Getting around KYC

[John Abraham]

The best alternative of localbitcoins.com is paxful. It has similar features and payment methods, and now this is used widely for the P2P deals. I remember localbitcoins had that payment option to pay through cash in order to buy the coins, but personally speaking it's not at all safe. As who knows what may happen during the meet, and yes you should completely avoid to meet the strangers anywhere physically and especially when there is financial thing involved in it. Go to Paxful and try the alternate ways. I am sure that you will find something useful through which you can buy.

Aren't Paxful also Requiring KYC to start trading? I am not a Paxful user, but as far as I know, You have to do KYC there. I am sorry if I am wrong. Moreover, I heard that Paxful is going to suspend their service. I am not sure if that was for some specific region or maybe they are suspending some particular features. I haven't tried bisq yet, which o_e_l_e_o suggested. I have not found my locals in any of Real P2P Platforms yet, which is frustrating. But Bisq might be a good option for Americans.

This might be an off-topic here. I just found an article on Coindesk that its 4th consecutive month Decentralized Exchange Uniswap Trading Volume Outpaces Coinbase. Isn't it great? Let's see how long they can continue this performance. Of course it depend on users.

[Z-tight]

The best alternative of localbitcoins.com is paxful. It has similar features and payment methods, and now this is used widely for the P2P deals. I remember localbitcoins had that payment option to pay through cash in order to buy the coins, but personally speaking it’s not at all safe. As who knows what may happen during the meet, and yes you should completely avoid to meet the strangers anywhere physically and especially when there is financial thing involved in it. Go to Paxful and try the alternate ways. I am sure that you will find something useful through which you can buy.

Paxful has shut down their operation, localbitcoins too, there was a time these exchanges were recommended as good p2p exchanges, but some years ago they changed into KYC exchanges and they were no longer an option for true p2p traders who want their privacy and security, they have both shut down now and cannot be recommended anymore. There are good enough p2p exchanges that have been recommended in this topic, and some of them support F2F trade for traders who want this.

[Jawhead999]

Paxful has shut down their operation, localbitcoins too, they have both shut down now and cannot be recommended

Only localbitcoins is completely shutdown, paxful was announced they would shutdown their service, but it turn paxful is now controlled by new CEO and paxful is fully launched back. The old paxful CEO pointed out in his tweet where he advice people to not deal on paxful anymore.

There are many other good P2P sites, so it's completely pointless why someone need to trade in Paxful.

This might be an off-topic here. I just found an article on Coindesk that its 4th consecutive month Decentralized Exchange Uniswap Trading Volume Outpaces Coinbase. Isn't it great? Let's see how long they can continue this performance. Of course it depend on users.

As you've said before, you're talking about a real P2P trade, Uniswap isn't because Uniswap is using a smart contract, so when you swap your token, you're involved with the exchange smart contract, not P2P with other people.

[OmegaStarScream]

Only localbitcoins is completely shutdown, paxful was announced they would shutdown their service, but it turn paxful is now controlled by new CEO and paxful is fully launched back. The old paxful CEO pointed out in his tweet where he advice people to not deal on paxful anymore.

There are many other good P2P sites, so it's completely pointless why someone need to trade in Paxful.

It's probably just a matter of time until they shut down again. If you check their site, you can see the lack of offers, or at least the lack of serious ones (there are some unrealistic offers)

Gift card offers (which is what Paxful is really known for) are almost nowhere to be found either.

I imagine that most people already went somewhere else and Paxful freezing some user's accounts definitely didn't help.

[airbin]

This situation was difficult before or some of those years of beginning, but today there are so many ways that it is only a matter of common sense. You can even get one of the first ways here on the forum.

[cabron]

This situation was difficult before or some of those years of beginning, but today there are so many ways that it is only a matter of common sense. You can even get one of the first ways here on the forum.

If I have to get around KYC, trading with someone here in the forum will also be my first option to take. As long as someone accepts USDT or Paypal, there is a way to get around KYC.  You just have to trade with someone who has been in this business for a long time and has built their reputation through it. P2P platforms still will need you to put in bank information.

[John Abraham]

This might be an off-topic here. I just found an article on Coindesk that its 4th consecutive month Decentralized Exchange Uniswap Trading Volume Outpaces Coinbase. Isn't it great? Let's see how long they can continue this performance. Of course, it depends on users.

As you've said before, you're talking about a real P2P trade, Uniswap isn't because Uniswap is using a smart contract, so when you swap your token, you're involved with the exchange smart contract, not P2P with other people.

See the bolded part. I was talking about a real P2P. But, in the 2nd phase, I wasn't talking about real P2P. I am aware that Uniswap is not a real P2P platform. But, It's still better than Centralized exchanges. I was surprised to see that stats. Uniswap growth is eye-catching. Competing with a well-established Exchange for a free month in a row isn't easy. At the same time, I believe the category of user base is different. People will use coinbase no matter what benefit Uniswap offers and Uniswap users won't use coinbase.

As I've said in many other threads before, I am looking for a real P2P platform where i can find my locals to trade with them. I've checked a bunch of platforms where i was not able to find my locals. Maybe because i am from a tiny country with a very little number of Bitcoiners. I prefer real P2P Platform without KYC requirements. I am still using Centralized exchanges 

[btctaipei]

There are those whom had done face to face trade for quite sometime so there is no need to get around KYC at all.  Many trade contact from past just needs to be updated and passed on to an fair and firm OG when you are ready to retire from trading due to age and health.

While some advocate for non F2F E-payment and other screening mechanism citing safety concerns are valid, keep in mind good member of bitcoin community are human too and we live in an age that should go back to simpler time and meet everyone and exchange on cyberspace.  Freedom of association is a right, not a privilege.  Exchanging stories and ideas are what made f2f trade enduring in my opinion.

judging by what I've read thus far one must assume KYC is increasing an issue for new bitcoin users and it can slow but unable to stop ongoing bitcoin adoption.  KYC is very expensive and it is financed by drafting ALL depositor's fund in the current centralized financial system to make it into an reality.

To stop bitcoin an nation state or monetary authority may declare Bitcoin illegal just like making it an into national currency actually this helps its adoption, so this is where KYC and lacks of firm regulatory framework comes in.  Uncertainty in national and regulatory policy makes it easy to make arbitrary decisions against members of the bitcoin community, and it will not change until we are the majority.  KYC buys valuable time to introduce centralized digital payment framework similar to Union Pay, wechat pay, TaoBao, AliPay, WeiShin and countless other centralized platforms. 

[siniminomorocomunisakito]

Only localbitcoins is completely shutdown, paxful was announced they would shutdown their service, but it turn paxful is now controlled by new CEO and paxful is fully launched back. The old paxful CEO pointed out in his tweet where he advice people to not deal on paxful anymore.

There are many other good P2P sites, so it's completely pointless why someone need to trade in Paxful.

It's probably just a matter of time until they shut down again. If you check their site, you can see the lack of offers, or at least the lack of serious ones (there are some unrealistic offers)

Gift card offers (which is what Paxful is really known for) are almost nowhere to be found either.

I imagine that most people already went somewhere else and Paxful freezing some user's accounts definitely didn't help.

And it shows that there is user concern about the future of Paxful, and other possible closures. I think that if the conditions are as you say, this state of affairs will lead to speculation about the longevity of Paxful and Only time will tell how the platform overcomes this challenge and whether they can regain the trust of their users.

[BVeyron]

A friend was telling me about: "The mycelium app
has a marketplace section where you type your zip code and you can meet up with local buyer/sellers of BTC to
do a cash transaction in person. Back in the day localbitcoins.com was perfect for this, but after the gov't put
pressure on them, they are no longer usable. Another venue you can use to find local cash/buyers and sellers
LocalCryptos.com. This way you avoid leaving a paper trail."

I live in America. Can any of you recommend  a site that has this type of function as the ones my friend
described above, and what were your experiences? I do worry about possibly you making a transfer and the
buyer, for example doesn't fulfill their agreement? Its not as if you could reverse the transfer. I realize I may
be a little paranoid, but this process is new to me!

I hope to hear from you reasonably soon!!!

KYC is the trend which becomes more popular among all the crypto business initiatives. IMHO the aim of all the KYC procedures is the legal stability for companies in this new field of digital business. I don't think it has much to do with data and funds security.

[coupable]

I don't think it's actually safe to go about meeting people one-on-one to complete a peer-to-peer trade, especially when you don't know the person. If there is one thing I have learned and read from @o_e_l_e_o, it is that privacy matters a lot in this crypto community. Going into a trade with someone completely stranger and wanting to meet them physically is, to some point, dangerous because you don't know who the person actually is.

This is very sound logic from the theoretical level, but reality has other things.  In countries where the use of crypto is prohibited, which is almost most of the countries in the world, especially those that cannot use peer-to-peer platforms for one reason or another (the most important reason is that he does not find many offers that he can benefit from), they are forced to carry out dangerous buying and selling operations as well.  You described it in your quote.  Personally i live in one of those countries and the only factor in reliability is that the person you are dealing with has a proven reliability history.  I have been working in the same way for a long time, despite its dangers, and I thank God that I did not encounter any problems.

[Zilon]

This is very sound logic from the theoretical level, but reality has other things.  In countries where the use of crypto is prohibited, which is almost most of the countries in the world, especially those that cannot use peer-to-peer platforms for one reason or another (the most important reason is that he does not find many offers that he can benefit from), they are forced to carry out dangerous buying and selling operations as well.  You described it in your quote.  Personally i live in one of those countries and the only factor in reliability is that the person you are dealing with has a proven reliability history.  I have been working in the same way for a long time, despite its dangers, and I thank God that I did not encounter any problems.

For countries where crypto is prohibited it is still not safe having a face-2-face crypto transaction reasons been that there are even higher chances of set-ups to steal your coin or key it could even result to plots to hand you over to the regulatory authorities.

Instead have a fix vendor who you can trust preferably someone who travels often to do crypto transactions outside your country that is only if you can't afford to leave your country for transactions, else you can always wait when you visit countries where crypto is legal or not strictly banned then you search for where you can carry out your p2p transaction on a reputable exchange. Privacy really matters a lot same as your security

[Nwada001]

I don't think it's actually safe to go about meeting people one-on-one to complete a peer-to-peer trade, especially when you don't know the person. If there is one thing I have learned and read from @o_e_l_e_o, it is that privacy matters a lot in this crypto community. Going into a trade with someone completely stranger and wanting to meet them physically is, to some point, dangerous because you don't know who the person actually is.

This is very sound logic from the theoretical level, but reality has other things.  In countries where the use of crypto is prohibited, which is almost most of the countries in the world, especially those that cannot use peer-to-peer platforms for one reason or another (the most important reason is that he does not find many offers that he can benefit from), they are forced to carry out dangerous buying and selling operations as well.  You described it in your quote.  Personally i live in one of those countries and the only factor in reliability is that the person you are dealing with has a proven reliability history.  I have been working in the same way for a long time, despite its dangers, and I thank God that I did not encounter any problems.

Everyone will definitely choose the option that is best for them, but in most countries where crypto is banned, I guess there are still a few P2P platforms where they can find somewhere and get crypto with the government detecting it, and that's that. About the face-to-face buying, I have learned to agree that it's also part of the best.

But talking about "realizability history," like you said, how do you justify that? Is it by recommendations from people who have traded with the person, or do you have some kind of platform where someone is highly rated by a few traders with whom he or she might have traded? If it's just from a mere platform rating, I can assure you that those kinds of ratings can also be manipulated.

The only thing here is that one should always be careful with whatever option you choose to trade with, either P2P or F2F. There are a lot of scammers out there, and you never know who is who. You just have to exercise caution when dealing with any and at the same time try as much as you can to protect yourself (your  identity), as it's very vital.

[sokani]

A friend was telling me about: "The mycelium app
has a marketplace section where you type your zip code and you can meet up with local buyer/sellers of BTC to
do a cash transaction in person.

Actually this is my first time of coming across something like this... The problem with this method of transaction is that it goes against everything decentralization stands for, as you are no more anonymous. You get to see each other faces and what each other looks like. Also, it poses security threat as one of the parties can connive with criminals, to physically rob the other party of his/her digital assets at the place of exchange or transaction.

[robattfield]

Trust is truly an important aspect of any transaction, and establishing trust when dealing with unidentified individuals in the digital realm can be challenging. That's why we need KYC to verify the identity of legitimate traders as well as ensure your rights. While it may come with its own security risks and cases of hacking or data breaches, it is at least safer than selling on the black market or to strangers who have a purchasing base.

[tjtonmoy]

Meeting in person to complete buy/sell transactions for cryptocurrency is a very bad choice. This really violates your privacy concern. Not only you are just showing your face, you are letting them know that you own cryptocurrency. And if they can track you to your house somehow, it's game over for you. This puts your life at risk.
And if cryptocurrency is illegal in your country, then good luck, mate. The law enforcement can always put up a trap in order to just catch you. I know KYC is a bad thing and this also expose your identity to the public if there's ever a data breach. But at least you are safe in your house. Many shady things could happen in face to face transaction, this has to be the number one reason for you to not use it. At least I won't use it.

[o_e_l_e_o]

The problem with this method of transaction is that it goes against everything decentralization stands for

What are you even talking about? Trading peer to peer is the very essence of decentralization and not involving centralized third parties in your trades.

This really violates your privacy concern.

And what do you think happens to your privacy when you sign up for a centralized exchange, hand over your real name, address, email address, phone number, complete KYC, upload scans of your passport and other documents, upload a photo of your face, let them track your every trade, every click, every page view, and then sell and share that data with a bunch of third parties?

[dzungmobile]

For countries where crypto is prohibited it is still not safe having a face-2-face crypto transaction reasons been that there are even higher chances of set-ups to steal your coin or key it could even result to plots to hand you over to the regulatory authorities.

You only can use face-2-face trading method to cash out your cryptocurrency if you have no other choices and only use it with people you know as a good person for a long time. Don't trade this with strangers as you can be killed physically.

Very fortunately, you have exchanges that don't require KYC like Bisq, AgoraDesk to do Peer-to-Peer trading.

https://kycnot.me/?cash=on

Kucoin is a centralized exchange does not require KYC but they will not maintain this policy forever. In future, governmental authorities will come and knock Kucoin doors, "Do KYC on your customers for us. Else, let's close your business" and Kucoin will choose the first option.

[Despairo]

What are you even talking about? Trading peer to peer is the very essence of decentralization and not involving centralized third parties in your trades.

Maybe he's trade with an alien, not a human

And what do you think happens to your privacy when you sign up for a centralized exchange, hand over your real name, address, email address, phone number, complete KYC, upload scans of your passport and other documents, upload a photo of your face, let them track your every trade, every click, every page view, and then sell and share that data with a bunch of third parties?

Not only that, he was willing to create an account in an unknown centralized exchange, he told about violating privacy concern is completely BS. People forget if there are many people out there have a lambo, wear a branded stuff, and don't mind to show how much their money in the banks. The fact is many people are have a nice outfit to show if they're rich, don't need to be paranoid, just wear a cheap clothes and don't trade too big.

Forum Username: tjtonmoy
Forum Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3318288
Telegram Username: @Ash_zero
Participated Campaigns: Twitter, Article
http://Exchange.bytedex.io Exchange ID: 642052

[dzungmobile]

Not only that, he was willing to create an account in an unknown centralized exchange, he told about violating privacy concern is completely BS.

Just do opposite things between thinking and practice.  

Meeting in person to complete buy/sell transactions for cryptocurrency is a very bad choice. This really violates your privacy concern.

If it is a person who is ready to show their face on Youtube, publicly make Facebook status about his investment in bitcoin, join cryptocurrency meetings like an influencer, KOL, no problem to care about showing face to trade in person. If no issue with tax, no issue to trade in person with those influencers if they think they won't be robbed.

Personally I don't want to trade in person, have never traded like this.

About privacy, don't join referral programs. It's not true for all platforms, but in some platforms, they will give details of your account total trading volume to your referrals. If you don't want other people know about total volume you traded, do join those programs. If you need money from commission, go ahead.