What is Paxful?
Paxful is a P2P trading platform – connects buyers and sellers to trade Bitcoin together.
Paxful was founded in 2014 by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback, the platform was originally called EasyBitz, then changed to Paxful. Currently operating globally with the main markets being the US, Kenya, China, Brazil, and India with a combined total of more than 3.6 million monthly visits.
Paxful aims to be the Uber + Paypal of the Bitcoin community, allowing individuals to become merchants and sell Bitcoins online, similar to how eBay allows people to sell goods.
Most exchanges are geo-restricted or payment methods, but Paxful is not. It contributes to the growth of Bitcoin trading when it is easier for people to buy Bitcoin. Paxful also enables a more decentralized trading market.
In general, Paxful's form of operation is quite similar to the model of Remitano or Localbitcoins.
Services on Paxful
Paxful provides users with the following services:
Wallet: Allows users to send, receive and store Bitcoin
P2P Market: This is a meeting place between buyers and sellers to trade bitcoins using over 300 different payment methods such as:
- Bank transfer: SEPA, domestic money transfer (Vietcombank, Sacombank, Vietinbank…)
- Online wallets: MOMO, ePay, Moca, Google Pay, mPayVN, Ngan Luong, Payoo, ViettelPay, Paypal, ZaloPay, WebMoney, WeChat Pay, Alipay, AdvCash, CashU, GrabPay, Facebook Messenger Payment…
- Gift Cards: Amazon, iTunes, eBay, Google Play, AirBnB, Appstore, Best Buy, AT & T, Booking.com, Hulu, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Walmart, Starbucks…
- Cash payment: Western Union, MoneyGram, ATM Bitcoin, Check…
- Credit/Debit Cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Card.com Transfer…
- Cryptocurrencies: ETH, BCH, XRP, LTC, USDT, XLM…
Vendor service: once you create an offer in the marketplace to buy or sell, you become a vendor
Kiosk service: This is like an affiliate program for web developers. A web developer can insert code on his website that reflects the Paxful marketplace. Customers can buy bitcoins on Paxful directly from the web developer's website.
Comparison of Paxful vs. Remitano and Localbitcoins
Paxful with LocalBitcoins
- Paxful's main competitor is undoubtedly LocalBitcoins. A similar market has existed since 2012.
- Aside from Paxful being younger and having a smaller volume, we didn't find any significant differences between the two companies. Paxful seems to be crushing it when it comes to customer delight.
Paxful with Remitano
- Remitano, like Paxful, is a P2P exchange that has been better adapted to the Asian market, especially Vietnam than any other P2P exchange.
- Remitano supports more cryptocurrencies than just 1 cryptocurrency like Paxful. However, Remitano has 1 payment method while Paxful has more than 300 methods.
Instructions to buy Bitcoin on Paxful
Register an account
- First, you visit the Paxful website at https://www.paxful.com.
- Then click “Create Account” in the top right corner of the main page.
- Then enter your email address and create a password.
Note: Emails can only be changed within the first 7 days and only in case of typos. Your password must:
- At least 6 characters long
- There is a lowercase character
- There is a special character (@# *, etc.)
- Have some
- There is a capital letter
An activation email will be sent to your email address. Click “confirm email” to activate your account.
KYC verification for the account
After creating a Paxful account, go to the settings and perform the steps to verify ID and KYC as required by the exchange.
Why KYC on Paxful? Paxful has 4 levels of verification (KYC completion), each with a different purchase limit.
To KYC, you need to take a photo of the front and back of your citizen ID, passport, or driver's license to verify your account.
Wait a few days for Paxful to authenticate, after successful you can proceed with the transaction. Before trading, compare prices with other exchanges to save costs.
Note the above steps, you can choose to change the language to Vietnamese in the footer if you don't understand.
Buy and sell Bitcoin on Paxful
- Click Buy Bitcoin.
- A search dialog box appears, you can choose any payment method or currency. Especially, Paxful supports Bitcoin buying and selling transactions with PayPal accounts or popular e-wallets
- Then click on search suggestions.
- You follow Paxful's instructions and make the payment.
The merchant will then transfer the Bitcoins from the transaction escrow to your Paxful wallet. The transaction is completed successfully. As for selling Bitcoin, go to “Sell Bitcoin” and do the same with “Buy Bitcoin“.
In case you want to execute an ad to wait to buy and sell Bitcoin at the desired price, you can go to “Create your own offer”.
It should be noted that in the process of buying and selling Bitcoin on this, you need to make transactions with people with a high reputation.
Some guidelines for you to solve all problems when buying and selling Bitcoin through Paxful:
- Better to use Paxful's recommended seller. As they have a better reputation and therefore are not usually scammers.
- Never do communication outside of Paxful and make sure everything is logged in the system. So the system will be able to help you in the event of a dispute.
- Make sure the person you are dealing with is online. As unanswered orders are automatically canceled within a short period of time.
- Only send payments from escrow when you have full control over the payments you receive. It is confirmed (“confirmed”) and already exists in your account. Bitcoins from escrow should not be transferred to a “pending” state or any other similar state.
