What after localbitcoins.com shutting down

[o_e_l_e_o]

This will affect the strength of BUSD given time as this just happened few days after the Paxos announcement.

It's on the back of a larger decline. 2 months ago BUSD had a market cap of $22 billion. Today it is only $12 billion.

These are the risks you take if you decide to use a centralized exchange. Centralized coins, centralized tokens, centralized wallets, centralized KYC. You are risking your coins, your data, your money.

So, innocent victims may not get penalized for what they didn't do

Maybe not, but they can be sure to face months of stress, paperwork, and legal costs, in order to clear their name and prove it wasn't them that withdrew a few hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen money. Or maybe instead of laundering money in their name, the criminals just open some credit cards or take out some loan in their name, and wrack up a few hundred thousand dollars worth of debt, which again will take months and a lot of legal costs in order to clear.

Having your identity stolen can literally ruin your life. KYC should not be taken lightly, especially when centralized exchanges have proven time and time again that they are incapable of keeping your data secure.

[1714284839]

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[1714284839]

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[jrrsparkles]

the criminals just open some credit cards or take out some loan in their name, and wrack up a few hundred thousand dollars worth of debt, which again will take months and a lot of legal costs in order to clear.

Having your identity stolen can literally ruin your life. KYC should not be taken lightly, especially when centralized exchanges have proven time and time again that they are incapable of keeping your data secure.

I owe you some merits for this fact, I never thought that LBC is shutting down but now they did and now I am afraid that what will happen to the documents I provided there for high trading limit.

Data is the new way of making money but at some point we have to trust someone with the current system for the progression or just being the holder until the system turns into decentralized which prioritize the anonymity over the money.

[Z-tight]

I never thought that LBC is shutting down but now they did and now I am afraid that what will happen to the documents I provided there for high trading limit.

Localbitcoins are not shutting down because they were hacked, or that there was a data breach, neither are they filing for bankruptcy at this very time, according to them they are shutting down because of the "crypto winter", though that's not totally true as their trading volume began to drop when they started requesting KYC, and that could be the true reason why they are shutting down. The good thing is they are giving a 12 month period for everyone to withdraw their funds.

As for your documents you mentioned, the risk would be higher if they were breached or hacked, but as they are terminating the operation of their business, i don't know what they would do with their users documents, it doesn't specify it in their terms of service under the section of "Termination of business":

Although we are not contemplating doing it, we have the right to cease the Services altogether and terminate this Agreement in case our business is terminated for whatever reason or if the business is transferred, sold to or merged with a third party. Before the cessation of Services we will give a notice to our users and inform them of the procedure to complete outstanding trades and unresolved disputes as well as to withdraw any bitcoins users may have in their LocalBitcoins wallet. The users are guaranteed at least one (1) year's time to withdraw their bitcoins, after which additional steps are taken to ensure lawful closure of the business, as agreed from time to time with the supervising authority.

Probably the "lawful closure of the business" has something to do with what would happen to the documents that their users provided to them.

[jrrsparkles]

I never thought that LBC is shutting down but now they did and now I am afraid that what will happen to the documents I provided there for high trading limit.

Localbitcoins are not shutting down because they were hacked, or that there was a data breach, neither are they filing for bankruptcy at this very time, according to them they are shutting down because of the "crypto winter", though that's not totally true as their trading volume began to drop when they started requesting KYC, and that could be the true reason why they are shutting down. The good thing is they are giving a 12 month period for everyone to withdraw their funds.

As for your documents you mentioned, the risk would be higher if they were breached or hacked, but as they are terminating the operation of their business, i don't know what they would do with their users documents, it doesn't specify it in their terms of service under the section of "Termination of business":

Although we are not contemplating doing it, we have the right to cease the Services altogether and terminate this Agreement in case our business is terminated for whatever reason or if the business is transferred, sold to or merged with a third party. Before the cessation of Services we will give a notice to our users and inform them of the procedure to complete outstanding trades and unresolved disputes as well as to withdraw any bitcoins users may have in their LocalBitcoins wallet. The users are guaranteed at least one (1) year's time to withdraw their bitcoins, after which additional steps are taken to ensure lawful closure of the business, as agreed from time to time with the supervising authority.

Probably the "lawful closure of the business" has something to do with what would happen to the documents that their users provided to them.

Yeah, I understand they aren't hacked neither running away without concerning about their long term build reputation but we can't sure about that the documents will be safer anymore as the business is running after they shutdown so in case if a hacker manage to pull those data and wanted to abuse them then most people will be in danger anyway I hope they will keep them safe or burn them completely.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I owe you some merits for this fact, I never thought that LBC is shutting down but now they did and now I am afraid that what will happen to the documents I provided there for high trading limit.

They say on their landing page that they will be keeping all data for 5 years, which is pretty standard for various KYC/AML requirements around the world. You should use the link they provide to delete your account to set the 5 year timer ticking as soon as possible to get your data deleted.

Data is the new way of making money but at some point we have to trust someone with the current system

You don't. There are a number of properly decentralized exchanges out there (not exchanges like LBC which used "DEX" or "P2P" as marketing while being completely centralized) which do not require KYC or indeed any personal information at all. Seek them out and use them - https://kycnot.me/

according to them they are shutting down because of the "crypto winter", though that's not totally true as their trading volume began to drop when they started requesting KYC, and that could be the true reason why they are shutting down.

Exactly. They survived for years when bitcoin was worth a few hundred dollars, but now a price of ~$24k is too low for them? This is because every serious peer to peer trade abandoned the platform when they became just another centralized data farm.

[un_rank]

Data is the new way of making money but at some point we have to trust someone with the current system for the progression or just being the holder until the system turns into decentralized which prioritize the anonymity over the money.

There does not have to be any form of compromise when it comes to your data and more importantly, you do not have to trust anyone with your data, you do not have to trust any system at all. There is already enough decentralized options to avoid KYcs.

Do not ever actually risk personal information, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. If you need to use any of this, then use a throw away address or phone number, which does not provide a privacy risk.

- Jay -

[arhipova]

Blaming the crypto winter.... great job!

The truth is that they started to die when they were forced to introduce KYC rules.
Since it was one of the reasons people traded there, they moved to another place
The same goes for localcrypto and a regulatory development that can take place when your company grow up.

It's called the Darwin's theory. Only the best survives  

Do you think other similar sites like Paxful will also meet the same fate because of same KYC reasons ?

Paxful was also spreading fast as they spent good money in promotions.

Another doubt I have is that why are these platforms not moving to an exchange type of business. They already have good customer base and the required tech to handle crypto transactions. They just have to redesign as a crypto exchange and become profitable like Binance.

[LeGaulois]

I believe I was saying it in this topic, or another one: These platforms will all have to follow the same pattern sooner or later. There is no reason why the rules on money laundering should be different depending on the type of exchange. P2P marketplaces or a CEX, it will make no difference. There is a myth with people thinking that sites like LocalBitcoins or Paxful are decentralized because they are P2P. This is not true.

Anyway, who can believe a company can operate by saying "I don't care about laws".

It will come little by little because each platform operates in a different country (with different laws and different speed to apply them).
You can compare with the number of countries considered as tax havens. Look at the list of countries 30 years ago and compare it with the current list.
It's the same: soon or later they follow the same rules.

Changing the business model from Paxful to Binance doesn't change much in the end. The same laws and the same earning potential for the company. It's just a matter of the customer's base. Not to mention the CEX industry is already quite saturated and it's not easy to be competitive

[o_e_l_e_o]

Another doubt I have is that why are these platforms not moving to an exchange type of business. They already have good customer base and the required tech to handle crypto transactions. They just have to redesign as a crypto exchange and become profitable like Binance.

The entire point of people using these kind of platforms is specifically because they are not operating on this type of model. Many people want to trade peer-to-peer, and they certainly don't want their peer-to-peer exchange to turn themselves in to a central order book type of exchange. If users wanted that kind of platform, then why would they not just have abandoned all their privacy and security and signed up on one of the many such platforms already?

Still, there is no real reason to trade peer-to-peer if you are going to do it via a centralized platform which requires you to submit KYC and deposit your coins to their centralized wallets before you can trade. You are sacrificing all the benefits of trading peer-to-peer by doing so, and instead gaining the huge disadvantages of zero privacy and zero security that you get by using a centralized exchange. Most serious peer-to-peer traders abandoned LBC a long time ago when they first started requiring KYC. Paxful will be no different.

If you want to trade truly decentralized, then use Bisq.

[logfiles]

Don't dwell in the past glory, you can't use all-time success to judge the stability and suitability of any business.

History always repeats itself, especially when it comes to crypto exchanges. Don't tell me you don't know this.

You of all people with your rank on the forum shouldn't have replied in a hurry and based on just a context without reading the full story. If you read the post again, you would know that I rebuffed the claim of the all-time high of Localbitcoins against Paxul using Google and Yahoo as an example, as not an indication of their present and future successes in my reply, which borne what you quoted.

This is business (crypto or not), and records are being broken yearly, so you are so wrong that history will repeat itself because it's crypto-related as no one will ever be able to break business records.

You're totally wrong!

So Mr EarnOnVictor, what were you saying again?

It's even barely 2 months lol - https://twitter.com/callebtc/status/1643249783824437252
Paxful - Deposits are not being credited



Maybe the business records you were referring to were those of starting to scam their users right after localbitcoins announced that they would exit the market 

[talkoncrypto Official]

Don't dwell in the past glory, you can't use all-time success to judge the stability and suitability of any business.

History always repeats itself, especially when it comes to crypto exchanges. Don't tell me you don't know this.

You of all people with your rank on the forum shouldn't have replied in a hurry and based on just a context without reading the full story. If you read the post again, you would know that I rebuffed the claim of the all-time high of Localbitcoins against Paxul using Google and Yahoo as an example, as not an indication of their present and future successes in my reply, which borne what you quoted.

This is business (crypto or not), and records are being broken yearly, so you are so wrong that history will repeat itself because it's crypto-related as no one will ever be able to break business records.

You're totally wrong!

So Mr EarnOnVictor, what were you saying again?

It's even barely 2 months lol - https://twitter.com/callebtc/status/1643249783824437252
Paxful - Deposits are not being credited

This came as a surpise ... but who knows whats the reason for all this , though i just read somewhere that the issue is long going and sipute has been going betwen ray and his partner... anyways , coinbaazar.com is still there , people can explore it ,


Maybe the business records you were referring to were those of starting to scam their users right after localbitcoins announced that they would exit the market  

[ParticlAccelerator]

About five or six localbitcoin sellers have migrated to ParticlMarketplace as it effectively adds an enforced trustless layer to transfers of funds. particl.store shows a portal view of current offers and pricing.

You can access the marketplace from particl's default wallet at particl.io. Shortly you'll be able to pay in most major cryptos directly, so it should end up having better swap options than the old local bitcoins.

The decebtrlaosed exchange particl launched two years ago now also supports Litecoin MWEB (mimblewimble). The Litecoin and Particl forundatios have also just announced a partnership because of this, as it finally gives privacy coin users a place to trade. It seems to eBay the safest, cheapest and most anonymous option for privacy coin users.

Both foundations agave also announced a competition where they are giving away five first edition Lealana 1LTC physicals over the coming weeks to celebrate, see here for more info:

https://twitter.com/BasicSwapDEX/status/1753482630622798198

https://twitter.com/BasicSwapDEX/status/1753481499356401731

[ParticlAccelerator]

And now the main litecoin account is tweeting about the competition too:
https://twitter.com/litecoin/status/1754527804165873684

[JeromeTash]

-snip-

By the look of things and based on your posting history, something tells me that you are the promoter of basicswapdex.com, which is OK. But why don't you just create a new announcement thread in the Exchanges board about your service for proper visibility instead of bumping old topics about LocalBitcoins shutting down?

You could also use the same thread to post about new updates and contests.

[ParticlAccelerator]

I'm new here and not affiliated with the project, but that's a great idea, I didn't realise it was an option. I'll mention it to their team and see if they want to do that. Thanks for the advice!

[tyz]

Now people are in dilemma that how they can continue their trading, as localbitcoins is one of the exchange which set a benchmark in crypto space,

AgoraDesk [1] is the direct competitor to LocalBitcoins. After LocalBitcoins has been shut down this is the service to go.

However, I wonder why people still exchange Bitcoin in face-to-face meetings today. That would be far too dangerous for me given the value of Bitcoin. Personally, I wouldn't meet up with a stranger to exchange Bitcoin, as it can be assumed that you are carrying a lot of money with you. Even in public places, such an exchange is no longer safe these days.

[1] https://agoradesk.com/

[Z-tight]

However, I wonder why people still exchange Bitcoin in face-to-face meetings today. That would be far too dangerous for me given the value of Bitcoin. Personally, I wouldn't meet up with a stranger to exchange Bitcoin, as it can be assumed that you are carrying a lot of money with you. Even in public places, such an exchange is no longer safe these days.

Each to their own anyway, there are so many tx we do with fiat that can also be considered to be as 'risky' as this, like withdrawing money from a fiat atm or directly coming out of a fiat bank, you could be followed because people think you have withdrawn a lot of cash and have it on you, but this does not stop people from using these services.

There are precautions to take in f2f trades, and if you take them, i think it is fine to trade that way. Use a p2p exchange like bisq to connect you to traders who want f2f trade, meet in public, go with a friend and do not trade a large amount of money.

[EarnOnVictor]

I'm new here and not affiliated with the project, but that's a great idea, I didn't realise it was an option. I'll mention it to their team and see if they want to do that. Thanks for the advice!

Are you kidding me right now? You are not their affiliate and have nothing to them, yet since it is a great idea for you, you will contact the company that is not in any way affiliated with you. C'mon, this is too cheap to pass any sensible radar. Above all, no one is disturbing you as the forum is free and once you obey the rules, you will be fine. Just be sincere and think twice even before you post.

Mind you, just for a piece of advice, hiding under pretence and so much shadow often pisses people off here and we may know/suspect more than what you think we do.

[tyz]

However, I wonder why people still exchange Bitcoin in face-to-face meetings today. That would be far too dangerous for me given the value of Bitcoin. Personally, I wouldn't meet up with a stranger to exchange Bitcoin, as it can be assumed that you are carrying a lot of money with you. Even in public places, such an exchange is no longer safe these days.

Each to their own anyway, there are so many tx we do with fiat that can also be considered to be as 'risky' as this, like withdrawing money from a fiat atm or directly coming out of a fiat bank, you could be followed because people think you have withdrawn a lot of cash and have it on you, but this does not stop people from using these services.

There are precautions to take in f2f trades, and if you take them, i think it is fine to trade that way. Use a p2p exchange like bisq to connect you to traders who want f2f trade, meet in public, go with a friend and do not trade a large amount of money.

Sure, but then it would be best to use decentralized exchanges that have a fiat interface instead of making an deal with someone online to meet in person and exposing yourself to danger. If you want absolute privacy, then you can swap the bitcoins bought on the decentralized exchange back and forth a couple of time or run them through a mixer and you have the same effect without the risk of personal harm.

[BitcoinsGreat]

most p2p users need to find and new platform where to trade well at least new reputed one.

I think People can easily use the P2P platform available on Binance and other centralized exchanges. Why do they need other sites like localbitcoins etc for this purpose?

Also, I think that these sites have been losing business ever since the biggest exchange Binance has launched their P2P platform and that is very secure too.

Sure, but then it would be best to use decentralized exchanges

Yes, that will be the best option but the problem would be the liquidity plus the escrow system to be deployed in the P2P decentralized ecosystem.