Your Guide to Selling Bitcoin
If you’ve used Lolli, you probably have experienced the joy of earning bitcoin just for shopping - but you may be wondering now “Can I sell my bitcoin?” The answer is yes, you can! This article has compiled different ways of selling your bitcoin.
How to Sell Bitcoin
Bitcoin is highly demanded, making selling it easy. One of the most popular ways to sell is using an online exchange: Kraken, Coinbase, and Gemini are some of the most popular exchanges with beginners. All of them are highly reputable, are registered, and have long track records of acting fairly and honestly.
One disadvantage of these exchanges is you often need to provide personal information and link your bank account to the exchange. This can involve verifying your identity, which requires uploading your ID and selfies.
This is entirely secure, but once your account is set up, it may still take several days after selling your bitcoin before the money appears in your account. So it's a little slower than some other options.
If you are uncomfortable trusting these services with your personal information, you always have the option to sell bitcoin in person.
Person-to-Person
Multiple websites exist that link people up to sell bitcoin. Kind of like a classified ad, users post an ad, someone calls with an offer, and you meet, exchanging cash for bitcoin. One of the most well-known websites offering these services is localbitcoins.com.
Because you don’t have to register with any website, upload your ID, or link your bank account info these are pretty convenient. On the other hand, you do need to take precautions, the same as with meeting any stranger from the internet. It’s best to meet in a public place with people around, and only use this method to sell fairly small amounts, because there have been several robberies as a result of face-to-face bitcoin sales.
Other P2P Selling Methods:
Localbitcoins is called a peer to peer (P2P) bitcoin exchange. This means the site directly connects sellers and buyers. Other major exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken are centralized exchanges, meaning they buy and sell bitcoin from their users. P2P sites have other options besides meeting in person.
Paxful, for example, allows you to trade Bitcoin for just about anything, including Amazon gift cards or Venmo transfers. If you are the cautious type, this may be an attractive option, because you don’t need to give over any sensitive personal data.
Paxful works with an escrow service. Basically, you connect with someone online who wants to buy bitcoin. Then, you put the bitcoin in escrow, which means the website confirms to the buyer that the bitcoin is there. This way, the buyer knows they can send you the money. Once you verify that you have received the cash, you click to release the money. If they never send the cash, your bitcoin is returned to you, and you can look for another buyer.
As long as you are careful not to release the bitcoin before you have the cash in hand, this can be an effective and safe method to sell bitcoin quickly and easily.
Bisq is another P2P exchange - it connects buyers and sellers and allows users to use a variety of currencies. Bisq is also decentralized and requires no personal i.d. verification.
Spending Bitcoin Directly
You can also sell your bitcoin by spending it directly with retailers. Overstock.com is one of the most well-known stores that accept bitcoin. The former CEO, Patrick Byrne, has been a big supporter of bitcoin from very early on. Expedia allows you to book hotels, flights, or vacations with bitcoin. Microsoft allows users to buy game tokens with bitcoin.
There may also be businesses near you that accept bitcoin. You can find out by looking at one of the worldwide directories of bitcoin. You can find everything from accountants to dentists to restaurants and spas that accept bitcoin.
Alternately, you can just go to an online classified website like Craigslist and search for “bitcoin” and you’ll probably find a few people offering items for bitcoin. A search just now in the Seattle area returned a laser printer, a camper van, a maple bed and Tempurpedic mattress, a cell phone jammer (?!), brand new luxury hot tubs, a laptop, a safe, and a BMW, all for sale in exchange for bitcoin. What’s available in your area?
Are you sure you want to sell?
We recommend you think before you sell your bitcoin - cash may seem more convenient at first but if you are able to hold onto your bitcoin that's probably the better choice.
Due to built-in fundamentals, many believe bitcoin’s price will rise in the near future. Bitcoin’s price has increased consistently since its creation and with a limited supply and lots of people buying it, bitcoin will likely grow in value.
In the early days of the internet, email was difficult to use, complicated, and not that many people used it. But with time, tools were developed which made it easier and more accessible, and now almost everyone uses it. Many people think bitcoin will follow a similar pattern. But this time instead of there being unlimited platforms and pages, there is true scarcity. And, you can stake a claim to the digital scarcity.
Bitcoin solves many real-world problems, making more and more people demand it. Problems include inflation, wealth seizures, oppressive financial controls and regulations, and mass surveillance. These issues are not going away, and are actually in many ways getting worse, which should lead to a spike in demand for safe-haven assests like bitcoin.
Granted, there is also a large number of people who are not concerned about these issues. However, many of them recognize that others are, and think that this will cause bitcoin’s price to appreciate. They buy-in purely for the sake of making money, and in the process drive the price up further. Then, even more people notice this happening, and buy-in, not wanting to miss out, and the price goes up even more.
This is exactly what bitcoin was designed to do — to be money whose value goes up, while the value of paper monies is printed away. And so far bitcoin has stuck to the script - so, maybe keep that in mind before selling it!
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💜,
The Lolli Team