I saw the announcement this morning that Bull Bitcoin was launching non-KYC purchasing. Being a Canadian and someone who insists on stacking non-KYC sats, I was very excited to see the news. Naturally, I went out to my local Canada Post and tested it out. It worked like a charm! Allow me to outline my experience...
I had an account on Bull Bitcoin, but I never used it; because it was a nym account with only a nym email and a fake name, and I could not fund it with fiat back then. I logged into my account to get my QR code, which was very easy to find.
I printed out the QR code, and made my way to Canada Post. I paid Canada Post in person with cash, and I got the email notification that the money is in my Bull Bitcoin account 10 minutes after I paid. I then proceeded to log into my Bull Bitcoin account and made a bitcoin purchase over lightning. The trade went through without any issues, and the bitcoin I just bought is now in custody of my lightning node. Overall great experience, completely non-KYC, full self-custody on the bitcoin side. One very minor thing I wish was changed was the Loadhub name on the receipt from Canada Post; it says Bull Bitcoin right on the receipt, which is blatantly obvious to the Canada Post clerk what is being paid for. Maybe Bull Bitcoin could put their Canadian business number (I mean, their business registration is public knowledge anyways...) there instead, just for better user OpSec? But that is very minor and probably a non issue for most people...
In term of fees... There is a flat fee of $3.50CAD which is paid to Canada Post for each deposit up to $500CAD and $3.95CAD for each deposit from $500-$999.99CAD. That means, the more you deposit, the lower the fee becomes in percentage terms. Bull Bitcoin charges a separate flat fee of 2% per trade, as stated in their announcement. So, keep those fees in mind when planning / making your deposits and purchases.
I've been buying non-KYC sats for over a year on Bisq and Robosats; the problem with them on the CAD side is that the CAD liquidity is shit. CAD offers are few and rare, and a lot of times, they are priced much higher above market price. I have tried posting offers to buy bitcoin with CAD, but those take quite some time for a peer to accept the offer and it is by no means on-demand. Also, platforms like Bisq and Robosats usually use interact-e-transfer (quick peer to peer bank transfers) as the fiat payment rail, which expose the buyer's full legal name to the seller. Not to mention, the bank still has a record of all the payments even though they don't know what the payments were for.
I think I will be using Bull Bitcoin to stack along with other P2P options that I have been using. My main concern with centralized exchanges is that government capture is always possible; and with the way things are going these days, it seems government capture is eventually inevitable. I still believe building out a shared liquidity pool P2P exchange protocol with competing clients on top is the most resilient and could provide the best user experience. Meanwhile, hopefully Trudeau doesn't shut this down too quickly and more Canadians can get more non-KYC sats.
Thank you very much, Bull Bitcoin, for bringing this to Canadians!
I'm excited to give this a try. If only had more fiat fun coupons hanging around...
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Is this an option for non-Canadian citizens living in or even visiting Canada?
It sounds like you can create a Bull Bitcoin account without having to verify your ID and you can pay cash when you buy the Load Hub voucher at the post office.
If that is the case, doesn't that mean that anyone can do this regardless of being a Canadian citizen or not? Couldn't even a tourist do this?
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You are correct. Bull allows accounts with only a name (doesn’t need to be verified) and an email address (needs verification, but it’s simple as typing in the code they emailed you). When depositing at Canada Post, the clerk does not check or ask you anything. You just ask to pay a certain amount to your QR code, let them scan it, and they take the cash.
You could be an alien visiting from Alpha Centauri disguised as a human being. As long as you can physically get to a Canada Post location, you will be able to fund your Bull Bitcoin account with cash. So next time, if you visit Canada and want some non-KYC corn, be sure to give Canada Post a visit. I heard the corn you get from Canada are especially sweet.
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Can you do it with a face mask to avoid the security cameras with facial recognition? 😋
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I do not confirm or deny that I wore a face mask during my Canada Post visit. But Canada is supposedly a free country, and anyone is supposedly free to wear a mask or not wear a mask during their Canada Post visit. Heck, a year or two ago, everyone is REQUIRED to wear a mask if they wanted to enter the post office. So, yes, if you want perfect OpSec, a face mask and a cap are your best friends.
That said, I don’t think we have facial recognition cameras installed everywhere here in Canada yet. Our government is too inefficient and slow to adopt surveillance and crackdown tech. They would not have let this Bull Bitcoin non-KYC buying thing fly, let alone allow them to use federal government infrastructure to fly, if the Canadian government was in any way efficient / competent with surveillance and crackdown.
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That's great and convenient. Hope to see this in more countries.
If you are in Switzerland, you can go to any train station and do this there up to 500CHF (~560USD)
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That’s awesome! I share the same wish that more countries should have non-KYC adoption / on boarding platforms.
I always say, one should always assume that KYC coins are known to governments; if not known today, they will eventually be known in the future. KYC coins are cucked. We should really be pushing harder for non-KYC coins; stack sats by earning them, mining them, or by buying from non-KYC sources.
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It's good to find options to buy sats that aren't centralized
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A nice thing about them is that you can withdraw directly in LN.
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I wouldn’t even call it withdraw, because Bull never custodied your bitcoin in the first place. They require you to put in either a bitcoin address, a lightning address or lightning invoice, or a Liquid btc address when you do a purchase. They then send the btc directly to the address you provided. The only thing they custodied was your fiat balance, but they never hold custody of your bitcoin. I love this model of pushing self custody.
And yes, supporting lightning, especially in today’s fee market is definitely a big plus.
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This doesn't work in African regions, bitcoin lighting it's new here in Africa.... I wish to give this a trial
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Bull Bitcoin is in Canada and is only for Canadian only.
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Not true. Anyone, even visitors visiting Canada from other countries can use this service. The only catch is the person doing the funding needs to be physically present at a Canada Post location to fund the account this way.
Anyone can try this. They just need to make their way to Canada to do so.
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or they just need someone from Canada to do it for them and send it to them. family member, friend, whoever. This will obviously require trust!
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I think this only works for Canada.
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sign up link and get $20 free http://mission.bullbitcoin.com/satoshi
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Bull are the goats. Super stoked for this. Pro-tip, use my ref link for 20$ credited to your acc with this referral link
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If someone is looking for a way to buy cryptocurrencies completely anonymously, I highly recommend this post for cryptocurrency purchases: https://news.bitcoin.com/royalcdkeys-how-to-buy-crypto-anonymously/