8 sats \ 4 replies \ @P2P_bitcoin 29 Jul 2022 \ on: How private are P2P transactions really? bitcoin
You are correct. Trading using a KYC'd payment method means your counterparty then knows about your payment method (e.g., bank account).
The list of KYC-Free payment methods includes Postal money order, cash-in-mail, prepaid gift cards, and face-to-face (F2F) / in-person cash.
Lightning network can give better financial privacy than an on-chain transaction, so Robosats has an edge over Bisq, but with Robosats keeping transaction amount limits low yet, Bisq is where most of the volume (in terms of amount of bitcoin) occurs. And Bisq v2 is being built to have support for Lightning network.
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30 sats \ 1 reply \ @sb 29 Jul 2022
I foresee trading face to face over Lightning at Bitcoin meetups for cash being a popular mechanism to avoid KYC.
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @P2P_bitcoin 29 Jul 2022
Yes, they can work well in matching repeat sellers (e.g., miners, or those who get paid in bitcoin) with repeat buyers who prefer to trade KYC-Free and with cash.
Even though there are KYC-free P2P trading platforms like Bisq, LocalCoinSwap, LocalCryptos, HodlHodl (outside U.S.), Agora Desk, etc. there's not a lot of in-person cash trading. It doesn't take long for a repeat seller to get more requests from buyers than the supply, so those sellers stop listing on the P2P platform. But the trading continues. Same for Telegram and Whatsapp trading groups in certain regions (e.g., Hong Kong, London, Tapei, etc.) where a lot of in-person cash trading for bitcoin occurs but those traders don't even need to list on a P2P platform.
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5 sats \ 1 reply \ @P2P_bitcoin 29 Jul 2022
Doh, I forgot -- there are bitcoin ATMs that are KYC-Free (e.g., up to $900). And there are also voucher sellers (e.g., Azteco) where cash can be used that are KYC-Free.
Here's a list of methods. The ones that are KYC-Free are generally indicated.
Person-to-Person bitcoin Trading Platforms https://cointastical.github.io/P2P-Trading-Exchanges
There's also this list of physical locations. Some are KYC-Free, but that's not indicated.
Physical Stores where you can Buy or Sell bitcoin https://cointastical.github.io/Physical-Locations-Bitcoin/
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120 sats \ 0 replies \ @om 30 Jul 2022
It might be worth mentioning that EU has just buried both KYC-free ATMs and Azteco with its travel rule and MiCA shit. They still exist, but only until the new directives get transposed into laws.
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