The highly anticipated Local.Bitcoin.com is now available to the general public. As of right now, anyone in the world can use the service to trade bitcoin cash (BCH) securely. Since pre-launch signups were announced last month, thousands of traders have created accounts and there are over 2,200 active offers ready to go.

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Local.Bitcoin.com: Prepare to Trade Bitcoin Cash Peer-to-Peer

The Bitcoin.com team has been busy preparing for the launch of our private, peer-to-peer trading platform for the BCH community called Local.Bitcoin.com. We believe that BCH has the means to provide every global citizen with economic freedom, helping liberate them from the confines of the current manipulated economies people are forced to live with today. In contrast to government-issued fiat, the Bitcoin Cash network is a decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash system that moves beyond borders and can help the world enjoy a new monetary renaissance. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Bitcoin.com decided to launch the over-the-counter BCH marketplace on June 4.

Our team announced the launch of Local.Bitcoin.com during the second week of May and since then there’s been a ton of interest from crypto enthusiasts around the world. So far the marketplace has seen 7,680 signups, 3,118 total offers and 2,202 active offers from traders out of 3,118 created since launch. A great number of Local.Bitcoin.com signups stem from the U.S. (24.5%), Nigeria (6.1%), Indonesia (5.7%), India (5.1%), and the Philippines (4.7%).

There’s also a decent amount of accounts coming from the U.K., Canada, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Russia. Currently, 37.8% of traders plan on swapping with USD but there’s a large number of trades exchanging with EUR, INR, NGN, IDR, PHP, GBP, THB, and CAD. The most popular choice of payment is bank transfer (33.4%) but the second largest payment is in-person cash trades (16%). This is followed by Paypal (14.4%), cash deposit (7.8%) and Western Union (5.7%) while gift cards (2.7%), Moneygram (2%), Skrill (1.8%), and Venmo (1.2%) follow behind.

Today’s grand opening of Local.Bitcoin.com in honor of the Tiananmen Square protests will help make bitcoin cash accessible to anyone who wants unrestricted access to a tool that fosters economic freedom. Bitcoin’s first angel investor and the CEO of Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, is thrilled to see all the signups and action taking place on the peer-to-peer market during the pre-launch up until the opening day. Ver ventured during the launch:

Local.Bitcoin.com is a game changer for not only for cryptocurrency trading, but for global trade as well.

Getting Started

Signing up for Local.Bitcoin.com is easy and only takes a few minutes. If you want to get in on all the private, over-the-counter trading action happening on our BCH marketplace then go directly to the trading platform’s signup page. Local.Bitcoin.com will ask you to create a username and password for the exchange and the system will also generate a private key offline. Everything is encrypted using AES256-CBC to a PBKDF2-stretched version of your password, ensuring that our company has no access to your Local.Bitcoin.com wallet as the entire process is completely noncustodial. After you complete the signup process, the system will send you a confirmation email so you can access your account settings and create trades.

Now that the market is open you can create offers and trades while also being able to browse the active trades currently listed. You can customize your account setting and change your username, write a blurb about yourself, edit your email address, and add a phone number as well. The account setting section will allow you to set up two-factor authentication and download your Local.Bitcoin.com wallet’s backup. Additionally, in the settings section, you can generate a referral code in order to invite family members and friends. For every person you refer, you earn 20% of the fees for the lifetime of all the users who sign up through your unique code.

Local.Bitcoin.com is a great noncustodial service that allows individuals to trade with each other freely. With Local.Bitcoin.com’s blind escrow system no one touches your money but you and it is technically impossible for our website to spend BCH held in escrow. The escrow makes it so both parties can complete a trade on their own, unlike competitor OTC services where the escrow is held by the third party for a short period of time. Bitcoin.com can help with dispute resolution but we can only allow the funds to be spent by the buyer or seller using the opcode OP_CHECKDATASIG. This opcode is only available using the Bitcoin Cash network and it enhances the decentralization of the Local.Bitcoin.com service. This is a significant technological achievement as the platform provides a way for users to leverage a noncustodial escrow system for the exchange of any product in any country. For instance, two BCH community members have already written some fascinating methodologies on how people can trade on our local market in a Shapeshift-like manner for other digital currencies or for literally anything.

“In general, [Local.Bitcoin.com] could be used for any trade paid with Bitcoin Cash,” BCH proponent Cláudio Gil said on the Honest.cash social network. “The same way you can choose “Cash (in person)”, meaning you will meet in person and pay cash for BCH, you could agree to trade stamps or even potatoes for BCH.”

Check Out the New Peer-to-Peer BCH Matchmaking Service Today

Today is a big achievement for Bitcoin.com and a milestone that will be remembered for quite some time. Launching a peer-to-peer BCH marketplace makes bitcoin cash far more accessible and we hope it inspires free trade that transcends borders and traverses all walks of life. If you want to learn more about Local.Bitcoin.com, visit our frequently asked questions (FAQ) section. There’s also a series of guides that provide step-by-step instructions on how to buy and sell on Local.Bitcoin.com after browsing existing offers. Another guide gives directions on how to stay safe and secure while trading with peers. So if you want a more personal trading experience and the ability to buy and sell bitcoin cash in a noncustodial manner, head to Local.Bitcoin.com and check out what our new peer-to-peer BCH matchmaking service has to offer.

What do you think about Local.Bitcoin.com? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Local.Bitcoin.com.

Did you know you can also buy Bitcoin Cash online with us using a credit card? Download your free Bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely.

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