Starting today at Localbitcoins, without verification, you can only buy up to 1000 EUR worth of bitcoins per year. You can’t create offers and sell bitcoins without verifying.

In this post, we would like to invite everyone to Hodl Hodl — a global P2P Bitcoin exchange that doesn’t require KYC/AML for trading and doesn’t hold your funds.

The current article is from the series “Move to Hodl Hodl” which shows a comparison of Hodl Hodl to Localbitcoins and Paxful (at the time when this article was posted), and everything according to public sources.

Let’s see the differences, point by point.

Hodl Hodl

Onboarding

To complete registration, you only have to provide your e-mail address — once the e-mail is confirmed, you’re good to go.

Offer creation

Right after registration, you’re able to create your own offer. Nothing is required to create an offer besides having an account. There is no verification, no deposits before creating offers, and nothing else.

Contract creation

You can accept an existing offer right after registration — we don’t require anything to do this. No verification, there are no deposits before contract creation — after the contract is created, only the seller deposits Bitcoins into escrow.

Verification

Other platforms allow you to create a few contracts or so, but after reaching a volume limit, you have to complete their verification process.

This is not the case with us, we will never ask you to verify — we only provide this as a completely optional feature, the only exception is if there is a dispute in your contract. In this case, the Hodl Hodl team could ask you to reveal your identity in order to settle the dispute.

Storage of funds

The exchange doesn’t store your funds — not fiat, not bitcoins. This is only possible due to the unique multisig addresses that Hodl Hodl generates for each contract, this is where the funds are stored for the contract’s lifetime.

Payment methods

There are more than 215 payment methods available, and you can propose a new payment method to the site’s administrators.

There are no restricted payment methods.

Fees

The fee per trade at Hodl Hodl is capped at a maximum of 0.6% of the contract amount (0.3% per user). There are different fee rates available, and they are always equally divided between buyer and seller.

0.6% fee for every registered user (0.3% per user);

0.55% fee for every user registered with a referral code (0.275% per user);

0.5% fee for every user that passed verification (0.25% per user).

The fee is deducted from the amount deposited (only upon release, and only if the contract is completed).

Additionally, you are required to pay the network transaction fee when sending to and from escrow for each contract.

Availability

Hodl Hodl’s services are available in every country in the world, except the U.S.

Localbitcoins

Onboarding

To complete registration, in addition to the e-mail, you also have to reveal you name, surname, mobile phone number and country of residence. After the information has been submitted, then you can start using the platform.

Offer creation

You are not allowed to create your own offer right after registration. To create your own offer, you are required to pass their verification process, and you must deposit funds into the platform’s wallet (for both buy and sell offers).

Contract creation

Right after registration, you’re only allowed to create a contract to buy, through an existing offer, (you can’t sell right after registration), and you are limited to a max contract amount of 1000 EUR.

Once you’ve reached this limit, or you want to sell, you are required to verify yourself. Also, for selling you have to deposit funds into the platform’s wallet prior to contract creation.

Verification

You have to reveal your identity to the platform in the following cases:

You want to create your own offer;

You want to sell bitcoins through an existing offer;

You want to buy bitcoins through an existing offer, but have exceeded the 1000 EUR limit per year.

Storage of funds

The exchange doesn’t store your fiat funds, but it does store your Bitcoins:

When you buy, you receive bitcoins to the platform’s wallet first, before you can send them to your own wallet;

When you sell, you have to deposit funds into the platform’s wallet first, before creating the offer or contract to sell.

Payment methods

A variety of payment methods are available, but you cannot propose a new payment method to the site’s administrators.

Cash trades are not allowed through the platform.

Fees

Users who create advertisements are charged a 1% fee for every completed trade, which is deducted from the trade amount upon completion.

Additionally, you are required to pay the network transaction fee, when sending to or from the platform’s wallet.

Availability

Localbitcoins service is available in every country in the world, except:

Iran

Germany

the U.S. states of New York and Washington

Paxful

Onboarding

A similar process to Hodl Hodl: to complete registration, you only have to provide your e-mail address — once e-mail is confirmed, you’re good to go.

Offer creation

Similar to Localbitcoins, you are not allowed to create your own offer right after registration. To create your own offer, you are required to pass the verification process, and if you want to sell, you have to first deposit funds into the platform’s wallet.

Contract creation

You are able to accept an existing offer after registering, but you are limited to the maximum amount of 1500 USD. In order to sell, you have to deposit the funds into the platform’s wallet prior to contract creation.

Once you reach the 1500 USD limit, you are required to verify yourself.

Verification

You have to reveal your identity to the platform in the following cases:

You want to create your own offer;

You want to buy or sell bitcoins through an existing offer, and have exceeded the 1500 USD limit.

Storage of funds

Similar to Localbitcoins, the exchange doesn’t store your fiat, but it does store your Bitcoins:

When you buy, you receive bitcoins to the platform’s wallet first, before you can send them to your own wallet;

When you sell, you have to deposit funds into the platform’s wallet first, before creating an offer or contract to sell.

Payment methods

More than 300 payment methods are available, but you cannot propose a new payment method to the site’s administrators.

There are no restricted payment methods.

Fees

Sellers are charged a fee that ranges from 0.1% to 1% for every completed trade, the fee is deducted from the trade amount upon completion.

Additionally, you are required to pay the network transaction fee, when sending to or from the platform’s wallet.

Availability

Paxful’s service is available in every country in the world.

Next post

In the next post we’ll dig deeper into the technical features, and see how the exchange looks under the hood, stay tuned!

Reach us

Hodl Hodl exchange: hodlhodl.com

TESTNET Hodl Hodl exchange: hhtestnet.com

Predictions by Hodl Hodl: predictions.hodlhodl.com

TESTNET Predictions by Hodl Hodl: predictions.hhtestnet.com

E-mail: support@hodlhodl.com

Blog: medium.com/@hodlhodl

Twitter: twitter.com/hodlhodl

Telegram: t.me/HodlHodl

Reddit: reddit.com/r/hodlhodl

Slack: goo.gl/zaMnCn

Facebook: facebook.com/hodlexchange

Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCgujEoZqX_FfDTLb3Uuhsdg

Hodl!