LocalBitcoins.com Now Forcing Users to Verify Identification to Trade at All

LocalBitcoins.com in a short amount of time (a matter of weeks) just went from the bastion of financial freedom to another player in the New World Order of capital controls. In case you haven’t heard, LocalBitcoins is demanding ID verification for all its users and thus for anyone that wants to trade (buy, sell for cash & gift cards) bitcoin on its platform.

Pleasant History

LocalBitcoins has been operating for years almost flawlessly. Providing a nice price discovery for the bitcoin market (often higher than exchanges at volatile times) and not succumbing to the whims of the law even when it's customers were seemingly dragged into an embroiling of legal battles.

I love(d) doing business (trading in bitcoin in person) with localbitcoins because it was:

• 1 Anonymous
• 2 Had the largest pool of users
• 3 Had the basic (keyword basic) tools of coordinating a buy or sell from someone else

Years ago there was hardly the Pool of Local Bitcoin ATM's you could buy and sell to for cash like there is today. You needed LocalBitcoins.

The Chilling of Crypto Hearts

It could not have come at a more beating us while we were down kind of time with the price crash and all.

On January 27th I noticed a message that to create new trading ads I had to verify my identity. At first I was relieved, and confused, firstly because "well at least I have ads already up in my most frequent trading area that I can rely on" and because they gave me that out I didn't unload the full piss-mobile onto their brandname just yet. I also thought maybe they were just regulating the quantity of how many ads I can use (see the top message that I don't have enough trading volume to make a new ad). They had previously limited the number of ads by trade volume. This kind of pissed me off before but I didn't make a big stink because hey, this was their business and they could run it how they want. Now that they seem to be going against the spirit of bitcoin and falling to pressures of regulators Now I have a problem with LocalBitcoins.com!

So I saw it coming. Even others saw it coming right before it happened. Eventually we would be required to verify our specific personhood just to trade whatsoever.

Here is a picture of their ID Verification page asking for a copy of your ID using netverify

NOTE that back in late January, they only stated that ID verification would be needed to open you up to MORE traders, not that it would be required for ALL trades. Though I admit, I didn't read their twitter or blog to know if the upcoming changes (i.e. restrictions) were announced. They definitely DID NOT email their users though, which is what should have been done. I noticed government and companies like to creep these things up on you so as to snatch you in their web of hoovering up your personal data; like all the exchanges that keep your money if you don't comply with KYC/AML.

The Fallout Began January 30th

Just a few days later on January 30th, users got this message when they logged in:

At that moment I knew the game was rigged. The plug was being pulled from LocalBitcoins.com and we're going to be left up the creek without a paddle, though still with our funds in our pocket. I knew LB was too big to lock customer funds. It would have been an outrage and they could not have handled that court battle.

Not surprisingly, the day after this change went into effect, the message on their site support page (before you even login) appears as follows:

"Current support ticket reply delays are approximately 7 days, please do not open multiple tickets it will only increase your waiting time. We're very sorry for the issues and we're working hard to resolve them."

Confusingly, I logged in today and my advertisements still show as "active" and still appear visible to a query by the general public. But the fall has already begun.

I am going to track their popularity decline with web archive snapshots of alexa ranking to document their demise after this fall from grace. Right now their rank worldwide is 2,284 and 3,044 in China which I was surprised to see.

There are NO Alternatives...Yet

There are NO immediate alternatives to LB.
Liberalcoins is underdeveloped.
Mycelium requires an app and I can't search on a desktop.
Wall of Coins requires my location be tracked from my computer and I won't have that. Here's my message to their tyrannical cucks too.

But there is hope. I'm a sponsor for LocalDashTrade.com which will soon introduce other cryptocurrency options to trade - though the site is under major development still and does not even have a user registration - though maybe that's a good thing.

Call to Action

Express your discontent.

• Contact their support on: https://localbitcoins.com/support
• Post a message in the reddit r/localbitcoins
• Leave a review on cryptocompare

Recent Trends not Good

There is a larger wave passing through online service providers in the cryptocurrency sector that's resulting in piss poor customer service which I've experienced recently from half a dozen companies. It definitely is affect the bottom line of my personal businesses and finance; and no they're NOT directly related to the price crash early this month.

It's NO coincidence I say that the Senate Hearing, price crash, crackdowns and site identity restrictions like this are sprung upon us at around the same time. Even the recent US Marshalls Bitcoin Auction timing is creepy.

NOTE: Yes my headline of them losing 90% of users is my prediction, but it is realistic.