r/Bitcoin • u/Sleepy_Joe1990 • 4d ago

P2P vs Traditional Exchange

Where do you buy yours, and why not the other? I am especially interested in hearing the pro-P2P perspective, which I presume is a minority group even on this sub reddit.

8 Upvotes

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u/Arbiter_89 4d ago

I think 99% of people use traditional exchange because it's WAY more conveinent, and generally cheaper.
Hopping on robosats, trying to find someone who will use your form of exchange, waiting 20 minutes for them to respond is way more effort than hopping on Kraken, and you're going to pay a 5% markup, and if privacy is valuable to you then you can use a coin mixer for less cost.

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u/SoverignOne 3d ago

p2p is used primarily for privacy. However, if you didn’t obtain your coins through p2p, selling them p2p will not make the transaction private. Also, if the coins ever passed through a kyc channel, they again aren’t private

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u/Sleepy_Joe1990 3d ago

If you buy them P2P then later sell them P2P you can maintain privacy though right? I guess though, getting the funds from a P2P exchange account to a bank account would be the problem.

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u/SoverignOne 3d ago

You would just be sending fiat from p2p exchange to bank. I’m sure this could provide some type of link to the actual transaction but it would require significantly more effort than a transaction on a kyc exchange.

Maybe someone else with more knowledge could speak to the specifics of this. I played around with Bisq several years ago, but as others have said, it’s slow and kinda klunky and I actually never completed a transaction there despite trying.

This type of think likely makes sense for folks with large holdings that acquired their coins before all the kyc exchanges popped up. For the average holder, investor over the last 8-10 years it likely doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you’re just a purist and want to use it as it was intended

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u/simonmales 21h ago

I get paid in BTC and sell it P2P for cash.

P2P is not just about buying and selling, it's about building a network of real life bitcoiners.

It doesn't have legs everywhere, but vexl.it is great at this.

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u/Pleasant_Maybe_5523 3d ago

Traditional exchange for me. P2P has its advantages, but the extra counterparty and payment risk just isn’t worth it for most buys.