.

Localbitcoins acts like escrow. In simple the steps are.
- seller deposits BTC into his localbitcoins account (then he can offer them fo sale)
- buyer contacts seller he wants to buy X BTC via bank wire.
- deal is made (price is fixed), this (X) amount of BTC is moved aside (escrowed ... so seller can't witdraw them )
- buyer is provided with details where to send the money and have some timeframe to do that (he's sending money directly to sellers bank account)
- there is chat window so both parties can discuss other details  
- if seller confirms receiving the funds he can release the BTC from escrow to buyers localbitcoins account
- if buyer didn't paid in given timeframe (or something else went wrong ) the deal can be canceled and BTC released from escrow back to seller.

and yes, there are possible ways to scam.
e.g. seller can hide the fact he received the wire (and then release the BTC back to his account)  ... nevertheless i think this is solvable by legal means. Of course that's going to cost the buyer time and efforts (contact authorities, provide details, wait for investigation etc. ) ... nobody wants to go through such thing I guess.

So my advice is deal only with users with lot of good feedback from lot of various people.

[joniboini]

Thanks for any advice / details. (I wanna never use a centralized exchange again)

May I know why? While a centralized exchange is not ideal, I believe it's in some case safer than dealing with in Localbitcoins. You can also use escrow in this forum when you want to buy/sell bitcoin, there's a lot of reputable escrow here that can help you. If you are not in a rush and don't want to use centralized exchanges, trading via escrow in this forum might be a good alternative.

[pegasus7293]

Yea i’ve had issues with centralized exchanges.
Right now waiting on coinbase to recover funds that
I put in an account but have never moved for a year
They give me a fake error like: “this transaction fee expired”
But to me it just means that my funds are being used
In a fractional reserve type setup. Had a problem with
Uphold also. Funds never recieved... missing in transit.
Did finally recover after bank investigated. But also for me
To use a centralized exchange I gotta get my funds out of
China first. There are no exhanges that work here so u got to
Use paypal. They take 10%. So its very expensive.
Then u got the regular trading fees on the exchange.
Its cheaper to go the p2p route and your money is really there
Not only that i’m hearing coinbase and paypal ban people
For their poltical views. I just cant say I like that type of crap.
They have no buisness getting involved in people’s private life.
So i really prefer to go full decentralized cuz I dont trust paypal
Or coinbase or any other exhange really.

Sounds like localbitcoin has a good setup with the escrow. I do hope
Most people are trustworthy... if not.. i guess they get a dispute as a reward
And if doing this with bank transfer. Thats probably a bad idea since banks have all the info.

[magneto]

Just had a few questions about how this site works.

Does the site use the same type of device as localethereum.com?
Buyer or seller loads a multisig address both have to hit confirm to start the transfer of bitcoins?

How does this work when selling? Does the buyer send a bank transfer before or after you send the bitcoin to them? Is there any chance for theft?

Thanks for any advice / details. (I wanna never use a centralized exchange again)

I don't think that you need to load a multisig address. While the deposit addresses that localbitcoins use are multisig, these aren't the addresses that you are going to be dealing with when you actually trade with people. After you send BTC to the deposit address your deposit will reflect in your balance, and this balance will enter into escrow whenever you are entering into a trade. There isn't a setup where you hold one key, buyer holds one key, and LBC holds one key etc.

Its cheaper to go the p2p route and your money is really there
Not only that i’m hearing coinbase and paypal ban people
For their poltical views. I just cant say I like that type of crap.
They have no buisness getting involved in people’s private life.
So i really prefer to go full decentralized cuz I dont trust paypal
Or coinbase or any other exhange really.

LBC is also centralised but it generally is very reliable and very rarely freezes funds, because it doesn't involve itself with the individual transactions. Though one downside now is that if you want to list advertisements you are forced to verify yourself, and once you hit a certain trading volume threshold you are unable to trade until you verify your account.

Sounds like localbitcoin has a good setup with the escrow. I do hope
Most people are trustworthy... if not.. i guess they get a dispute as a reward

Even with escrow protection, you should look for trustworthy sellers with high positive feedback rates, and a large amount of trades.