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How interesting. Makes me want to set up a similar service where I am. $500 minimum, mark it up a steady 10% based on price when the order is placed, and offer

How interesting. Makes me want to set up a similar service where I am. $500 minimum, mark it up a steady 10% based on price when the order is placed, and offer to buy the coffee when you meet at the local cafe to make the swap. Hard to make a living unless you're doing it full time, but the hobby would pay for itself and then some, and you'd meet some interesting people and learn your way around the ecosystem. As for the money... keep the cash! Use the cash! Cash is convenient, cash is universal! I've been thinking about going all cash for anything but purchases that must be made online, and even those can be made with prepay cards that can be bought with cash. edit: a moment of thought reveals you have to put the cash back into the system somehow or another in order to fund more bitcoins. So, there's that fantasy shot.

stavrianos 12y ago
If nothing else, you can feed the cash into transactions that would otherwise not have been. All your groceries are now paid with bitcoin cash, and the difference can be applied to buying more bitcoins. There's a ceiling there, but unless business is booming, I bet you never hit it.
- stirlo 12y ago
  The article talks about transactions for $3000, that is a lot of cash to spend on groceries.
  - wingerlang 12y ago
    Although a $3000 transaction would, for the author, be ~$300.
    - glomph 12y ago
      Yeah but you still have $3000 in cash.
flatline 12y ago
Another thing to shoot down that fantasy: someone makes a casual mention of illegal activity, and as soon as you complete the transaction they pull out their FBI badge and arrest you on charges of money laundering, aiding a criminal, etc. People from localbitcoins have been targeted and subsequently busted this way, for doing no more than this guy.
- driverdan 12y ago
  Refuse to do business with anyone mentioning illegal activity.
- dublinben 12y ago
  Can you point to any stories of users of localbitcoins being busted in this manner?
  - jerguismi 12y ago
    It has been happening provably once: http://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-users-criminal-charges-florida/ http://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-users-criminal-charges... The rule of thumb is, if the person you are doing business with mentions intent of doing something illegal, you have to stop the transaction right away.
    - flatline 12y ago
      I'm not even sure that involved drugs or anything - they got busted on straight up AML. I can't find the drug case now, I saw it within the last six months but any Google search just returns tons of SR hits...
pmorici 12y ago
This guy is extremely lucky all that happened to him is that he got his bank account closed. With the amounts of money he was dealing in, what he was doing could have easily gotten him arrested.
- devindotcom 12y ago
  I don't understand. What would he be arrested for?
  - 2arrs2ells 12y ago
    Money laundering.
  - Padding 12y ago
    It's a complex issue. Basically, while you are in theory free to move money around as you please - for yourself or as a service to others - doing so in large quantities will get you scrutinized. If uppon scrutiny there is any doubt as to from where the money came or where it went, you'll be flagged for "money laundering". Once that happens the "authorities" will essentially go with a haircomb through anything and everything you've ever done, and then, uppon dicsovering that you are in fact not a criminal, keep on looking until they actually find something to justify all of that effort they just wasted on you.
- dougddo 12y ago
  Your reaction is a bit overblown. People have been and are currently buying and selling fairly large amounts of BTC both in person and online on localbitcoins alone.
- celticninja 12y ago
  No it could not. The most trouble would be of he was dealing in amounts over £10k were usually a bank would notify someone
  - pmorici 12y ago
    It could and it has [0] Also I think you missed the part where he said he moved back to the US and continued selling Bitcoin. [0] http://www.coindesk.com/florida-localbitcoins-user-loses-bid-dismiss-money-transmitter-charge/ http://www.coindesk.com/florida-localbitcoins-user-loses-bid...

stavrianos 12y ago

If nothing else, you can feed the cash into transactions that would otherwise not have been. All your groceries are now paid with bitcoin cash, and the difference can be applied to buying more bitcoins. There's a ceiling there, but unless business is booming, I bet you never hit it.

stirlo 12y ago
The article talks about transactions for $3000, that is a lot of cash to spend on groceries.
- wingerlang 12y ago
  Although a $3000 transaction would, for the author, be ~$300.
  - glomph 12y ago
    Yeah but you still have $3000 in cash.

flatline 12y ago

Another thing to shoot down that fantasy: someone makes a casual mention of illegal activity, and as soon as you complete the transaction they pull out their FBI badge and arrest you on charges of money laundering, aiding a criminal, etc. People from localbitcoins have been targeted and subsequently busted this way, for doing no more than this guy.

driverdan 12y ago
Refuse to do business with anyone mentioning illegal activity.
dublinben 12y ago
Can you point to any stories of users of localbitcoins being busted in this manner?
- jerguismi 12y ago
  It has been happening provably once: http://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-users-criminal-charges-florida/ http://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-users-criminal-charges... The rule of thumb is, if the person you are doing business with mentions intent of doing something illegal, you have to stop the transaction right away.
  - flatline 12y ago
    I'm not even sure that involved drugs or anything - they got busted on straight up AML. I can't find the drug case now, I saw it within the last six months but any Google search just returns tons of SR hits...

pmorici 12y ago

This guy is extremely lucky all that happened to him is that he got his bank account closed. With the amounts of money he was dealing in, what he was doing could have easily gotten him arrested.

devindotcom 12y ago
I don't understand. What would he be arrested for?
- 2arrs2ells 12y ago
  Money laundering.
- Padding 12y ago
  It's a complex issue. Basically, while you are in theory free to move money around as you please - for yourself or as a service to others - doing so in large quantities will get you scrutinized. If uppon scrutiny there is any doubt as to from where the money came or where it went, you'll be flagged for "money laundering". Once that happens the "authorities" will essentially go with a haircomb through anything and everything you've ever done, and then, uppon dicsovering that you are in fact not a criminal, keep on looking until they actually find something to justify all of that effort they just wasted on you.
dougddo 12y ago
Your reaction is a bit overblown. People have been and are currently buying and selling fairly large amounts of BTC both in person and online on localbitcoins alone.
celticninja 12y ago
No it could not. The most trouble would be of he was dealing in amounts over £10k were usually a bank would notify someone
- pmorici 12y ago
  It could and it has [0] Also I think you missed the part where he said he moved back to the US and continued selling Bitcoin. [0] http://www.coindesk.com/florida-localbitcoins-user-loses-bid-dismiss-money-transmitter-charge/ http://www.coindesk.com/florida-localbitcoins-user-loses-bid...