Announcing LocalCryptos English

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Today, we’re changing our name to LocalCryptos to support more cryptos, including Bitcoin.

LocalCryptos is the new all in one peer-to-peer crypto marketplace. The platform is a one-stop shop for fiat-to-crypto ramps worldwide, beginning with BTC and ETH.

This is a large milestone for the platform and our community of more than 100,000 peer-to-peer traders. More than a name change, LocalCryptos is a leap toward making true peer-to-peer trading available to everyone.

LocalCryptos puts you—the user—in control. You hold the private keys to your coins at all times. Our team is here when you need us, and hands-off when you need privacy and freedom.

Follow @LocalCryptosEN

Before LocalCryptos: LocalEthereum

LocalEthereum was the first peer-to-peer trading platform for Ethereum. Unlike its Bitcoin counterpart, it was private, non-custodial and featured end-to-end encrypted messages.

LocalEthereum, and now LocalCryptos, serves more than 100,000 users worldwide. On an normal day, there are roughly 1,000 online users in 70 countries, and ~200 completed trades.

Adding support for Bitcoin

You can now exchange Bitcoin (BTC) peer-to-peer on LocalCryptos. On LocalCryptos, BTC escrows use a non-custodial system which takes advantage of Bitcoin scripts.

LocalCryptos’ founders are long-time Bitcoin users. We saw the growth and transformation of P2P crypto trading first-hand.

It began with Bitcointalk and small IRC channels before early peer-to-peer platforms sprouted. Trading exploded after LocalBitcoins invented an escrow feature, but LocalBitcoins looks the same today as it did in 2012, and there’s plenty wrong with it.

Platforms like LocalBitcoins are centralized, custodial, and a far cry from private. These platforms are vulnerable to hacks and thefts like a centralized exchange.

Hackers have stolen several billion dollars from centralized crypto platforms. At least two of those heists took from LocalBitcoins traders.

LocalCryptos takes a non-custodial approach to cut the risk of theft and put users in charge. When trading on LocalCryptos, only you know your private key—we never take custody of your coins.

Ethereum is still here, unchanged

LocalEthereum was one of the most popular decentralized applications, and that’s not changing. The platform will remain a DApp , enabling users to trade with their everyday Ethereum wallet.

We support all wallet connection standards, including Web3, U2F, WalletConnect, Portis, and Fortmatic.

Ethereum isn’t going anywhere—in fact, LocalCryptos is adding more of it.

LocalCryptos will list some of the most popular Ethereum-based tokens over time. We’ll develop a new smart contract to handle ERC20s, and, in the more distant future, ERC721s.

LocalCryptos’ features

LocalCryptos keeps you in the driver’s seat at every turn. We were the first P2P platform to introduce a non-custodial web wallet. We were also the first to put user privacy first by adding end-to-end encrypted messages.

Non-custodial web wallet

LocalCryptos sports a multi-crypto web wallet. While it might not look like it, make no mistake: your private key is yours only. We leverage in-browser cryptography APIs to give you a fully-functional self-custodial web wallet.

LocalCryptos cannot touch any crypto in your wallet—by design.

This comes at a cost: you need to remember your password. If you lose your password, we can’t recover your wallet.

Non-custodial escrow

A non-custodial wallet would be pointless if the escrow account was centralized.

Escrows don’t involve a centralized intermediary. Like trades, all transactions are peer-to-peer.

We use P2WSH addresses to achieve this for Bitcoin escrows, and an Ethereum smart contract for ETH escrows. Here’s how it works.

An arbitrator can resolve payment disputes, but they can’t take anything for themselves. The code of the escrow mechanisms make it impossible for the arbitrator to spend any crypto.

Encrypted messages

Every message sent on LocalCryptos is end-to-end encrypted using a protocol like Signal. We can’t read your messages—nor can another eavesdropper—unless you ask.

When you open a payment dispute or report a user, you volunteer the encryption key to our staff. The key allows staff to decrypt a specific trade’s conversation.

Privacy centric

When you sign up, we don’t ask you to verify your identity with us.

Privacy fanatics will also be happy to know we have no external trackers on LocalCryptos. We care about your data security, and go to great lengths avoiding third-party tools such as Google Analytics.

User experience above all

Despite being the most advanced peer-to-peer trading platform, LocalCryptos is also the easiest. You don’t need any external software or wallet to start trading on LocalCryptos. You don’t need to understand private keys or blockchain technology.

LocalCryptos is built for you, no matter your background. We want to serve everybody—that’s why we’ve spent years simplifying the P2P experience.

Where we are heading

LocalCryptos is the inclusive privacy-first peer-to-peer marketplace where users are in control.

While we serve the world, our main focus is the underbanked and the unbanked communities. Our eyes are set on Venezuela, where LocalCryptos helps free people from hyperinflation.

Follow @LocalCryptosEN

Users in control, always

We take pride in empowering individuals by putting them in the driver’s seat of their own money. Crypto was born out of the desire for eliminating the role of middlemen and legacy institutions in otherwise person-to-person interactions. We developed LocalCryptos based on this idea of users remaining in control at all times—not us.

Our goal is to help anyone, anywhere, take control of their full economic potential.

Crypto can do this, but traditional on-ramps often hold us back.

Get started today

Head over to LocalCryptos and create your first trade today.

Signing up is quick — your account will be ready in thirty seconds.

No blood sample required.

A message to LocalBitcoins users

When you join LocalCryptos, you can bring your profile reputation from LocalBitcoins. That way, you can keep your hard-earned reputation — you don’t need to start over.

After you make an account, link your LocalBitcoins profile under “Import Reputation”.