Buy Bitcoin in India Using a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace
Peer-to-peer marketplaces are slowly gaining popularity. This is mainly because people are starting to find real-life opportunities with complementary pieces like Bitcoin and peer-to-peer finance. These opportunities include easier payments, better online remittances, investment opportunities, and even wealth preservation. All these opportunities are possible because now it’s easier to purchase the digital asset. Buy bitcoin in India, the Philippines, or anywhere else for that matter.
Compared to traditional bitcoin exchanges, peer-to-peer marketplaces allow users to have more personalized trading experiences. This allows for more efficient trades as buyers and sellers coordinate with each other directly instead of having a middleman complete the trade for them—meaning more payment methods are available as sellers could literally take anything as payment for their bitcoin. On most peer-to-peer marketplaces, you can buy bitcoin with PayPal, bank transfer, gift cards, cash-in-person, and much more.
Buying Bitcoin
So what’s the process for buying bitcoins in India using a peer-to-peer marketplace? To give you a general idea, let’s use Paxful—one of the leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplaces in the world. Aside from the 350 payment methods available and dedicated community and customer experience team, it’s also a global peer-to-peer marketplace—allowing you to transact with anyone in the world, not just India. If you want to buy bitcoin on Paxful, it only takes 3 simple steps:
1. Choose an offer
If you’ve already created an account, that means you’ve received your free Paxful Wallet and are ready to trade. Click on the “Buy Bitcoin” on the home page. Next, input your personal preferences—the currency you prefer, how much you’re spending, and which payment method you’d like to use. Popular payment methods in India include IMPS transfer and Google Play Gift Cards.
After clicking “Search for Offers”, you’ll then be shown a list of offers based on what you input earlier. When selecting an offer, keep these things in mind:
- How much bitcoin you’ll get per dollar – This is essentially the profit percentage of the seller. How much bitcoin you’ll be getting on the dollar will depend on three things: (1) how much you’re planning to spend, (2) the current market exchange rate, and (3) the profit percentage of the seller. The more bitcoin you get per dollar, the better.
- Offer terms/trade instructions – This is essentially what the seller will need from you as payment. On the offer list, a shorter and more general set of instructions is shown. If you want a more detailed set of instructions, you can click on “View Offer” on the side and the trade instructions should appear.
- Vendor reliability/availability – To check if your seller is reliable, take a look at his/her reputation score and trade history. Make sure that the seller has a positive reputation score and has good feedback on his/her trade history. Also, make sure that your vendor is available by checking when he/she was last seen online. There’s no point in having a reliable seller if he/she isn’t available.
2. Start the trade
After choosing an offer that best suits your needs, it’s time to start the trade. Once more, input how much you’ll be spending and click “Buy Now.” You’ll then be taken to the individual trade page where you’ll finally get to meet your trade partner via live chat. Usually, the instructions will appear again in the chat, just in case you need a reference. Start the chat with a friendly “hello” and then submit the seller’s requirements—make sure that you follow them to-the-dot. After submitting your payment, mark the trade as “paid.” After marking it, give the seller a moment to verify your payment.
3. Completing the trade
Once your payment is verified, the seller should release the bitcoins from escrow and the trade will be complete. The only thing left for both of you to do is to leave feedback for each other. Make sure to leave appropriate feedback so that their reputability is true and honest.
Peer-to-peer finance paving the way
Peer-to-peer finance is the future and bitcoin is the perfect vehicle. As mentioned earlier, peer-to-peer marketplaces and bitcoin are allowing people to use bitcoin not only for investment but also for survival. The peer-to-peer nature of bitcoin is used in its fullest potential when traded on a peer-to-peer marketplace. If you’re trading in India, the bitcoin price in India won’t even matter as peer-to-peer trading bitcoin constantly will totally negate the volatility. This is because if you’re constantly trading—your money changing form at a fast pace—then in most cases, the volatility of bitcoin usually won’t be quick enough to catch up.
With all of that being said, peer-to-peer finance’s ability to provide a financial passport to the unbanked is what makes it truly special. It’s giving an opportunity to those that didn’t have any, to begin with. It’s only going to evolve more from here on out, and it’s exciting to see where it’s going to go.
