I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if this boomer can stack sats KYC-free on Bisq, so can you. You don’t have to be a doomsday prepper to care about privacy. Here is how I did it:
1-Take $200 cash 💵 to a bitcoin ATM at your seedy local convenience store 🏪(you have to have bitcoin for escrow to complete a Bisq transaction). Yes the ATM fees are outrageous 😥but that doesn’t matter as it’s a one time event.
2-Use one-time text verification service (don’t use your phone ☎️ number) to complete bitcoin ATM transaction and get paper receipt.
https://mobilesms.io
3-Create login on Bisq (secure seed phrase and use a VPN anytime you are on Bisq).
4-Transfer ATM bitcoin into Bisq address (you will no longer need your ATM address) using address details on your ATM receipt. Note: Do NOT transfer bitcoin from a KYC wallet (I.e., Coinbase equivalents) into Bisq as this defeats the whole purpose. Do NOT skip steps 1-2.
5-Choose 1 or 2 payment methods in Bisq and look for offers to sell. I use Strike, but Zelle and other options are available.
6-Look for accept an ‘offer to sell’ at 2-3% premium to spot price. If none exists, make your own ‘offer to buy’ and stay logged into Bisq. You will get a bite within a day or so. Avoid the scammers asking for huge premiums. Max buy order is $1000💰btw.
7-Once you click ‘buy’ on an offer, some of your bitcoin on Bisq will be moved into escrow (normally 20-50% of what you are buying) and you will wait 10 minutes (average) for blockchain confirmation. This is why you have to have KYC-free bitcoin in order to buy KYC-free bitcoin.
8-After blockchain confirmation, Bisq will reveal seller payment address on the payment method you both agreed and you initiate USD payment (via Strike or Zelle, etc). Bisq is not involved in the transaction.
9-Once seller verifies receipt of funds, transaction is complete and escrow returned.
Congrats 🎉 you now own KYC-free bitcoin and can send it to a secure wallet/address of your choosing. Here is what I did:
10-Set up Sparrow wallet (and Tor browser..in addition to your VPN) on your computer. You will want a hot wallet (where you can send bitcoin directly from Bisq) and a 2 of 3 multisig cold wallet (I use airgapped coldcard devices) assuming you plan to store meaningful value over time.
https://youtu.be/qJ_SpQX_YKw
11-Periodically transfer your Bisq bitcoin (leaving enough for future escrows) to sparrow hot wallet and conjoin/mix directly to your coldcard 2 of 3 multi-sig cold storage wallet/address. You can set the conjoin up to mix directly to the cold wallet after multiple mixes, but mine seem to take forever (weeks or months for multiple mixes) so beware. For this reason, I move manually after 1 mix, which is very quick.
https://youtu.be/6TcUY2yU41w
If I can do it, anybody can do it. Good luck plebs and pura vida. Feedback and/or improvements welcome!
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/guides/best-p2p-decentralised-exchanges