It's here! It's here! The Bitcoin community has been clamoring for a decentralized exchange since Mt Gox shat the bed, and it's finally here. Bitsquare.io is the first decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. It offers P2P exchange of Bitcoin, Monero, Dash, Peercoin, Litecoin, and many, many others. I don't know if it's because it's new or what, but there are only a few Bitcoin offers on the order books. Where is everyone that was screaming for this very thing for years? It's here, where'd you all go? I would like to talk about what bitsquare is, and answer a few questions for you.
1. Does it work? Yes! Actually, my transaction was very smooth and seemless.
2. How do you receive money for your coins? Only irreversible options are available on bitsquare.io. For the USA, that means Chase QuickPay, ClearXchange, Bank Transfer, or Money Order. European customers will have more options such as, SEPA, Swift, etc..
3. How long does it take to receive funds? I don't have an account with Chase, so I've only gotten to use ClearXchange so far. Sign up was easy and fast. I basically had to link my bank to ClearXchange and it was ready to use. ClearXchange acts as a middleman between the payer and payee's banks, so the ACH takes a few days to complete. It IS irreversible though, so once a buyer has sent funds, they're on the way and can NOT be charged back.
4. How does bitsquare help to make sure the buyer will send funds? When a buyer or seller makes or accepts an offer, a security deposit of .001 BTC is required by BOTH parties. If the buyer doesn't send funds and the trade expires, the seller gets to keep the buyer's .001 BTC.
5. What happens if there is a dispute? When you create an offer, you have to put .001 BTC(the same security deposit in number 4.) into a multisig address with the amount of BTC you are selling. If there is a dispute over the trade. The buyer's and seller's .002 BTC go to a preselected arbitrator for handling the dispute. The arbitrator may elect to send .001 BTC deposit back to the winning party, and only keep the .001 BTC the losing party put forth.
6. Who sees my info?Only you and the buyer, and the arbitrator, if the arbitrator is needed. No one ever sees your bank account info though. Only your ClearXchange account name.
7. Who keeps the arbitrator honest?Well, nobody. Arbitrators have to put up a large BTC deposit to be an arbitrator though, to dis-incentivize any riff raff from being an arbitrator. The .001 BTC they stand to gain by arbitrating a dispute is nothing compared to the deposit required to BE an arbitrator.
8. Is bitsquare only for Bitcoin? No! There are many cryptocurrencies being exchanged on bitsquare. Monero seems to be very popular on bitsquare. There are many others such as, Dash, Litecoin, Peercoin, and many, many others.
9. Can I buy Bitcoins with PayPal on bitsquare? No. Due to the possibility of chargebacks, PayPal has not been included as a payment option. Only irreversible options are coded into bitsquare.
10. What are the prices for Bitcoin on bitsquare? There are a range of prices on bitsquare from below the average price to above the average price. I have seen some buyers offer 2% above spot for Bitcoin on bitsquare! I've also seen some sellers with 10% above spot as their price. 0.25% seems to be available quite frequently though.(Coinbase charges 1.5% above spot, for reference)
Now that you know about bitsquare.io, download it and give it a try!
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