The most asked beginners- and intermediate questions are where to buy, earn and spend Bitcoin.
First: you probably want to get bitcoin in the first place, so you have to chose between buying and earning it.
Buying is easy, go to an exchange like kraken.com, run through the identification process (KYC) and deposit fiat currencies like US-Dollar, Pounds or Euros. Now you can buy cryptocurrencies in exchange.
When you want to buy bitcoin by using PayPal or buying it locally in a store or at an ATM, then check out this article.
Staying anonymous
When you want to stay anonymous, then you have a problem. Bitcoin is a transparent system. Centralized exchanges are forced to follow the banking and anti-money laundering regulations. This is why they have to store your identity. It is costly for the exchanges to store such sensitive data, it is the governments who demand those information to be stored not the exchanges.
Decentralized exchanges only work with crypto
Other than exchanges like kraken.com, decentralized exchanges (DEX) are not controlled by a company (they are simply autonomous code) but they don´t take your fiat money either. There are some stores and ATMs which sell small amounts of Bitcoin without requiring KYC, but the bulk of them will require your ID.
Examples for decentralized exchanges are:
- 0x based: Odee, Radar Relay, UDEX, LedgerDEX, DDEX, Paradex, ERC DEX, VeriDex, many others
- Airswap.io (Ethereum based DEX, no Identity, no fees)
- Openledger.io (Bitshares based DEX)e
- IDEX (relative high liquidity, over 400 Tokens)
- Bancor
- Uniswap
- Kyber Network
- Shapeshift.io
- Waves.exchange
- EtherDelta (requires Metamask and works with USB keys)
- BinanceDEX (When your are used to centralized Binance, this could be an option for you)
P2P-Plattforms
Another anonymous way is of course mining. But mining is only profitable when you get electricity cheap. It demands expensive hardware and is really not convenient these days. Now the only way left is buying it from other persons. There are some P2P-Markets where you can buy different amounts from other people using PayPal or bank-transfer.
- Hodl Hodl (P2P Bitcoin without KYC/Identity)
- Bisq (P2P Bitcoin – Fiat (USD/Euro/… to Bitcoin))
- LocalBitcoins (P2P Bitcoin – find local sellers and buyers)
Mix-Networks
Mixers or blenders are services where you take your already existing coins and you throw it into a pool where many people mix their Bitcoin or Ether until the origin is hidden in randomness. But for mixing-services you already need to own crypto…you see the problem.
If you already have some ETH then click on the image below and learn about the latest ETH-mixer.
Earn Bitcoin
Other than buying, earning bitcoin is the best way to get bitcoin anonymously. When you offer products and services, then take bitcoin in exchange. When you say you don´t have anything to offer: well, think again. You have your precious time and your knowledge. Spending it on traditional social media probably gives you no return. When you use decentralized platforms like Steem, Hive.io or Publish0x you earn token for your content. Either you earn bitcoin directly or you exchange the earned tokens for BTC.
If you are already a Blogger or YouTuber or Gamer you can monetize your work
There are video-platforms like 3Speak or DTube:
You can also sell thrift on E-bay-like platforms like open-bazaar.org. Or using E-bay, Amazon, Etsy but selling your stuff over open-bazaar which can be done with platforms like zokos.com .
Accept Bitcoin in your shop
When you have a shop or a online store, you can accept bitcoin as payment with Open-Node
Earn interest on your Bitcoin by staking them
- I would never ever, ever stake anonymous bitcoin on a central service. When you stake them they are not anonymous anymore.
- I would never ever stake more than a few percent of my total holdings. Keep most of it in cold storage.
- I would never ever stake everything with one service. Even if it is “only” a few bucks, use diversify. It is like P2P credit/lending.
Compound Interest in a zero Interest World
However, compound interest is powerful and important. I would rather have my fiat in converted in Bitcoin sitting on a Gemini owned service like BlockFi, than having it on a bank. But this is my (probably crazy) opinion and NO financial advice.
Centralized Exchanges like kraken.com also offer some sort of staking. A nother alternative is Celsius, but here you get payed in the Celsius token. I personal want BTC or ETH.
BlockFi is secured by Gemini from the Winklevoss Twins
BlockFi is owned by the Gemini exchange, the Winklevoss twins, the founder guys who where kicked out of Facebook and had huge luck with Bitcoin. BlockFi is secured by the Gemini exchange with more token than are actually staked on BlockFi.
The interesting part is that you get payed 8.6% p.a. interest. This interest can be payed out in USD, BTC or ETH. So you can try to arbitrage.
At the moment BlockFi has a special offer. For depositing 250$ in BTC (which is not as much BTC right now) you get 50$ Bonus for holding 3 month. You can withdraw at any time. So I tried it out with a very small portion and will write about it in 3 month.
Disclaimer: Now you know many different way to buy, earn, or spend bitcoin in a beneficial way. This article is not financial advice. Always do your own research before using any of these platforms.
- ✅ Buy Bitcoin with PayPal
- ✅ Can you still earn money with Steemit.com in 2020?
- ✅ How to earn bitcoin and crypto in 2020 with Publish0x
- ✅ Buy and transact Ether/ETH anonymously
