I originally posted this as a comment, but a kind user suggested I make a separate post so more people can see it and guide me better. They even sent me the sats needed to cover the posting fee! I'm so grateful and happy to find such a supportive community here. I hope to learn a lot from you all.
Could you please spare a few minutes to guide me?
I live in Iran. Because of the crazy inflation here, everyone is trying to move their savings into crypto just to survive. Our national currency loses value every single day. But we face big problems: the government monitors exchange activities closely. If they see us buying crypto, they classify us as "wealthy" and cut off our subsidies and food coupons. On the other hand, major foreign exchanges block Iranians and freeze our assets.
I found a way to buy some LTC and Polygon (MATIC) manually through Telegram groups, but they don't sell Bitcoin because of the fees. Now I have some LTC in my wallet, but I'm terrified of the price dropping and losing my hard-earned savings from years of working in a tailor shop. I’ve been searching for a way to swap LTC to BTC/Lightning without KYC or registration, but I only find big exchanges that require ID.
If you know any safe, non-KYC ways to swap these into Bitcoin/Lightning, please help a fellow pleb out. Since I'm using Google Translate, I apologize if some parts are hard to understand. Thank you for your time and for welcoming me here!
I haven't touched altcoins for years but there are some swap services that you could exchange for Bitcoin. It's pretty intuitive.
Try Fixed Float or Trocador App
https://ff.io/en/
https://trocador.app/en/
bisq also allows alts to BTC
Yes, I have used FixedFloat multiple times in the past. Just make sure that your Lightning invoice doesn't expire before the swap completes.
This comment is valuable. On those two sites, you can exchange shitcoins for Bitcoin. And on Robosats and the Telegram bot lnp2pbot, you can exchange fiat or stablecoins (USDT-USDC) for Lightning Bitcoin.
I love Robosats. I've also used Fixedfloat and Trocador.
They are good decentralized tools for finding some SATS.
Yes, I also thank you for your guidance, dear friend
Thank you. Another person suggested one of these. Thank you too
I don't know much about swapping LTC to BTC... I have never used LTC and I don't know the specifics of swap services.
What @Solomonsatoshi was referring to... was the fact that Stacker News is a reddit-style app where users send and receive sats. To make the 'sending' process seamless and easier you can 'attach' a wallet for example CoinOS to this website. It's not a scam you're not exposing your CoinOS wallet... only making it easier to 'send sats' from a custodial service in order to post. However it is 100% totally unnecessary... you can use Lightning in many ways without ever having an account on Stacker News/using CoinOS and many do.
For privacy in general you want to use the tor browser (from https://www.torproject.org) because it will hide your IP address and it is highly censorship resistant.
Using tor browser you can access robosats (although i believe they have a desktop/android app) which is a Lightning-based non-kyc exchange https://learn.robosats.org/
Robosats has an excellent reputation/offers low spreads on non-kyc buying and selling in your currency.
Beyond Robosats there is Bisq which is an on-chain privacy-preserving No-Kyc exchange #876326 you can read about it there there have been many other posts about Bisq here.
Non-Custodial Lightning offers many advantages in privacy over on-chain Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies too in my opinion) especially as the sender. Sending privacy on Lightning is excellent.
For on-chain privacy Wasabi wallet is good #1202637
It's not perfect and there is an amount of trust in the tor anonymity network... but it does a good job against criminal/casual surveillance. If a government is using sophisticated chain surveillance against you then Lightning is probably better, but you will need sophisticated privacy methods beyond one app or tool anyway.
I don't know the state of internet surveillance in Iran (I'm surprised you can access Stacker News at all) but good luck to you and God Bless you.
Good advice you give but I would emphasize that by attaching LN wallets to your SNs account you are providing all other users with PoW that you are set up to operate as much as possible using sats, not CC shitcoins.
Without both horse and gun it is impossible for other users to know whether you have made the effort required to use sats or more likely are using CCs because they are easier, despite the consequence that they also degrade the P2P V4V sats denominated ethos of SNs.
If someone is wanting to provide content and earn sats then attaching both a sending and receiving wallets verifies to other users they have made the effort to be transacting in sats as much as is possible within this compromise-hybrid monetary system that operates here on SNs.
I believe that the OP might provide valuable insights into the dramatic current state of affairs in Iran if they chose to but obviously that is up to them whether such participation is desirable and even safe, for them.
If they choose to it might be a great PoW of the value of SNs censorship resistant P2P social network in operation.
Casi casi estoy en tu misma situación y desgraciadamente no puedo ayudarte pero las sugerencias que te han dado voy a usarlas para mí pues aquí en Cuba los problemas son más o menos igual y mi temor es la conexión pues la mayoría de las billeteras y las transferencias son con datos móviles o wifi y ambas nos la pusieron limitada casi ni aquí puedo entrar, crearon la aplicación bitchat pero aún no una billetera que funcione sin conexión y sin contar que aquí muy pocos quieren aceptar transferencias hay que cambiar criptos en dólares y dólares en pesos cubanos así que te considero, se fuerte. Ya nos quitaron la corriente así que no se si esto sale. Éxitos no te rindas.⚡💪🧡
Fixed float will solve it!
Can you explain better so we should understand you easily
Hi friend, first of all I have to say welcome to SN..... But to answer your question, it is better to consult with some other older and more experienced people here to guide you and hear their opinion. But if your decision was to change your currency to another currency and not register and authenticate anywhere, I think fixedfloat is a good option, it is very simple and well designed and you can do it. And do it with a smaller amount of 5 or 10 dollars first, if you could do it without mistakes, then you can do the amount you want. .... I say again, be very careful and definitely wait for the opinion of the experienced people who are here and see what they suggest to you and don't just make a decision based on one person's words. Good luck. I hope you got the answers to the questions.
Hello, thank you. I'm really stuck here, it's like a piece separated from a world full of theft and cowardice, where you can't trust anyone, this is a piece as if it was separated from that world and remained clean and safe... I'm really happy to be here, thank you for your guidance, dear friend.
The challenge you face is finding a trustless way to move from LTC or MATIC into BTC without exposing yourself to surveillance or identity checks. The most important thing in your position is to minimize risk both in terms of custody and counterparty trust. Wherever possible avoid leaving coins on any platform even for a short period. Peer to peer exchanges that operate without KYC such as Bisq or AgoraDesk can be useful but they require learning how to use them securely. Another option is looking into decentralized swap protocols that let you trade directly from wallet to wallet for example atomic swaps or certain scriptless swap tools which do not require accounts.
If you can learn these tools you gain two things. First you avoid reliance on centralized exchanges that will freeze accounts. Second you keep custody over your coins during the swap. This takes more effort than simply clicking through on an exchange but for someone in your environment that extra learning curve is worth it.
The key is to treat every transaction as a potential threat vector and think about privacy in layers. Protect your IP address. Protect your keys. Protect information linking your identity to your activity. Bitcoin should be a shield not another way for the authorities or middlemen to track you. The more you understand and control the process the safer you are.
Try https://stealthex.io/
Or search 'non kyc exchange' and then further research their reputations.
Always try small amounts first until you can be confident of the platform.
Welcome to Stacker News
If you can attach a sending wallet as well as the receiving wallet you have already I will zap you 5000 sats.
It would be amazing to have a genuine Iran citizen here on Stacker News and if you could tell us more about life and events there now at this time it would be much appreciated and invaluable.
Who do you think will be insane to give you valuable sats for those shitcoins?
You played with shit, you eat that shit.
SHITCOINERS MUST PAY FOR THEIR STUPIDITY.