LocalMonero/Agoradesk to be taken down

[Medusah]

The popular exchange used to trade Monero will be taken down completely by November 2024:

LocalMonero will be winding down
The winding down process begins May 7th, 2024, and finishes on November 7th, 2024. Our support staff will be available for help throughout this period.

1. Effective immediately, all new signups and ad postings are disabled;
2. On May 14th, 2024, new trades will be disabled as well;
3. On November 7th, 2024, the website will be taken down. Please reclaim any funds from your arbitration bond wallet prior to that date, otherwise the funds may be considered abandoned/forfeited.

You can read more about it in here: https://agoradesk.com/blog/announcements/winding-down. 

It is sad to see another platform known to uphold privacy standards, announcing its closure.  I can't help but notice the timing coinciding with the arrest of Samourai developers, the shutdown of Wasabi's central coordinator, and the escalation of Tornado Cash's case by the DoJ.  It raises suspicions of something amiss.  Perhaps authorities are sending a message. 

[KingsDen]

It is sad to see another platform known to uphold privacy standards, announcing its closure.  I can't help but notice the timing coinciding with the arrest of Samourai developers, the shutdown of Wasabi's central coordinator, and the escalation of Tornado Cash's case by the DoJ.  It raises suspicions of something amiss.  Perhaps authorities are sending a message. 

I'm surprised they are not taken my surprise. Who knows the pressure they have been getting in background. Maybe they finally decided to give up and comply with the government amicably. Rip privacy, let's be hopeful that there will be survivors at the end of this crackdown.

[dkbit98]

It is sad to see another platform known to uphold privacy standards, announcing its closure.  I can't help but notice the timing coinciding with the arrest of Samourai developers, the shutdown of Wasabi's central coordinator, and the escalation of Tornado Cash's case by the DoJ.  It raises suspicions of something amiss.  Perhaps authorities are sending a message.  

I am not surprised by this news, but I am sad about it.
Agoradesk was active in bitcointalk forum, they even had signature campaign not long ago, but things change so quickly, and I hope they will continue working on something new.
Good thing is that Agoradesk gave several months to all their customers to move accounts on time and still continue trading for few more days.
Days of old trading platforms might be in the end stages, but I believe that smart devs can win in this cat & mouse game.

[Charles-Tim]

I think they are giving these privacy sites choices. That they can just close down without any issue as early as possible or their site will be taken down and they will be arrested. We can see three mixers that recently closed down and the three of them did not state the reason. Also Agoradesk and Localmonero which are decentralized no-KYC exchanges are closing down and no reason stated. It is easy to understand that this is about regulations.

[Medusah]

Rip privacy, let's be hopeful that there will be survivors at the end of this crackdown.

Instead of praying and hoping, let's focus on practical action by writing code.  Decentralized protocols such as Bisq appear to be impervious to disruption.  Let's direct our efforts towards enhancing these. 

Days of old trading platforms might be in the end stages, but I believe that smart devs can win in this cat & mouse game.

I doubt that there will be any non-KYC, non-darknet exchanges based in the Western countries by the end of this decade.  Governments have recently begun cracking down on privacy services, and I don't think we can confront them by creating more of these services.  We need to change strategy.  Decentralization is how we started, it is tested, and it's the path we should continue to follow.

Also Agoradesk and Localmonero which are decentralized exchanges are closing down and no reason stated.

They are not decentralized.  They are only peer-to-peer. 

[Bitcoin_Arena]

They have ended business similarly like localcryptos. Given that they were not asking users for KYC verification, I think they just decided to shut down rather than enforce KYC verification on its users, just like LocalBitcoins did.
It's more like a "F##K you" to the regulators.

So who next? HodlHodl? Localcoinswap?

Also Agoradesk and Localmonero which are decentralized exchanges are closing down and no reason stated. It is easy to understand that this is about regulations.

They have never been decentralized.

[tabas]

No longer surprising, all of the services that have intend to increase someone's privacy are going to be scrutinized and taken down by the regulators. That's the message that they're showing to us and no matter how we're all likely wanting to have a better form of privacy and anonymize our movements on the web together with our transactions, it's very simple to them as they can take down all of it, all at once or one by one, there's no escape.

[NotATether]

I'm surprised they are not taken my surprise.

Why?

They're not even US based so that have no obligation to report to the IRS or DOJ.

This is just FUD at its finest.

On the flip side, with the new IRS taxing rules, I would not be surprised if we finally see "the third wave of private exchanges".

[Solosanz]

Sad to see one of trustworthy No KYC P2P ended their business, but we should expect there will be a new site comes up and start to build the reputation from zero. It's better for the sites to shutdown their operations rather than enforce KYC requirements just like centralized exchanges.

So who next? HodlHodl? Localcoinswap?

Anything that listed on kycnot.me except Bisq.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Fucking hell! I wonder if there's going to be any large service left that offers privacy in a couple of years or so.

Perhaps authorities are sending a message. 

Perhaps? I think it's pretty clear.

Why?

They're not even US based so that have no obligation to report to the IRS or DOJ.

This is just FUD at its finest..

Do you think legislation in other countries will differ much from that in the USA? If they are not the same today, they will be in the future. Even casinos, which are licensed in tax havens like Curaçao, i.e. not US based, have anti money laundering and KYC requirements.

[NotATether]

Why?

They're not even US based so that have no obligation to report to the IRS or DOJ.

This is just FUD at its finest..

Do you think legislation in other countries will differ much from that in the USA? If they are not the same today, they will be in the future. Even casinos, which are licensed in tax havens like Curaçao, i.e. not US based, have anti money laundering and KYC requirements.

In the EU, this kind of inter-cryptocurrency exchanging is completely fine, since there's no on or off ramps involved.

[Blackbacked]

Do you think legislation in other countries will differ much from that in the USA? If they are not the same today, they will be in the future. Even casinos, which are licensed in tax havens like Curaçao, i.e. not US based, have anti money laundering and KYC requirements.

There are some gray areas in the world without recognized government at all.
Of course there are another risks, however local quasi-goverenments are hostile to the US and EU so will never obey their orders.

[hugeblack]

This was quick and I don't know how the US government could scare them off, especially since services like LocalMonero/Agoradesk cannot be classified as money laundering services or used to launder large amounts of cryptocurrencies without being noticed.

Therefore, I think that the current generation of privacy services aimed to break privacy at the level of individuals, but they do not want to clash with governments, so either we will not see privacy enhancing services again, or the future trend for them will be to enhance privacy to a higher level of governments.

So, who will be the next?

[shield132]

Days of old trading platforms might be in the end stages, but I believe that smart devs can win in this cat & mouse game.

These are probably the last times we will be able to use privacy-oriented platforms and currencies. If I were you, I wouldn't have much hope about smart devs winning this cat and mouse game because developers are under attack too. When a developer creates anything that benefits people's privacy, he must acknowledge that he might end up in prison. I think that many developers won't risk getting caught.

I think they are giving these privacy sites choices. That they can just close down without any issue as early as possible or their site will be taken down and they will be arrested.

That's exactly what's happening right now.

This was quick and I don't know how the US government could scare them off

Just like Charles-Tim said above, the US government would order them to shut down their service or they'll get haunted and arrested.

especially since services like LocalMonero/Agoradesk cannot be classified as money laundering services or used to launder large amounts of cryptocurrencies without being noticed.

They aren't classified as money laundering services but they enhance privacy, enhanced privacy means less control for governments and this all leads to problems.

[Darker45]

It's unfortunate that another surviving platform which protects privacy has to bid goodbye, although it's consoling to read that just as a door closed a window has also opened. I'm excited for Haven and Serai and others to achieve success.

The popular exchange used to trade Monero...

And Bitcoin, too.

They're not even US based so that have no obligation to report to the IRS or DOJ.

This is just FUD at its finest.

On the flip side, with the new IRS taxing rules, I would not be surprised if we finally see "the third wave of private exchanges".

It only takes a single American citizen to use a platform registered, licensed, headquartered, hosted, whatever based overseas for it to be answerable to the US.

FTX was based outside the US. So is Binance. Samourai is also hosted far from the US. Chipmixer was also operated outside the US. There were many others. They were all seized, fined, indicted, whatever by the US.

This was quick and I don't know how the US government could scare them off, especially since services like LocalMonero/Agoradesk cannot be classified as money laundering services or used to launder large amounts of cryptocurrencies without being noticed.

It could easily be labeled as such by a simple statement from the DOJ or whatever US agency.

[Pmalek]

So another one bites the dust. Very sad times we live in. Providing privacy is frowned upon, assisting in a genocide is completely legit. At least world governments have priorities and we know where they stand.
I hope I won't wake up and read a similar announcement about eXch tomorrow. Bisq has always been the best option, but it's so fu**ing tiresome to use and the liquidity is bad. I wonder if it will absorb some of the users who will be left stranded from using other services.

[Medusah]

Anything that listed on kycnot.me except Bisq.

That, and Unstoppable Swap. 

They aren't classified as money laundering services but they enhance privacy, enhanced privacy means less control for governments and this all leads to problems.

They are categorized as money transmitting businesses, similar to how Whirlpool was classified, despite not directly transmitting money but facilitating its transmission.  (And yes, I'm aware that under this definition, almost everything could be considered a money transmitting business.)

I hope I won't wake up and read a similar announcement about eXch tomorrow. Bisq has always been the best option, but it's so fu**ing tiresome to use and the liquidity is bad. I wonder if it will absorb some of the users who will be left stranded from using other services.

What bothers me about Bisq is its inability to enable direct selling of XMR for altcoins or fiat currency.  Users are compelled to convert XMR to BTC and then execute the trade in BTC, requiring multiple on-chain transactions, which are costly during periods like these.

[Blackbacked]

It only takes a single American citizen to use a platform registered, licensed, headquartered, hosted, whatever based overseas for it to be answerable to the US.

FTX was based outside the US. So is Binance. Samourai is also hosted far from the US. Chipmixer was also operated outside the US. There were many others. They were all seized, fined, indicted, whatever by the US.

General rule: operate privacy-oriented services from jurisdictions, which are maximally-hostile to the U.S. government.

[NotATether]

General rule: operate privacy-oriented services from jurisdictions, which are maximally-hostile to the U.S. government.

Operating them outside of the US or Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes makes sense, but think about it though: Don't you think, that a privacy service that is running in Russia for example, will not attract the scrutiny of the United States? I mean, that in itself is enough of an excuse for them to sanction, if not ban the service even if no American had actually used it yet.

Let's ignore any local laws that would be hostile to people running privacy services in that particular country, for the purpose of this discussion.

[examplens]

It is sad to see another platform known to uphold privacy standards, announcing its closure.  I can't help but notice the timing coinciding with the arrest of Samourai developers, the shutdown of Wasabi's central coordinator, and the escalation of Tornado Cash's case by the DoJ.  It raises suspicions of something amiss.  Perhaps authorities are sending a message. 

They withdraw because they don't want lawsuits in their name. This is just proof that the developers did not create such services to encourage anything illegal or criminal.

I have not seen who authorized the US government to take on the main role of regulating the crypto ecosystem. They make regulations, punish, take away... too much power in their hand over something that should be decentralized.