No choice but to use the unavoidable middle man, the exchange companies.

[Peanutswar]

I believe that most business owners will prefer to transact money transfers with their customers directly without using an exchange, that will be a third party, and you'll have to pay this third party or middle man money for his services, whether you like it or not. I also believe that nothing beats transacting money directly with your clients or customers, no third party whatsoever. One of the reasons why I like bitcoin is that it's decentralized, and you can do a P2P transaction with another bitcoin holder without any exchange being involved. But for convenience, transparency and scams that are associated with P2P, you don't have much choice but to patronize the services of these exchanges.

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

Companies and businesses use a third party for efficiency and less hassle on their part, if you have a budget why not buy or use a service so you can work efficiently, for example with here is the salary, they are using third party banks so they can distribute those salaries to their employees account and does not need to wait for a whole day just to give them a paycheck, another is the system use of their company, instead, they are using a file cabinet system, they use a system related into their task so they have the safe data in their database.
In cryptocurrency the use of it is for the decentralized but most of the people using the exchange or other centralized platform because being comvinent to them.

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[Abu-Naim]

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

Some of these exchanges require our personal information before we can evaluate them, implying that we do not care about our privacy just because we want a middleman service, which is contrary to how I believe bitcoin functions.

When looking for quick ways to transact with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, we turn to exchanges. However, if we can invest the time to learn about privacy and how important it is, we will be forced to adopt peer-to-peer transactions regardless of the risk.

[Alpha Marine]

No, I really don't think they have come to stay because this is still early days for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technology. By the time Bitcoin has really dominated across a whole lot of countries in the world, and if by then a great deal of people in the world are using Bitcoin, then you can even easily sell or buy Bitcoin on the street. You know that fiat currencies have really been in existence for quite a long time now compared to Bitcoin that is just 14 years, so by the time Bitcoin has been around for a very long time too and has been adopted by many people, it will be easy, and most of the exchanges you are talking about will even go out of business because people will not really be dependent on them unless for just future trading and other sorts of trading features. Even by then, there might also have been a real P2P DEX where there would be great liquidity and every transaction would go smoothly.

I think it's the other way round. The more Bitcoin becomes popular, the more exchanges become popular. People will always use a crypto exchange.
Even if there was a means that people would hold their Fiat currencies in decentralized bank accounts, people will still use the usual banking system. There is always an option, but a lot of people prefer a third party to hold money for them.
If and when Bitcoin becomes as popular as you say, exchanges will be like the banks of today.

Look at how things are today. People know that they can transact without centralized exchanges but they still prefer to use exchanges.

[Unbunplease]

Companies and businesses use a third party for efficiency and less hassle on their part, if you have a budget why not buy or use a service so you can work efficiently, for example with here is the salary, they are using third party banks so they can distribute those salaries to their employees account and does not need to wait for a whole day just to give them a paycheck, another is the system use of their company, instead, they are using a file cabinet system, they use a system related into their task so they have the safe data in their database.
In cryptocurrency the use of it is for the decentralized but most of the people using the exchange or other centralized platform because being comvinent to them.

When you transfer cryptocurrency from wallet to wallet, on the one hand, it is convenient, but on the other hand - when transferring, you can make a mistake, the recipient may suddenly disappear and not understand what was agreed upon. This is why intermediaries - exchanges - are involved. Here there is at least some kind of guarantee.

[Fortify]

I believe that most business owners will prefer to transact money transfers with their customers directly without using an exchange, that will be a third party, and you'll have to pay this third party or middle man money for his services, whether you like it or not. I also believe that nothing beats transacting money directly with your clients or customers, no third party whatsoever. One of the reasons why I like bitcoin is that it's decentralized, and you can do a P2P transaction with another bitcoin holder without any exchange being involved. But for convenience, transparency and scams that are associated with P2P, you don't have much choice but to patronize the services of these exchanges.

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

I don't even get all the hate that is directed at exchanges by certain members of the forum. While understanding that people should keep custody of their own coins and that many exchanges have "gone rogue" in the past to steal customer funds, they have still brought a lot of good to the scene. Many people simply don't have the technical inclination to set up a wallet on a personal device and would prefer that aspect were handled by another company, as long as they're aware of the risks it makes no difference to them where the coins are stored. If they have larger amounts then potentially diversifying between exchanges is wider because you're at less risk of all of them going wrong.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

If and when Bitcoin becomes as popular as you say, exchanges will be like the banks of today.

LoL, you think so? And why do you think CEX would be like a bank by then? What makes you not think that there might be something that's cooking underground already towards creating a large DEX platform in the future, where anyone around the world can be able to buy and sell Bitcoin with several payment options and great liquidity? Like I still said, by then, the majority of people that will be using CEX will be doing so for the sake of trading. In any case, it's still my assumption, and it might not happen that way. But look at some banks that folded just this year; don't you think the same will apply for some CEX in the future and can lead to Crypto enthusiasts running away from using CEX?

[franky1]

its not just exchanges.. even bitcoin devs are trying to push for a system where bitcoin is a reserve network for businesses/services to settle their reserves periodically and people are suppose to now use subnetwork bridges involving routing middlemen for their daily spends. yep routing that requires pass-the-parcel of reserve borrowing to hop along subnetworks paying a fee per hop

lets fight against the corporate agenda of holding bitcoin onchain development hostage where they want to offer middlemen services as a convenient alternative to the hostile stagnation of bitcoin onchain development

[davis196]

One of the reasons why I like bitcoin is that it's decentralized, and you can do a P2P transaction with another bitcoin holder without any exchange being involved. But for convenience, transparency and scams that are associated with P2P, you don't have much choice but to patronize the services of these exchanges.

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

I definitely can't agree that you can't avoid middleman services in the digital age.
You don't need a middleman in the world of crypto, if you have knowledge about crypto and you know what you are doing.
Escrow services and multi-sig wallets are a thing in the crypto world. You don't necessarily need a centralized crypto exchange to serve as a middleman in your transactions. In fact, many crypto scams are done by centralized crypto exchange platforms.
Of course, many crypto noobs are going to use a middleman, because this gives them a false sense of security(and greater convenience).
The same thing applies to the fiat banking world. Many people think that using a bank will keep them safe from scams and a certain percentage of them usually get scammed by the bank.

[inthelongrun]

Before, people dreamed of a financial system free from government and commercial grips. Now that bitcoin and crypto exist, these middlemen still exist. Because it is always easier said than done. I don't mind paying fees from these middlemen as long as my transactions are guaranteed secure.

Binance is becoming a giant company worth billions nowadays. I know there are a lot of haters on Binance but on the positive side, I am thankful for its peer-to-peer feature which is actually free. I can say that I saved thousands of dollars already otherwise me and my countrymen that are into crypto continued to pay 3% to 5% fees during cash-ins and cashouts.

[Tony116]

Before, people dreamed of a financial system free from government and commercial grips. Now that bitcoin and crypto exist, these middlemen still exist. Because it is always easier said than done. I don't mind paying fees from these middlemen as long as my transactions are guaranteed secure.

Binance is becoming a giant company worth billions nowadays. I know there are a lot of haters on Binance but on the positive side, I am thankful for its peer-to-peer feature which is actually free. I can say that I saved thousands of dollars already otherwise me and my countrymen that are into crypto continued to pay 3% to 5% fees during cash-ins and cashouts.

I still don't understand your problem, why do you pay a fee of 3% to 5% every time you convert your bitcoins to cash? In addition to using P2P on binance, you can also trade P2P with trusted sellers you know. Or you can also use middleman and escrow, I don't think it will cost as much transaction fee as you are mentioning. I don't know if the transaction fee varies from region to region, but in my place, the transaction fee for the middleman is quite cheap. But using Binance is not bad, people hate it because they feel their privacy is violated.

[maydna]

For money transactions directly with clients, you must pay a fee to the bank when transferring money. It may not be immediately requested at the time of transfer but at the end of the month, and all transactions are recorded. So we still need a third party to handle the transaction.

And this is also the same as what we do in crypto, where we also pay the fee to the exchange or the seller who will send the money to us. Unless you meet the seller in person and hand over the money to you, you will not pay any fees because you are holding the money and not going through a transfer.

[coupable]

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

No they didn't have come to stay. It's just a matter of time until we get rid of them all.
This is simply because the existence of these third parties is mainly related to the fact that exchanges are made with fiat money, whose identity cannot be hidden in any way. Peer-to-peer platforms can become completely decentralized if exchanges between users are carried out using crypto only, but users of these platforms are often in countries that do not support cryptocurrencies, so they are looking for local sellers so that they can use their local currencies to complete buying and selling operations. It means that the platform plays the role of the third party.
The problem with this third party is not that it gets a fee for the service, but rather it is the powers that it has, so it is able to possess the users’ private data, and this is what must be done to avoid it. I do not see any harm in the platforms providing third-party services without having the ability to track user data.

[justdimin]

I definitely can't agree that you can't avoid middleman services in the digital age.
You don't need a middleman in the world of crypto, if you have knowledge about crypto and you know what you are doing.
Escrow services and multi-sig wallets are a thing in the crypto world. You don't necessarily need a centralized crypto exchange to serve as a middleman in your transactions. In fact, many crypto scams are done by centralized crypto exchange platforms.
Of course, many crypto noobs are going to use a middleman, because this gives them a false sense of security(and greater convenience).
The same thing applies to the fiat banking world. Many people think that using a bank will keep them safe from scams and a certain percentage of them usually get scammed by the bank.

There are people who just use bitcoin in a "send fiat from bank account to exchange account, trade, then send fiat from exchange account to bank account" and that's all they do. This is why they do not see the chances that they could use it without any centralized platform. I understand that we all know how that can be done, but they do not, and that's their problem.

Unfortunately this has to be something to look for if you want to get the full benefit of bitcoin but they do not. This is why they do not know what you know and they do not agree with you. According to them, there is no way you could avoid middleman, because they do not know how you could avoid it, and they use it in a sense that it would be impossible to do that.

[AmoreJaz]

You can not eliminate the middle man in businesses, especially in this digital age, be it fiat or cryptocurrencies, because they have come to stay. Big exchanges like Binance, are cashing in on being the middle man in businesses, an unavoidable indirect business associates, in your face, waiting for you to go through them.

No they didn't have come to stay. It's just a matter of time until we get rid of them all.
This is simply because the existence of these third parties is mainly related to the fact that exchanges are made with fiat money, whose identity cannot be hidden in any way. Peer-to-peer platforms can become completely decentralized if exchanges between users are carried out using crypto only, but users of these platforms are often in countries that do not support cryptocurrencies, so they are looking for local sellers so that they can use their local currencies to complete buying and selling operations. It means that the platform plays the role of the third party.
The problem with this third party is not that it gets a fee for the service, but rather it is the powers that it has, so it is able to possess the users’ private data, and this is what must be done to avoid it. I do not see any harm in the platforms providing third-party services without having the ability to track user data.

we are going into that route because there are so many scammers on the loose, so we need an assurance that we won't get rekt in those p2p services. hence, the third party platform or escrow is still a must today. otherwise, you need to be careful in dealing with p2p platforms as you can easily get scammed without the possibility of getting back your funds.

[jeraldskie11]

If we could only trust someone we don't see, then it's good to transact with them. But the reality is that there are many bad people out there. So if ever there's an opportunity to do bad things, they will usually do it especially when we talk about money. That's why transactions with no middleman is not a guarantee, there are lots of cases of hacking in P2P since you can't determine the identity of the person you are trading with. Since we are talking about crypto and we don't know who's really the person we are trading with, service fee of an intermediary is not a waste.

[romero121]

While cashing out as well as while we involve into trading activities there is a need for exchange. Another thing when a person is new to the cryptomarket, they feel more confident when they've got a support team to raise queries. For people who have been using cryptocurrency for longer time period this isn't a big issue. They'll easily skip the middle man as they've used to Cashout with traders based on trust and for such things to happen with the new ones it takes time. As the title states usage of exchanges were unavailable to some extent.

[dothebeats]

If we could only trust someone we don't see, then it's good to transact with them. But the reality is that there are many bad people out there. So if ever there's an opportunity to do bad things, they will usually do it especially when we talk about money. That's why transactions with no middleman is not a guarantee, there are lots of cases of hacking in P2P since you can't determine the identity of the person you are trading with. Since we are talking about crypto and we don't know who's really the person we are trading with, service fee of an intermediary is not a waste.

I agree, it is better to pay someone to guarantee safety rather than lose all of that money by getting scammed. I mean what's a small rate compared to the whole sum you are hoping to use for the transaction? Personally, I don't mind paying the rate of a middleman that will secure my transaction, I view it as a service fee for every transaction I do.

[d5000]

Disagree with the OP. The good thing about crypto is that you have got a lot of choices!

You can have:

1. a middleman who manages everything (your money and your exchange processes) - your centralized exchange-wallet of choice,
2. a middleman who manages only the exchange process - instant exchanges
3. a middleman who only manages the single most problematic thing: dispute management - P2P exchanges with human escrow, escrow services
4. no middleman at all - P2P exchanges without human escrow, e.g. atomic swaps or Ethereum token exchanges, person-to-person exchange, and some exotic ways like the exchange of hard disk space to crypto (via platforms like Sia), and of course the exchange of goods/services for crypto directly.

I think the experiences from the last year (FTX et al.) and concerns about privacy are driving slowly all users gradually down that "ladder". Most will however stop at 2 or 3, as option 4 is often a bit technical or impractical in the case of person-to-person exchange. However, goods/services to crypto should also become much bigger than now once volatility decreases further. Just now we're quite on a good path to that.

[Husires]

It is the main reason for creating Bitcoin. You do not need to trust a third party to exchange your money on your behalf, as this party must have full access to your account and exchange coins on your behalf. This trust is protected by government laws, but this does not prevent the misuse of these banks for deposits. Customers, which is exactly what happens in centralized exchanges, where the more money they get without regulatory oversight, the higher the chance of misuse.

1. a middleman who manages everything (your money and your exchange processes) - your centralized exchange-wallet of choice,
2. a middleman who manages only the exchange process - instant exchanges
3. a middleman who only manages the single most problematic thing: dispute management - P2P exchanges with human escrow, escrow services
4. no middleman at all - P2P exchanges without human escrow, e.g. atomic swaps or Ethereum token exchanges, person-to-person exchange, and some exotic ways like the exchange of hard disk space to crypto (via platforms like Sia), and of course the exchange of goods/services for crypto directly.

I think you are confusing here between a middleman and trust in a third party. All transfers that take place here are P2P, but there is trust in a third party.
So far, there is no real decentralized exchange between different blockchains, so we need to trust a third party.

[inthelongrun]

Before, people dreamed of a financial system free from government and commercial grips. Now that bitcoin and crypto exist, these middlemen still exist. Because it is always easier said than done. I don't mind paying fees from these middlemen as long as my transactions are guaranteed secure.

Binance is becoming a giant company worth billions nowadays. I know there are a lot of haters on Binance but on the positive side, I am thankful for its peer-to-peer feature which is actually free. I can say that I saved thousands of dollars already otherwise me and my countrymen that are into crypto continued to pay 3% to 5% fees during cash-ins and cashouts.

I still don't understand your problem, why do you pay a fee of 3% to 5% every time you convert your bitcoins to cash? In addition to using P2P on binance, you can also trade P2P with trusted sellers you know. Or you can also use middleman and escrow, I don't think it will cost as much transaction fee as you are mentioning. I don't know if the transaction fee varies from region to region, but in my place, the transaction fee for the middleman is quite cheap. But using Binance is not bad, people hate it because they feel their privacy is violated.

3% to 5% is the usual gap in our local exchanges here compared to the real bitcoin price in the open market. Prior to Binance and other exchanges' p2p, we do not have many options to buy bitcoin and to cashout it out to our local currency. Meets-ups are a little popular as well to save some bucks but that didn't interest me. Huge trades are also happening in our biggest hotel casinos in the capital city but that's a plane away from me and even if it saves me a few thousand dollars I am also not interested in revealing myself.

At present, I do not have many updates as I am mostly on Binance. There are already trading exchanges but I heard the spreads are still around 1% to 3% which is still big if you're buying or selling significant amounts.

Many are also not fond of Binance due to its KYC but that's also far from our local exchanges here that keep on asking for documents like 2 to 3 times a year.