In the past recent day's, I've been seeing quite a few posts regarding where to buy Bitcoin now since Circle has closed their doors and Coinbase is (potentially) going to give up their client records to the IRS. Now, with all that being said, it is cause for concern and has affected many users here in America that use Bitcoin on a regular basis.
This method has been here long before I even started using Bitcoin, and probably is one of the most common ways to trade Bitcoin, but for whatever reason, the question I keep seeing pop up is "where can I buy Bitcoin now?" Well, the answer is actually really simple for those who don't know, and for the one's that do know, you already know what I'm probably going to say: LBC (LocalBitcoins).
LocalBitcoins is a safe way to exchange money/gift-cards/etc for Bitcoins. It can be done through a variety of ways such as a direct deposit into someone's bank account, or utilizing the Moneygram money transfer to exchange money for Bitcoins. The way it works is, you request a trade with a trader for the amount of Bitcoins you want. The trader is the notified and the amount of Bitcoins you requested to trade is then placed in the LocalBitcoins escrow for exactly 270 minutes. During this time frame, you have to pay the trader in order to release the coins you requested to trade, if you pay AFTER that amount of time has passed, the coins will be released back to the trader and you're SOL, and potentially could loose your money if the trader is a dick; moral of the story, don't do that! If you can't complete a trade within that time frame, I wouldn't suggest starting one.
After you're done getting all the info you need from the trader in order to send the funds, send them the money and wait till the trader you're trading with has received it. Once the trader has received the funds, they'll usually release the coins from escrow in a timely fashion (not always however).
If you're still not convinced on using LocalBitcoins, here's a list of why you should.
- LocalBitcoins are located oversea's away from the alphabet boys.
- All LocalBitcoins records are purged after six months (messages,pictures, etc).
- It's not necessary to tumble your coins from LocalBitcoins.
- LocalBitcoins is always reliable up to date (unlike Circle and Coinbase)
- Customer service on LocalBitcoins is very professional if there's ever an issue (can't say I've had one personally).
- LocalBitcoins don't require ID authentication to trade (some traders do require it however)
- You aren't required to have a checking/bank account to trade.
- Fast and friendly user interface.
Those are all the one's I could think of off the top of my head, if there are anymore, please feel free to post them in the comments below. Cheers.
Sorry you typed all that up.