Peach
Bitcoin was created to be peer-to-peer. Yet in spite of this, most people have never experienced this utility of Bitcoin. They buy on a big centralized exchange that generously rewards them with an IOU promising that they own X amount of bitcoin.
Unfortunately, recent history with FTX and the bank runs at SVB have made it quite clear that IOUs aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Enter favorite phrases by bitcoiners such as, "don't trust, verify" and "not your keys, not your coins."
So if "this is not the way" (think Mandalorian), then how was Bitcoin meant to be used? Enter P2P exchanges/protocols/apps that utilize the "escrow" function of Bitcoin. This entity will help to coordinate buyers and sellers and help facilitate the escrow such that scams are extremely unprofitable or difficult to pull off. They usually will provide a role as mediator to determine which direction the funds in the escrow should go if something goes wrong and one or more parties act in bad faith.
Peach Bitcoin App 🍑
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Today though I want to highlight a specific platform, Peach Bitcoin App, that is available on Android and iOS. It just went into open beta and I was fortunate enough to participate as one of the closed beta testers.
Peach was launched in Switzerland and you are able to transact without disclosing your identity (KYC) as long as you stay under certain daily and yearly limits. Roughly 1,000 euros a day and 100,000 euros a year. Although the actual limit is denominated in Swiss Francs.
At the time of writing this the Peach app allows users to buy and sell bitcoin with 12 European currencies: euro, franc, pound, koruna, kroner, forint, złoty, krone, krona, and lev. Dollars are not included for the simple reason that if you are in the US you should not be using the app. It would make the creators of the app liable for any regulations that the US wanted to impose.
Peach charges a 2% platform fee to keep the doors open and coffee flowing. And sellers often sell at a premium due to the coveted nature of acquiring non-KYC bitcoin.
Here is a description of the app from their terms and service agreement page:
Peach is a non-custodial peer-to-peer marketplace that facilitates the connection of two persons in order to purchase and sale bitcoin. Peach provides the following services.
- A mobile app available for free on the App Store and Google Play Store.
- Infrastructure for a safe trade with a 2-out-of-2 multi signature escrow solution between Peach and the Seller.
- A customer support and dispute management service with a Peach mediator employee to arbitrate and settle disputes between users.
Steps to get started.
- Download the app
- Choose your currency of choice
- Choose to either meetup and give cash or stay within the app, using your payment method of choice (Wise, Revolut, PayPal, SEPA, Amazon gift cards).
To Buy
- Pick an amount of sats you wish to buy (1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 sats).
- Find a match with someone.
- Fund the sale.
- Wait for the person to confirm that they've received the funds.
- Receive sats!!! (in the open beta this goes to a wallet within the app, but you can have this go directly to a wallet address of your choosing. Simply add the wallet address in the settings).
To Sell
- Pick an amount of sats you wish to sell.
- Fund the escrow by sending the sats to the address given to you (once the tx hits the mempool Peach will know. But the sale isn't official until confirmations have taken place, so chose your miner fee based on your own desired urgency).
- Wait for a buyer to match with you.
- Wait for the buyer to fund the sale.
- Confirm that the buyer has paid so that they can receive their sats.
This was a 🔥 experience I had 👇🏻
And that's it! Basically all you need to know about the Peach app. Just know that if you use them, you'll never want to use anything else ever again. It's just so fast and smooth.
Special thanks to @proofofsteph, @Czino, and @bitcoinlabrador from the team. And plebs @+rapidlab309 and @Mike for their help. 🙏🏻