How did people buy bitcoin before Mt. Gox?

[RedApronPark]

And how are people buying/trading bitcoin now if they don't want to use third-party exchanges or custodial wallets?

I'm doing some research and writing about the history of bitcoin, and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

[Sim_card]

And how are people buying/trading bitcoin now if they don't want to use third-party exchanges or custodial wallets?

I'm doing some research and writing about the history of bitcoin, and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

You can buy bitcoin from a Decentralized Exchange, which there is no third party involved, because you don't do KYC. Bisq is a good Dex, but the problem with Dex is that they don't have many local currency, but few, unlike CEX. I can say from the knowledge that I have back days in my country when there was no exchanges, people trade bitcoin through Watsap group, where everyone there is into bitcoin either to buy or sell. But it was somehow risky because you can get scam by members in that group.

[_act_]

The pizza bought with 10000 BTC which was the first bitcoin trade was bought directly between two people which are the buyer and the seller. There are people that you can meet on this forum or elsewhere that you can make such deal with and use a trusted escrow if both of you do not trust each other.

[Cricktor]

In the very early days there were organised meetups where you showed up and bought or sold coins for ca$h. People had their laptop with them, the location offered wifi e.g., buyer and seller negotiated the trade and coins were transfered, one or two confirmations of the transaction were awaiting with a beer or coffee, ca$h passed hands.

I remember this when Bitcoin was worth less than a dollar or maybe only few dollars. It was pretty relaxed as I remember it.

You can still trade P2P in a safe manner with Bisq e.g.

[franky1]

And how are people buying/trading bitcoin now if they don't want to use third-party exchanges or custodial wallets?

I'm doing some research and writing about the history of bitcoin, and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

first it was done via mutual agreement via messaging. EG satoshi to hal messaging each other and hal agreeing to accept 10btc from satoshi

then the bitcoin pizza deal

then people also advertised selling goods, like alpaca socks, bitcoin cupcakes

"bitcoin market" was first fiat-btc exchange
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20.msg726#msg726

new liberty standard was another
bitmarket.eu
bitomat
then mtgox
then bitcoinica
then btc-e
then others followed

im sure im missing a few mentions, but google can give you more answers faster then me finding old notes

for less CEX'y sites
there was things like localbitcoins, (a hybrid between cex and dex in the style of like a live graiglist between buyer and sellers)

[bitterguy28]

back in 2009 when bitcoin was first launched people  could only obtain btc thru 2 ways either by mining it themselves or thru p2p transactions
back then mining was not as complicated and complex as it is today so most people who wanted to have bitcoin would mine it themselves using their computers and they would be rewarded with newly made coins

of course during this time, technology is still not very accessible to everyone so its reach was still kinda limited however i heard that some people used this very same forum to exchange or trade btc. just send them ur address and they will send u the equivalent of the money you sent to them. it was more riskier before than it is now

[Zaguru12]

I was once also curious about this but later learnt that aside Mt.Gotx there were few places were bitcoin were bought or sold like new liberty exchange and bitcoinmarket.com. Also people traded with each other on bitcoin related forums like this base on mutual trust and nothing more.

Mt.Gotx came in 2010 but before then buying bitcoin wasn’t common like we have now because people either got it easily through faucets or they simply mine bitcoin then which was easy done on CPU not like today were we need ASICS which are expensive.

As for the wallet it was bitcoin core at the early stages and not the new wallets we have now. Currently there are many exchanges or platforms to exchange your coins and also to keep privacy, you can use decentralized exchanges for that

[uneng]

I would like to trade Bitcoin directly to other people through P2P transactions, but the lack of available buyers make this impossible for me. People prefer accessibility and easiness over autonomy and independency. They always go for exchanges or middlemen services, because they are instant, even though customers have to pay an extra price for that. For me it doesn't make sense at all, but what can I do? If I have to sell my coins, I don't have any options besides sticking to exchanges for that purpose.

That is how people have been dealing with Bitcoin along the years and I really don't think it's going to change anytime futurelly. It seems centralization always overcome decentralization, after all.

[Z-tight]

And how are people buying/trading bitcoin now if they don't want to use third-party exchanges or custodial wallets?

You can make or take an offer in the currency exchange section of the forum, that is if you see someone ready to trade with you using your local currency, you must also do your own research and trade with only reputable users. However, you can also trade on p2p exchanges like bisq, agoradesk and others, these p2p exchanges connect you to other traders while you remain in control of your funds and do not have to do any kyc.

and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

In a purely p2p way, as it was designed to be.

[bSpend]

And how are people buying/trading bitcoin now if they don't want to use third-party exchanges or custodial wallets?

I'm doing some research and writing about the history of bitcoin, and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

It's simple if you ask me, peer to peer(p2p) was it, even the bitcoin white paper referred to bitcoin as money that can be transferred through a peer to peer electronic means, I am not an OG, but when I first came around and learnt about bitcoin, bitcoin was traded through p2p, like we have it in most centralized exchanges today, which I would say have become advanced, in those days, it was the manuel version of p2p that we used, that is, if you have cash and want to buy bitcoin, you get across to someone who have bitcoin and wants to sell it for cash, you transfer your cash to the person, and make your bitcoin address available to him or her, and the person will transfer the amount of bitcoin paid for, to your wallet.
It was that simple, though there were alot of scams through this means of trading.

[werghb4562]

Before mtgox you bought bitcoin with an increased electricity bill, aka mining. These days if you want to buy without using the likes of anti-bitcoin scamcoin peddling exchanges like shitcoinbase that require you to upload a mugshot of yourself while holding your passport then you can use a decentralized exchange. Bisq is a decent option. Be caution however that most decentralized exchanges "dex" these days are scams. Everything built on eth is a scam. Despite all the hype and noise about eth being the king of "dex" there is not a single "dex" on eth that allows you to trade government currency like usd for bitcoin.

[Darker45]

There were already exchanges before Mt. Gox came into the picture, centralized exchanges. But, of course, the Bitcoin community at that time was small and close-knit. They probably knew each other and linked to each other in one way or another. So, at the start, it was purely peer to peer exchanges. Also, it was much easier to mine Bitcoin yourself. You don't need to have a powerful ASIC to be able to mine. So you can get fresh Bitcoin yourself.

"bitcoin market" was first fiat-btc exchange
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20.msg726#msg726

new liberty standard was another
bitmarket.eu
bitomat
then mtgox
then bitcoinica
then btc-e
then others followed

There was also Bitcoinexchange.com, the platform developed by Martti Malmi, Sirius here. Sirius made the announcement about it on March 02, 2010. Satoshi supported the exchange himself/herself/themselves, and somehow even made sure that there's actually available fiat in case somebody wants to sell.

[Bobrox]

Seems many exchange have support for buying bitcoin before Mt.Gox and many site supported to earn bitcoin easily trough faucet then third party using bitcoin service way for converting our bitcoin fund. I remember well first time I bought bitcoin trough Payza site and convert my dollar fund to bitcoin but the process in manually around one until three hours later but rate of bitcoin depend on first time transaction and Payza have giving the warning if bitcoin price for three hours later get little down.
I think have many site supported for converting our dollar fund to get bitcoin, using many kinds of third party site seems the possibilities how to buy and sell bitcoin before having many top CEX exchange. Right now many of third party side supported convert buy and sell bitcoin have shut down with their website due many user not using their service yet for converting bitcoin.

[tranthidung]

I'm doing some research and writing about the history of bitcoin, and am curious if there are any OG bitcoiners out there who can tell me how it worked before bitcoin got big.

Read two topics.

• A website with a most comprehensive all-time Bitcoin price history chart
• Do you know a first Bitcoin exchange? What is it, How it looks like?

Before Mt.Gox, there are exchanges like New Liberty Standard and Bitcoin Market.

History of Bitcoin, you can read this one

• BOOK: 'The Bitcoin History Book 2008-2024'
• Bitcoin Prehistory

[franky1]

There were already exchanges before Mt. Gox came into the picture, centralized exchanges. But, of course, the Bitcoin community at that time was small and close-knit. They probably knew each other and linked to each other in one way or another. So, at the start, it was purely peer to peer exchanges. Also, it was much easier to mine Bitcoin yourself. You don't need to have a powerful ASIC to be able to mine. So you can get fresh Bitcoin yourself.

"bitcoin market" was first fiat-btc exchange
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20.msg726#msg726

new liberty standard was another
bitmarket.eu
bitomat
then mtgox
then bitcoinica
then btc-e
then others followed

There was also Bitcoinexchange.com, the platform developed by Martti Malmi, Sirius here. Sirius made the announcement about it on March 02, 2010. Satoshi supported the exchange himself/herself/themselves, and somehow even made sure that there's actually available fiat in case somebody wants to sell.

'bitcoinexchange' were still test trading in march 2010, i think they done first real trade in april
but yes bitcoinexchange existed too in 2010 era

[348Judah]

Exchanges are just a digital medium of buying and selling bitcoin and before they were put in place, people make use of the function of personal interrelationship sale or buy of bitcoin, then when the value was very small to take a something serious and the market was very at it primitive stage, people are not much aware of this digital coin called bitcoin, so many gift it, some make an exchange of it through their personal p2p means of exchange before we have the introduction of the first crypto exchange Mt.Gox 

[yazher]

The pizza bought with 10000 BTC which was the first bitcoin trade was bought directly between two people which are the buyer and the seller. There are people that you can meet on this forum or elsewhere that you can make such deal with and use a trusted escrow if both of you do not trust each other.

That was the best way to buy bitcoins back in the day, the problem right now is there are only a few people who are trusted to do those tasks which can be tricky because right now there are lots of transactions to process which we really need to have exchanges to be able to take the job conveniently without any difficulties. more likely what we need today is Decentralized exchanges instead of CEX that keep updating their rules because of the SEC involvement. But as long as we can freely buy bitcoins and keep them securely, we are still good and can make things easier when it comes to withdrawing them since we have a variety of choices to trade.

[Z-tight]

more likely what we need today is Decentralized exchanges instead of CEX that keep updating their rules because of the SEC involvement.

There are a good number of p2p exchanges where you can trade directly without third parties, just as how it was done in the past. These p2p exchanges can also set up f2f trades for customers who want to trade that way, but you must follow safety protocols if you are going to meet your trading partner in person. It is true that there is more liquidity in centralized exchanges and people use it more, but for those who care about their privacy and do not want to lose control of their coins, there are options: https://kycnot.me/?t=exchange

[examplens]

new liberty standard was another
bitmarket.eu
bitomat
then mtgox
then bitcoinica
then btc-e
then others followed

I would add Bitstamp which was founded in 2011.
It is less than one year after MtGox, but what sets them apart is that they are still operational. They are now the longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, after everything we've seen with other exchanges, it's a real feat.

[dzungmobile]

I was not here earlier than 2017 so I don't know about those very old exchanges but look at some resources below can help as I see Bitcoinica there.

https://chainsec.io/exchange-hacks/
https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/crypto-exchange-hacks
https://www.cryptowisser.com/exchange-graveyard/
Hacked exchanges since 2011.