How did people buy bitcoin and other cryptos back in the old days?

[goldade]

I started trading bitcoin back in 2017 and although there were major exchanges back then there weren't any accepting my country's currency and so I could not use them.
I used P2P back then. Buying bitcoin from an individual. I'll provide my wallet address and he'll send the coins while I'll send the fiat equivalent to his bank account. It was quite fast
The only issue with that method is that it is not totally safe. You run the risk of losing your money because most times you make transactions with people you don't know. Sometimes you're scammed of your hard earned money but most times one gets lucky and the transaction will go smoothly

[1715041313]

1715041313

[TedMosby]

the first time I bought bitcoin, it was from a random local website. P2P transaction with the website owner  .
a few years before that, I knew that people buying/selling bitcoin on a local forum where I hang around every day there.
some people I know also create their own website to buy and sell bitcoin P2P with Paypal back then.

[yhiaali3]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

[wxa7115]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I bought bitcoin for the first time at the end of 2014 and there were already exchanges back then so I suppose it was no different than what you can do today.

However distrusting exchanges and the fact that most likely they will get my data and never delete it I bought my first coins in a face to face trade, I will admit that I was a little bit scared wen I did it because in my country bitcoin was still very underground so I did not knew with what kind of person I was going to met but the exchange was fairly easy and I got my coins in less than 20 minutes, during that time we talked a little bit about bitcoin so it was an overall good experience.

[Mahanton]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

True, bitcoin wasnt still on an active market since it can be mined through your own pc since difficulty isnt rising until that very first transaction which did really spark out on having an active market
which it did result into further similar activity which did really open out those early p2p and soon as with those exchange platforms.I cant really tell on whats the real set up since im just too late
to know this market but for those who are old then they are much pretty aware on how things been done but the things im saying is a bit relevant or real on what really happened.

[StartupAnalyst]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

[trigger1975]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

Absolutely.  As I wrote in another thread, when it jumped to 20 USD in 2011, I've sold a lot of my coins thinking this is a one-in-a-million chance to get some money back and that the price – once it dumped again – would never ever get back to 20 USD.  I've bought some back later for 2-3 USD and sold them all once again for 3 or 4 USD …   

[wxa7115]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

I am not so sure that what you are saying is accurate, those that were involved in bitcoin in the early days were people that thought the technology had a future, otherwise they would not have taken the time to buy it or mine it at all, at the time people were not thinking about getting rid of their coins, what they wanted to do was to push the technology forward so if they could get to buy something with it they were happy about it.

This is why we hear the stories of those people exchanging thousands of coins for very small transactions, and even if now people look at that and have a good laugh I would bet that a significant amount of those people still hold a lot of coins which means they were not harshly affected by those transactions.

[sayaya17]

I had forgotten in 2013 or 2014, I landed first on the poloniex exchange, but I have not bought bitcoin, I just only created a trading exchange account.
I was still monitoring and learning about bitcoin, and the following year I bought bitcoin. I don't think it's as easy as it is now to buy bitcoin with my
country's fiat currency directly on the trading exchange. Because now many trading exchanges can accept the currency conversion of my country.

[poodle63]

It was hugely P2P between each individuals but I remember when I joined to crypto space in 2014 there already exists exchanges and I think they have existed even in the early stage of bitcoin emergence.

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I found out about bitcoin wayback 2017. But from what I heard to others, during this time there are many faucets that gives bitcoin for free. Earning 0.001btc is very easy that time so I think only few people bothers to buy it. And since it was not that popular that time, there is no reason for buying it. I think MT/Gox was the popular exchange during that time until the hacking incident happened in 2014. Many bitcoins were stolen from people and these reminded the crypto community to not store their cryptos on exchanges.

Yes earning bitcoin was really easier back then compared nowadays but none of us know that bitcoin could get this high so yeah many people missed the opportunity because lacking in faith lol.

[MCobian]

I started getting to know Bitcoin in 2015, but I didn't buy Bitcoin at that time to get Bitcoin. I got Bitcoin in 2015-2016 getting Bitcoin
from faucets, because in those years the faucets were still worth working on. Then in early 2017 it was the first time I bought Bitcoin,
but in 2017 there have been many major exchanges that have sprung up. I don't know how in 2011 people could get Bitcoin, perhaps
by mining or by doing P2P transactions.

[TheUltraElite]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

At that time many forum trades were going around and most people in the pre-2013 era did not wish to store their bitcoins for long term profits unlike today. They were actively acquiring it and selling it to buy other stuff like game keys, goods and other stuff that raises eyebrows.

Many of the p2p sites that allowed trading in this manner were shut down and people lost a lot of money. A prime example of this is MtGox, you can read about its legal stuff here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox

In either case, no exchange is completely full-proof so dont store coins there unless you are trading on them.

Apart from them the Faucets were also worth doing at that time. With bitcoin priced in 3digits people could go to faucet sites are play as much they wanted to get good amount of bitcoins per day which would be a huge amount in today's valuation. Unfortunately very few of them had good foresight.

[tvplus006]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

[death69]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

Initially it was person to person and later we saw exchanges coming up. Right now it's very easy to buy from exchanges but it has also compromised the anonymous nature of bitcoin. The real aim to bitcoin was p2p trading and no middlemen.

That is true. In the early years, from 2008-2011, transactions usually based on p2p, what was the true purpose of bitcoin - to become a p2p currency. However, nowadays, bitcoin main purposes are holding and trading. It helps many exchange to be existed and earn money by luring people to participate in buying, selling, stacking bitcoin

Some of old exchange I have found, they were mentioned in 2011 on a post of this forum: btcex.com. But it seems it has ceased to for many years

One of the first currency exchange's posts of Bitcointalk: Alertpay to Bitcoin (12$ for 10BTC)

[Oasisman]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

I don't know much about it but sure those early adopters bought Bitcoin directly from the miners or directly from the people who has connection from the Bitcoin miners.

Well, to here's another similar thread posted from 4 years ago
You will get several answer that'll give you an idea how early adopters bought their first Bitcoin.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2331346.0

And as everbody knows, Mt.Gox is one of the first exchange to ever sell and buy Bitcoin as the name became popular during their downfall.

[justdimin]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

Yes, the only possible way to buy and even sell bitcoins was to just find people on the forum who would agree on buying and actually this is what happens with any asset, specially decentralized, the market starts with P2P trades and slowly starts building up. Once the market is build up like right now, we see so many exchanges and that all started because initially we had some people who were able to buy bitcoin when the value was uncertain and the future was dark.

People might laugh at someone buying a pizza for 10k BTC but the truth is that these guys who actually buy and sell bitcoins in the early days are the real heroes who made bitcoin gain the status it has now. If there was not enough activity within the community, I feel like bitcoin might have taken another 5 years to reach the value which it has already crossed.

[Ararbermas]

The first time i bought bitcoin way back 2015, i think it was through a wallet  that already supporting bitcoin transaction "i dont remember the name". But its actually good to use that time because anytime you can convert your money to bitcoin with low fees and you can keep it also within as a investment..its very safe to store money especially for beginners.. but suddenly as it keeps updating the features every month i have lost my interest. Because also i found a new best wallet that support KYC wherein very new that time to secure the wallet..

[Kasabus]

The first time i bought bitcoin way back 2015, i think it was through a wallet  that already supporting bitcoin transaction "i dont remember the name". But its actually good to use that time because anytime you can convert your money to bitcoin with low fees and you can keep it also within as a investment..its very safe to store money especially for beginners.. but suddenly as it keeps updating the features every month i have lost my interest. Because also i found a new best wallet that support KYC wherein very new that time to secure the wallet..

I feel the sentiment of how hard to make a transaction buying and selling Bitcoin from one to another to a person you never know. I can't expect that trust but you had proved it but just it times that Bitcoin showing its popularity, more scam thing to happen and it is really to get back that situation when we are afraid to give trust to others. And big thanks to reputable exchanges who save the new generation where they can easily make a trade in the safest way. Though it needs to pay some fees at least we can assure that it arrives in our wallet.