I recently convinced my employer to start paying me in BTC, it has been great

[wd1]

Pretty cool, so these have no actual KYC process in any capacity, even for P2P trading? Or is it just a veneer?

Bisq is so far the most Decentralized EXchange with no KYC that I know of and every trade is peer to peer with the company providing the servers to connect peers and the option to use escrow.

Thanks a lot, I will look into it. If I am getting good deals, then is definitely what I would prefer to use for P2P.

[summonerrk]

I live in an underdeveloped country, but I work remotely for a fairly good web development agency. We don't have a lot of financial services/wallets here, so we had to go circumvent a lot of obstacles for me the money to get to my local bank account. This whole process took a hefty fee, and time. And the worst part is the currency is absolutely shit and deteriorating (even compared to other fiat currencies),

Recently, I convinced them to start paying me in BTC. I save what I have to save, and convert the rest to fiat via P2P trading. Its so quicker and I get great deals, no more bullshit. I think this has been a great benefit of crypto for underdeveloped nations.

I have been accumulating bitcoin from a long time from my freelance work, but getting paid in it by my regular work feels awesome!

This is incredible and wonderful news. The only question is how your employer makes payments to you in bitcoins. Because if there are any disputes between you and the employer, it will be difficult to prove the amounts that he paid you in your currency. Because the price of bitcoin is constantly changing, and it seems to me that with every salary that an employer pays, it is necessary to mark how much it is in your currency or the bitcoin exchange rate at that moment. But in any case, this is a great step towards making bitcoin ubiquitous.

[Outhue]

I live in an underdeveloped country, but I work remotely for a fairly good web development agency. We don't have a lot of financial services/wallets here, so we had to go circumvent a lot of obstacles for me the money to get to my local bank account. This whole process took a hefty fee, and time. And the worst part is the currency is absolutely shit and deteriorating (even compared to other fiat currencies),

Recently, I convinced them to start paying me in BTC. I save what I have to save, and convert the rest to fiat via P2P trading. Its so quicker and I get great deals, no more bullshit. I think this has been a great benefit of crypto for underdeveloped nations.

I have been accumulating bitcoin from a long time from my freelance work, but getting paid in it by my regular work feels awesome!

It's not a bad plan, I was like how will your employers going to buy Bitcoin only because of you when you are not the only worker under them? But if they can use their Fiat to purchase Bitcoin and send to your wallet then they have my salute, because it's rare to see such people who listen to people working under them like that, that's a big rarity, most people will tell you to get whatever you want after they pay your salary in Fiat, they won't care at all.

I will also like to say that it doesn't matter, if it's a no from them, why not just collect your money and exchange to Bitcoin yourself? It's even safer because now your employer now you are into Bitcoin, most times this is not safe practice.

The way you confused this employer of yours is still surprising to me, like I've said, it's going to look more tasking for them because not all the workers or others are going to accept Bitcoin payment, so it's just you, many bosses will say a big NO generally.

[Z-tight]

You claim that your country is an underdeveloped country so we can assume that bitcoin is not legal in your country, if bitcoin is not legal then it will be safe for you to pay salary through bitcoin.

A country being underdeveloped doesn't mean that BTC must be illegal there. Take note that a country may not have clear regulations about BTC and they may be hostile to BTC businesses, but until the country bans BTC or declares it as an illegal asset, you can surely send, receive and spend BTC in such a country. By the way, it is important that op understands his country's regulation on BTC, or just mention the country, let us search about it for them.

[Nrcewker]

It’s good that the company where you are working agreed to pay you. As many companies follows a strict code of conduct, hence they pay in their desired payment method. So yes kudos to your company/agency’s management team who kept your request. At this point of time accumulating the Bitcoins can surely give you lots of profits in later period of time. So yes when you get your salary, just cash out that amount, that you need for daily basics. Wishing you best of luck and hope you make more profits in the near future mate.

[wd1]

You claim that your country is an underdeveloped country so we can assume that bitcoin is not legal in your country, if bitcoin is not legal then it will be safe for you to pay salary through bitcoin.

A country being underdeveloped doesn't mean that BTC must be illegal there. Take note that a country may not have clear regulations about BTC and they may be hostile to BTC businesses, but until the country bans BTC or declares it as an illegal asset, you can surely send, receive and spend BTC in such a country. By the way, it is important that op understands his country's regulation on BTC, or just mention the country, let us search about it for them.

Yeah, I think is an accurate and nuanced description of how things fly here.

[wd1]

I live in an underdeveloped country, but I work remotely for a fairly good web development agency. We don't have a lot of financial services/wallets here, so we had to go circumvent a lot of obstacles for me the money to get to my local bank account. This whole process took a hefty fee, and time. And the worst part is the currency is absolutely shit and deteriorating (even compared to other fiat currencies),

Recently, I convinced them to start paying me in BTC. I save what I have to save, and convert the rest to fiat via P2P trading. Its so quicker and I get great deals, no more bullshit. I think this has been a great benefit of crypto for underdeveloped nations.

I have been accumulating bitcoin from a long time from my freelance work, but getting paid in it by my regular work feels awesome!

It's not a bad plan, I was like how will your employers going to buy Bitcoin only because of you when you are not the only worker under them? But if they can use their Fiat to purchase Bitcoin and send to your wallet then they have my salute, because it's rare to see such people who listen to people working under them like that, that's a big rarity, most people will tell you to get whatever you want after they pay your salary in Fiat, they won't care at all.

I will also like to say that it doesn't matter, if it's a no from them, why not just collect your money and exchange to Bitcoin yourself? It's even safer because now your employer now you are into Bitcoin, most times this is not safe practice.

The way you confused this employer of yours is still surprising to me, like I've said, it's going to look more tasking for them because not all the workers or others are going to accept Bitcoin payment, so it's just you, many bosses will say a big NO generally.

Even if I buy it myself, it would have a came at a hefty cost and time. But getting them to send it to me directly fixes that and I get a lot more buying power.

Do you mean convinced?? But yeah, I think a lot of bosses will still not agree But I am pretty lucky.

[wd1]

It’s good that the company where you are working agreed to pay you. As many companies follows a strict code of conduct, hence they pay in their desired payment method. So yes kudos to your company/agency’s management team who kept your request. At this point of time accumulating the Bitcoins can surely give you lots of profits in later period of time. So yes when you get your salary, just cash out that amount, that you need for daily basics. Wishing you best of luck and hope you make more profits in the near future mate.

Thanks, I appreciate it!

I think generally companies encroach on their employees a lot. But this hasn't been the case working for this one, and normally I am able to convince them on something if they can see how it would be of huge benefit for me.

[Ayers]

You claim that your country is an underdeveloped country so we can assume that bitcoin is not legal in your country, if bitcoin is not legal then it will be safe for you to pay salary through bitcoin. Just saying from my opinion about bitcoin legality because as you mentioned your country is underdeveloped and as far as I know underdeveloped countries never accept bitcoin. It is a very good decision if you proceed with caution. Accepting payments through Bitcoin instead of accepting payments in local currency is another level of thinking. If you accept payment through bitcoin, you can hold that bitcoin for a long time if you want, and if you want, you can sell your btc through P2P.  Undoubtedly, you have taken a commendable initiative.

Not all underdeveloped countries ban bitcoin, and as the OP said, he works remotely for a company so paying in BTC won't be detected by anyone. Even converting btc into currency will not cause any difficulty for him. But what I wonder is, did the company he was working for accept his offer so easily? And they're going to set up a bitcoin payment system just for him? I don't think anyone should get that priority unless he plays an important role for the company.

[wd1]

You claim that your country is an underdeveloped country so we can assume that bitcoin is not legal in your country, if bitcoin is not legal then it will be safe for you to pay salary through bitcoin. Just saying from my opinion about bitcoin legality because as you mentioned your country is underdeveloped and as far as I know underdeveloped countries never accept bitcoin. It is a very good decision if you proceed with caution. Accepting payments through Bitcoin instead of accepting payments in local currency is another level of thinking. If you accept payment through bitcoin, you can hold that bitcoin for a long time if you want, and if you want, you can sell your btc through P2P.  Undoubtedly, you have taken a commendable initiative.

Not all underdeveloped countries ban bitcoin, and as the OP said, he works remotely for a company so paying in BTC won't be detected by anyone. Even converting btc into currency will not cause any difficulty for him. But what I wonder is, did the company he was working for accept his offer so easily? And they're going to set up a bitcoin payment system just for him? I don't think anyone should get that priority unless he plays an important role for the company.

Some people have raised this point, is it really hard to buy BTC for someone who lives in a developed country? I understand that there are some documentation stuff that you have to go through once, but that's all. Buying and sending it is pretty easy. My employer is in England. I know we have this belief that credulous people have some inane apprehensions about crypto and its mostly true belief I guess. But these guys work with computer technology and have a lot of knowledge about it. Its not like I am convincing a grocery shop owner to do it.

And also to add some context, I am not the only employee who is from another country. They have a lot of employees like that (pretty standard practice for web development agencies all over the world). They haven't dealt an employee with crypto before, but I am sure they have dabbled in lot of payment methods and are very open. I think you have to be if you are employing people like this.

[DapanasFruit]

This is one of the many benefits of really using Bitcoin for transacting business. Under your circumstances with limited options, going for Bitcoin is the best route and the thing is that you are saving your money in cryptocurrency which you can decide to hold into the future and be your way to gain financial independence. You must be lucky to be employed with people who are open to this idea. I am hoping that more and more online workers and freelances can be paid in Bitcoin so we are contributing a lot towards its mainstream adoption. Nice story and experience with Bitcoin.

[pixie85]

This sounds a bit strange to me.

I live in an underdeveloped country, but I work remotely for a fairly good web development agency. We don't have a lot of financial services/wallets here, so we had to go circumvent a lot of obstacles for me the money to get to my local bank account.

Does he pay you with black money? I find it hard to believe that a bank would have problems with you receiving income from a job, as long as it is legal and declared.

On the other hand, if at the end of the day you have to convert part of the P2P bitcoin to be able to pay in fiat, I don't see much difference to cashing in fiat, spending what you have to spend and buying P2P bitcoin with the rest, apart from the problem with your bank.

Are you aware of the fact that in some parts of the world less than 20% of people have access to the Internet? Somalia and Eritrea are one of the countries with the worst Internet access in the world.
No Internet means no ATMs and no card terminals in stores. To get money you have to physically go to the bank and request a withdrawal, or fill in a paper with the bank number of the person you want to send money to.

Can you imagine running a business where you work online and to find out if you've been paid by the client you have to go to the bank and stand in line to ask if there's money on your account.

We've been living so long in the world where everybody has a phone with a bank app and can move money around while commuting from work that we forgot how our parents had to do it when they were kids.

[fuguebtc]

You claim that your country is an underdeveloped country so we can assume that bitcoin is not legal in your country, if bitcoin is not legal then it will be safe for you to pay salary through bitcoin.

A country being underdeveloped doesn't mean that BTC must be illegal there. Take note that a country may not have clear regulations about BTC and they may be hostile to BTC businesses, but until the country bans BTC or declares it as an illegal asset, you can surely send, receive and spend BTC in such a country. By the way, it is important that op understands his country's regulation on BTC, or just mention the country, let us search about it for them.

But even if OP's country banned bitcoin, I think he wouldn't have too much trouble getting his salary in bitcoin or even investing in it. Wasn't it many years ago when many countries also announced bans on bitcoin but we still invested in bitcoin despite those bans? So far we are safe, there is no reason OP or anyone else can't continue to receive payments in btc just because the government has banned it. There will always be a way for us to get around those silly bans. Because they banned bitcoin not because it was malicious, simply because they couldn't control it.

[Kakmakr]

We also convinced my employer to convert some Fiat to Bitcoin and pay a portion of our salary in Bitcoin (BTC) .... and we love it. We gave them a fixed percentage (the amount we would have converted) ...and it goes directly into our wallets. 

We are also lucky to have some local food merchants that accepts Bitcoin payments, so we can spend some of those bitcoins on lunch and drinks. Our Bitcoin meetups are also held in a local Pub, so we convinced the pub to also accept Bitcoin (LN Network) ..so we pay for all our drinks with Bitcoin. 

[kryptqnick]

Op, it's a wonderful story. I suppose it's a very specific experience that may not work in other cases, though. Even in poorly developed countries, people often rely on their local fiat currencies, and if a person works officially, payments are done directly via a transfer to a bank account (though working for a foreign company is a whole other thing). Fiat currencies are also fairly stable in many countries, making the choice of Bitcoin less appealing.
From reading the thread more, I understood that the situation's like that because it's international transfers, and yeah, that's a situation in which Bitcoin can really shine.

[Sim_card]

Do you have any tips where I should look at for P2P? Currently I use Binance, I know we are not fans of centralized exchanges here and justifiably so. But I have been using it specifically for P2P and to be fair it hasn't been bad. Decent search process, escrow and chat are available.

Binance is a centralized exchange, even what they refer to as "DEX" is not exactly a P2P trade or decentralized. CEXes have their merits too, as long as people are aware of the risks and disadvantages involved in using them.

As for alternative for a true decentralized P2P trading platform, check out Bisq.
https://bisq.network/
https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq

Pretty cool, so these have no actual KYC process in any capacity, even for P2P trading? Or is it just a veneer?

Bisq don't need any KYC requirements, because it is a decentralized exchange that don't need a third party to hold your coins but they create avenue for buyers and sellers to trade with each other directly. When using bisq, you should look for a merchant with good reputation, high trust rate and has completed higher number of orders successfully. It is a good idea that you convince your employer to pay you in bitcoin, because you only need to convert that amount that you will use to take care of your responsibilities and leave the rest in your wallet. Unlike when you are been paid in fiat, you might be too reluctant to buy bitcoin with your fiat currency. Also since you said that it is an underdeveloped country, inflation will eat up your fiat currency value but in bitcoin, your funds are safe.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Now onto your second point, did you read what I posted before imprudently writing your message here? Yes, I am converting to fiat because I have to spend some money of course for living, but the good part is all the bullshit and problems go away. Its so much quicker and cheaper. And I can save the rest in the BTC.

If you want to have a civilised conversation you'd better avoid adjectives like 'imprudently' because without understanding the first part better now that you've clarified it, of course it makes sense what I said in the second part.

Are you aware of the fact that in some parts of the world less than 20% of people have access to the Internet?

Yes, but that is not the case with the OP.

Somalia and Eritrea are one of the countries with the worst Internet access in the world.
No Internet means no ATMs and no card terminals in stores. To get money you have to physically go to the bank and request a withdrawal, or fill in a paper with the bank number of the person you want to send money to.

So what? That, again, is not the case with the OP, he received legal money by international wire transfer to his bank, which in the end he decided to receive payments with bitcoin because it was less hassle, it arrives faster and he pays no fees (or maybe the transaction fees are deducted from the total payment, this is not specified, but I'm sure it is much less than the international wire transfer fees).

Can you imagine running a business where you work online and to find out if you've been paid by the client you have to go to the bank and stand in line to ask if there's money on your account.

So what? Again, that's not what we're talking about here.

[Btc_1856]

Do you have any tips where I should look at for P2P? Currently I use Binance, I know we are not fans of centralized exchanges here and justifiably so. But I have been using it specifically for P2P and to be fair it hasn't been bad. Decent search process, escrow and chat are available.

Binance is a centralized exchange, even what they refer to as "DEX" is not exactly a P2P trade or decentralized. CEXes have their merits too, as long as people are aware of the risks and disadvantages involved in using them.

As for alternative for a true decentralized P2P trading platform, check out Bisq.
https://bisq.network/
https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq

Pretty cool, so these have no actual KYC process in any capacity, even for P2P trading? Or is it just a veneer?

Bisq don't need any KYC requirements, because it is a decentralized exchange that don't need a third party to hold your coins but they create avenue for buyers and sellers to trade with each other directly. When using bisq, you should look for a merchant with good reputation, high trust rate and has completed higher number of orders successfully. It is a good idea that you convince your employer to pay you in bitcoin, because you only need to convert that amount that you will use to take care of your responsibilities and leave the rest in your wallet. Unlike when you are been paid in fiat, you might be too reluctant to buy bitcoin with your fiat currency. Also since you said that it is an underdeveloped country, inflation will eat up your fiat currency value but in bitcoin, your funds are safe.

But he is also looking to become a trader and make money from it, is there any decentralized exchange that can provide that for him? If he is using binance for daily trading then there is no reason to use another exchange for P2P trading. Because basically, his identity was no longer anonymous. Furthermore, I also tried Bisq and I can say that it is quite inconvenient. I can't even find a trader in my country's currency, it's so limited in every way compared to CEX.

[Jegileman]

Recently, I convinced them to start paying me in BTC. I save what I have to save, and convert the rest to fiat via P2P trading. Its so quicker and I get great deals, no more bullshit. I think this has been a great benefit of crypto for underdeveloped nations.

I have been accumulating bitcoin from a long time from my freelance work, but getting paid in it by my regular work feels awesome!

There is always a sense of fulfilment that comes with being paid in BTC. Bitcoin advocates value this the most and may easily save the ones they require in BTC and convert the remainder for their daily needs. The distress of needing to convert your money to bitcoin via p2p exchange is now avoided, as is the laziness of having to go through that stress. If I had a job that paid in BTC, I would gladly accept it because it would allow me to expand my portfolio more efficiently and without too much stress.

[m2017]

I live in an underdeveloped country, but I work remotely for a fairly good web development agency. We don't have a lot of financial services/wallets here, so we had to go circumvent a lot of obstacles for me the money to get to my local bank account. This whole process took a hefty fee, and time. And the worst part is the currency is absolutely shit and deteriorating (even compared to other fiat currencies),

Very often, companies and employers have difficulty hiring a remote employee from other countries due to payroll hurdles. Bitcoin would seem ideally suited to solve this problem thanks to cross-border transactions, but this opportunity is not often used. Probably due to different financial statements. Or have companies and employers never heard of bitcoin?

Recently, I convinced them to start paying me in BTC. I save what I have to save, and convert the rest to fiat via P2P trading. Its so quicker and I get great deals, no more bullshit. I think this has been a great benefit of crypto for underdeveloped nations.

What arguments did you use to convince your employer to pay wages in bitcoin? How did you convince them?

Of course, bitcoin allows you to avoid a lot of bullshit with bureaucratic actions and money is sent from anywhere in the world in a couple of clicks. Bitcoin is a great advantage not only for underdeveloped countries, but in general for any inhabitant of the planet.

I have been accumulating bitcoin from a long time from my freelance work, but getting paid in it by my regular work feels awesome!

Technically, there is not much difference if you received a standard salary, which would be converted into bitcoin. But given your situation and the difficulties with transferring money between different countries, then undoubtedly bitcoin turned out to be a life-saving solution.