The peer-to-peer network for normal people
Paxful was founded in the summer of 2015 by two visionaries Ray Youssef and Rather Schaback and is based in Delaware USA. The company is a peer to peer bitcoin buy and sell platform, that allows everyone in the world to transact.
Setting up an account on the platform can be done in two simple ways; manually and automatically. The manual process means filling in the registration form provided on the website.
The automatic process on the other hand takes place during the checkout in the buying process after providing an email not yet registered in their database.
Trading on Paxful – What you need to know
Selling on Paxful
You can sell Bitcoin and Tether on the platform. Bitcoin is the popular cryptocurrency that surfaced in 2008 during the global economic recession and gave rise to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
Tether is also a cryptocurrency which is linked to a traditional fiat currency. The Tether is pegged to a fiat currency to prevent volatility as compared to the other tokens.
Both the Bitcoin and Tether can be sold via six methods:
- Bank Transfers
- Digital Currency
- Discount Gift Cards
- Online Wallets
- Goods And Services.
With bank transfers, you sell your Bitcoins or Tethers to a buyer, the buyer transfers funds from their bank account to yours. Some buyers do require that you verify your ID first before a transaction can occur.
With digital currencies, you can trade your Bitcoin or Tether for other digital currencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin etc. The cash trading methodology works much the same as bank transfers, as traditional cash is physical and physically does not exist in the digital world.
The gift card method allows users to trade and transact Bitcoins and Tethers for gift cards such as iTunes gift cards, Amazon gift cards, offgamers.com gift cards, google play gift cards etc.
Goods and services method as the name implies, allows you to trade the two cryptocurrencies for a service you need or goods such as gold.
Buying on Paxful
This works exactly the same as selling Bitcoins and Tethers on Paxful.com, buy with any currency and use any of the above methods for the transaction.
User interface and experience
I simply love the graphical user interface of the platform; it is clean, adapts to any screen size.
From the top left we have the drop-down menu, which contains transaction options, and on the top left is our profile, with the username and our Paxful balance.
The body section contains the buy Bitcoins section, help section, 2-Factor-Authentication (2FA), Affiliates, and changing the interface to dark mode. Easy navigation section, giving you the option to transact, enable a security feature such as 2-Factor-Authentication, and help in case you get stuck.
You can make extra money by recruiting people to the platform and earn 50% from their escrow fees. You can also see how much you have earned so far.
In addition, You can change your theme to dark mode, and change the language preference from English to Portuguese, French, Spanish, Mandarin. And finally, the footer section contains the App details, terms and conditions and the company’s address.
Security: How Paxful protects its users
Paxful.com recommends setting up 2-Factor-Authentication. That way, even if someone used a phishing attack on you to access the username and passwords, they cannot access the platform as they additionally need the second authentication which is an OTP sent by SMS or email.
During the trade, the Bitcoin is sent to an escrow and manually released by the seller once he/she confirmed the payment was received.
Trading on Paxful: Conclusion
For those new to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, Paxful is the platform to start. I recently received an invite from Paxful to take part in their masterclass and learn more about bitcoin and bitcoin trading.
I had no trouble at all and found what I needed when I needed it. The platform is user-friendly and guides you all the way. You can also earn money by recruiting people, and the support team is very helpful.