Hodl Hodl, the popular peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange, has solved a barrier to access for its bitcoin trading services in China.

In a blog post from August 27, 2019, Hodl Hodl explained that Google’s CAPTCHA service — a system meant to verify that a computer user is a human — was blocking Chinese access to its services.

“Google services are limited in China, and Google Captcha is no exception, which we use in the registration process,” according to the post. “Previously, customers from China have faced the issue of not being able to complete the registration process, because of the aforementioned limitations.”

Hodl Hodl uses CAPTCHA as part of its user onboarding procedure but it says that, with a change of the settings, Chinese users should now be able to access Hodl Hodl “without a glitch.”

Offering Bitcoin Exchange Services to the Chinese

In the blog post, the exchange also extended a warm welcome to all prospective bitcoin traders in China, highlighting competitive advantages such as support for Mandarin Chinese and the ability of the platform to locate counterparties for any willing trader.

However, access to domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges is generally banned in China, as are initial coin offerings. Chinese bitcoin traders have had to make do with various alternatives, including using peer-to-peer services like Hodl Hodl and LocalBitcoins, as well as over-the-counter trading offered in locally-managed WeChat groups and through the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Some traders have even gone as far as obtaining fake know-your-customer materials in order to bypass exchanges that block Chinese citizens.

But, as Hodl Hodl has noted in its recent blog post, restrictive internet access in China is another obstacle entirely.