The Beginners Guide to Buy Bitcoin P2P

. 7 min read

The first time you want to buy or sell bitcoin (BTC), it can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. The important part is knowing the basics and understanding how you want to go about buying or selling bitcoin, in your case. Having options are an important part of any good transaction, and when it comes to exchanging bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it's no different. It is important to have the freedom to trade your way, and the best way to trade bitcoin while having the most freedom is to trade bitcoin P2P (peer-to-peer).

How to Purchase the Bitcoin With a Certain Payment Method

Payment methods play a significant role in any trade you make. Even simple things such as buying food at the grocery store involve deciding how you would like to pay. When trading cryptocurrency, this can often be problematic because centralized exchanges that rely on an order book trading style typically provide only a couple of options for you to choose from to pay for bitcoin or receive your money from selling your bitcoin.

Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about that when trading P2P; you can choose to trade in a way that suits you. An example is how often people would love to trade bitcoin for cash. However, if you go to a traditional cryptocurrency exchange that relies purely on banking, you can’t do that; with P2P trading, you can and much more. At LocalCoinSwap, you have hundreds of payment options because P2P trading doesn’t need to restrict you from trading bitcoin how you wish. Taking advantage of an escrow system also allows you to trade not just with flexibility but with far more safety than you would get otherwise.

Where to Buy the Bitcoin?

Once you’ve decided what payment method you want to use to buy bitcoin with, you can move on to deciding where to buy your bitcoin. After the previous step, it’s safe to assume that we recommend LocalCoinSwap as the best way to buy bitcoin. You get the flexibility of a vast range of payment methods, a range of people to trade bitcoin with, and the ability to set your terms and conditions to match how you wish to trade. If you haven’t yet, head to LocalCoinSwap.com and check it out yourself.

Suppose you’d like to learn more about trading bitcoin. In that case, various articles are available at the LocalCoinSwap Academy, where you can find a growing amount of free and open cryptocurrency education. When getting started trading bitcoin, reading a little can help you better understand the basics, which can help you avoid hassles later on.

How to Purchase Bitcoins Today?

When you are in a hurry to buy bitcoin, often you can find a great solution by looking at trade offers on LocalCoinSwap that are nearest to you. You can look to buy and sell bitcoin using your specific payment method and see what is available that fits your needs by using the search filter. Depending on the type of payment you wish to use, you may even be able to trade with someone in another country, opening up more opportunities for you where you may also find you can get the best bitcoin price compared to the prices that are available in your own country. Even if you can’t find a trade offer suitable for you, it’s quick and easy to set up a listing yourself and have people come and trade directly with you, with the security of the escrow system provided by LocalCoinSwap.

If you are in a hurry, you can opt for faster payment methods. For example, wire transfers will likely be out of the question if you look for the quickest way to buy bitcoin. When you find bitcoins, how to buy can vary even with the same payment method between traders, little differences can be found in the terms and conditions for each trade offer, and it’s essential to read these and be sure you agree with these before initiating a trade. When you read the terms, you can avoid many failed trades due to disagreements that may have otherwise occurred.

How to Buy Bitcoins for Cash?

Converting cash to bitcoin is a popular method of trading in P2P and one that helps provide more access to people who may not otherwise be able to exchange bitcoin using more typical techniques such as cash deposit, cash by mail, bank transfer, or similar. Not everyone has access to a bank, let alone a bank account, and when you use LocalCoinSwap to trade P2P, that doesn’t matter. Everyone can trade using P2P no matter where you are or what payment method you wish to use. Even when you want to buy bitcoin with a gift card, you will likely be able to find someone to do that with you, thanks to the flexibility of P2P trading.

However, while the reason you may wish to buy bitcoin with cash is one thing, this is about how to buy bitcoins for cash, and to do that, you are best to look in your local area for traders. While P2P trading is an active community, depending on where you live, this can sometimes be challenging. However, if you have trouble finding someone to exchange bitcoins for cash with, you can still skip the bank by creating a trade offer yourself, as often someone will be waiting for you and looking to sell bitcoins for cash.

buying bitcoin peer-to-peer using cash

How to Purchase Bitcoins at the Best Price

The price of buying and selling bitcoin may vary depending on a range of factors, one of the most significant when trading P2P is the payment method chosen. Unfortunately, many payment providers, including banks, are not overly friendly to those who trade cryptocurrency, and this can be problematic for any transaction at the best of times. However, with some care, just about any payment method will work.

Taking steps like avoiding putting “where I buy bitcoin” in the notes of a bank transaction can help avoid problems for many types of trades. Still, nonetheless, payment types are at higher risk than others and will incur a payment type premium. Two well-known payment methods affected by this are PayPal and gift cards. While in the United States, PayPal is a considerable payment method used online for bitcoin trading, it can be risky as chargebacks and other types of issues for traders can be faced.

If a payment method is a higher risk, the trader will merely consider this when deciding on the bitcoin price using PayPal or other payment types they provide. For lower bitcoin prices in a place like the United States, a local bank transfer or cash will often help you get a great price. Still, it’s ideal to find a price and payment method that works for you, as convenience has its price as well and is one of the reasons people still use PayPal to buy BTC, even though it can be more expensive than an exchange with a bank or some other ways to buy and sell BTC that are commonly chosen instead.

Starting Your Own Bitcoin Exchange Business

Many people use P2P trading as a way not just to buy and sell bitcoin for speculative purposes or to use for purchases, but some people use peer-to-peer trading to make money as well. As a result, you’ll find some very active traders who engage in this type of exchange. Moreover, they help form a strong foundation for the cryptocurrency community that has helped support the market today, just as they have since the beginning of BTC trading.

Whether in the UK, United States, Australia, New Zealand, or Kenya, you’ll be able to find people who make money trading bitcoin and provide access to their local communities. When you support your local traders, you help put money back into the community, not just the margins made by a large cryptocurrency exchange. For example, suppose you are interested in starting your own business trading BTC or other cryptocurrencies. In that case, you can start by finding a reliable source for buying BTC and then selling it on peer-to-peer exchanges by offering payment methods or better service and support than your average cryptocurrency exchange provides.

You can even take advantage of arbitrage opportunities between different payment types or other locations around the world where the price of BTC can vary, sometimes quite significantly. So you don’t need much to start this new business venture except a bit of bitcoin and an account on LocalCoinSwap.

starting your own bitcoin exchange business

How to Buy Bitcoin Safely

One of the vital things to remember if you are going to trade bitcoin on a peer-to-peer exchange is that escrow is essential. If someone offers you a lower price to trade off the exchange, this is likely a scam and should be avoided. If you are trading on LocalCoinSwap to protect yourself when buying bitcoin, the most important thing you can do is not send payment before the escrow has been funded. The escrow is essentially your insurance that you will receive your cryptocurrency after you send payment. If you send payment before it has been funded, the buyer can easily walk away, and you lose the benefit of the escrow process.

However, while this may sound scary, it's straightforward to trade safely on LocalCoinSwap as you can easily see when the seller has funded the escrow; at this point, it is safe for you to make the payment, just keep a record of your providing payment and even in the event of a dispute the admin that moderates the trade will be able to clearly see you are trading honestly and release the bitcoin to you.

Suppose you are ready to buy bitcoin for the first time or have some bitcoin you would like to sell, head on to LocalCoinSwap and make an account if you don’t have one already. You can contact support or join the friendly community on Telegram if you have any questions.