LocalCoinSwap.com Review – Scam or not?

Localcoinswap is a market to buy and sell crypto between individuals. It is trying to be an inclusive cryptocurrency exchange marketplace where you can buy any kind of crypto with any kind of payment method. The decentralized platform supports more cryptocurrencies than any other peer-to-peer exchanges and more payment methods than any other cryptocurrency exchange.

Review Contents

• About the Company
• Getting started: Registration and Verification on LocalCoinSwap
• Features on LocalCoinSwap
• Fees
• Trading on LocalCoinSwap
• Customer Support
• Exchange Security
• Pros and Cons of LocalCoinSwap
• Supported Payment Methods
• Supported Countries
• Conclusion

LocalCoinSwap, or in short LCS allows traders in any location, to directly trade any cryptocurrency (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Lisk and many more) using any method of payment you can imagine. LCS users receive 100% of the traded profits from the marketplace and votes together in a proof-of-stake system to decide how the exchange should operate.

LocalCoinSwap’s Background

Hong Kong based peer-to-peer exchange was founded in 2015. They currently have a headquarter in Hong Kong under the address of 3 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong 00000, HK. The company has 11 employees according to their Linkedin profile.

In June 2018, LocalCoinSwap closed a successful ICO where they have managed to raise more than 12 million USD. During the coin offering more than 40 million  LCS – the native currency of LocalCoinSwap platform – was sold to 7000 unique users and 2500 unique investors. The community seems to appreciate the initiative to have a platform, similar to LocalBitcoins, where users can trade, buy and sell coins directly between each other beyond Bitcoin.

LocalCoinSwap runs their own blog where they share trading guides and walkthroughs of the platform. This is also the place where you can find the latest promotions offered by LocalCoinSwap exchange. Addition to this you can find interesting content about the security tips and industry specific opinion pieces, so you will surely find something interested on this channel. Their Facebook account has 11k active followers where you can also find the blog articles shared. On Twitter 4k followers follow the most recent promotions and content shared by the team of LocalCoinSwap. If you prefer videos, you can check out their Youtube channel, there is just in the making, only have a couple of videos about how to use the platform. If you stuck and have any questions, beyond the usual support channels, you can also check out their Reddit thread where they are actively answering user questions and inform the community about updates. Their social profile seems fairly complete and the company shares as much information about the processes as they could to maximize transparency of the exchange.

Nathan Worsley is the Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of LocalCoinSwap. He is an early investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum and passionate about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Prior to LocalCoinSwap he worked for Australian and Hong Kong based companies in the past as asset manager before joining the crypto space. He earned a finance degree in the University of Queensland according to his Linkedin profile

The team behind LocalCoinSwap decided to decentralize as they believe this is an important feature of a cryptocurrency exchange. Both the profit and decision-making is shared with the users. This allows the platform to create a real user-friendly exchange which works indeed the way the users want. They believe in decentralization so much that they are willing to share the profit of the exchange with their users. This is indeed a unique concept in the crypto industry.

The team is receiving its renumeration in the native currency of the platform, in LCS that is locked for 1 year before disbursement. The reason for this action is to make sure the team’s efforts are in line with the investor’s needs.

Getting started: Registration and Verification on LocalCoinSwap

In order to sign up to create an account at LocalCoinSwap you need to provide an email address, your user name and the password you would like to use. If you got a referral code from one of your friends make sure you enter the code upon sign up do benefit from the affiliate partnership. Once you have filled out the details your account is set up in seconds, you confirm your email address and ready to trade.

As LocalCoinSwap is a peer-to-peer exchange, they do not require any KYC procedures to use their account. However, the users can set their own trading rules and some may require to show a photo ID or proof of residence in order to engage into a deal. Make sure you read the deal terms before committing yourself to an agreement.

There is no minimum deposit on the platform and also the withdrawals are not limited. withdrawals of Ethereum and ERC20 tokens usually arrive in your wallet within 30 minutes, and withdrawals of BTC within 2 hours. Occasionally this can take longer due to unusually high network activity or when there are many site withdrawals around the same time. Due to the P2P nature of the platform, to ensure safety the deposited funds in a deal are kept in cold storages until they are ready to be released from escrow.

 

Features on LocalCoinSwap

LocalCoinSwap’s motto is to provide fast, secure and private service to its users

“The Way Crypto Should Be”.

Security is ensured using the escrow service, which means until the payment is not confirmed by each participating party, the funds are not released. This helps to minimize the chances of scams and fraud done through the platform.

Privacy is maxed out with avoiding any KYC or ID verification process in general upon registration on the platform. Bare in mind, this is a P2P trading exchange, some users may still require identity verification to conduct deals.

LocalCoinSwap believes in decentralization and thus willing to share 100% profit from trading fees with the community, to become the world’s first community-owned crypto exchange.

They also offer a lucrative referral program, which helps you to earn fees in case your friends join the platform as a liquidity provider.

The most important feature above all of the prior mentioned functions is the variety of payment methods. LocalCoinSwap supports all payment methods which can be safely supervised using their escrow process. This includes more than 250 (!) different payment methods from around the world. Beyond the usual bank wire transfer and credit card payments, here you can pay with gift cards and alternative payment providers too, or even with Amazon wishlists, mobile payments and of course by cash.

Additionally, LocalCoinSwap will support every form of fiat (traditional) currency and cryptocurrencies, including the following coins:

Available coins to trade:

• BTC
• ETH
• DOT
• KSM
• USDT
• USDC
• DAI
• DASH
• LCS
• NEXO
• PAX

Fees on LocalCoinSwap

The fee structure at LocalCoinSwap is easy to understand. They do not charge anything for registration, depositing or buying/selling in the site. The fees are applicable only to those sellers who provide liquidity on the market. This trading fee is 1% after every completed trade.

Registering account	Free
Depositing cryptocurrency	Free
Buying or selling cryptocurrency to traders on the site	Free

Withdrawals are also not charged on the platform, but there is a minimum fee applicable, which is the miner fee for the blockchain transactions.

Fee structure

Currency	Symbol	Minimum Withdrawal	Transaction Fee
Bitcoin	BTC	0.00201 BTC	0.00050452 BTC

Trading on LocalCoinSwap

You only need to do a couple of easy steps to buy or sell crypto on LocalCoinSwap exchange. Buying cryptocurrency on this platform includes the following steps.

1. Search for a trade advertisement
2. Initiate a trade
3. Pay the seller / Receive the money from the buyer
4. Receive the crypto / Release crypto from escrow

Use the search options on the top of the buy or sell pages to see which altcoins you can trade with. Use the arrows on the side to select your desired crypto.

You can filter for buying and selling, the type of cryptocurrency you wish to buy or sell, the fiat currency you would like to pay with or receive. You can also filter based on the location and the payment method. The list of the options is refreshed based on your filter criteria.

Select one of the advertisers which suits your needs the best. If you hover over the name of the trader you can also see what was the last time they were online, this can give you an indication if you can do a deal right now or you need to wait a bit. The prices of the offered cryptos are visible on each line, they can vary a lot depending on the payment method and location. Remember, convenience has its price, it is fair to ask for a higher price for such a service which is not offered elsewhere, so do not look at only the price tag, but the services offered as a whole.

If you have found your trader hit the buy button. Do not worry you still have options to review the trade details before clicking on this.

You will now see some more information relating to this advertisement including price, seller statistics, and terms of trade.

Enter in the amount that you wish to purchase into the “I wish to buy” box in either fiat or cryptocurrency.

It is very important to read the terms of trade before entering into a trade with a user. By clicking “Initiate Contract” you are agreeing to the conditions set by the seller. If you do not agree to the conditions simply go back and browse through more advertisements.

Once you have initiated the trade, the seller needs to accept your offer. They also check your profile to make sure you are a trusted buyer/seller depending on your trading position. If your trade request is accepted, you need to make the payment within a specific time frame, otherwise, the contract expires.

Do not forget to confirm your payment once done on the platform. On the other side, the seller also confirms your payment and they release the crypto into your wallet directly on the platform. If you are the seller then this is the time now to release the cryptos from escrow.

Different payment methods carry different risk profiles. Unlike some payment methods, the majority of cryptocurrency transactions are NOT reversible. Once you release the cryptocurrency to the buyer it is not possible to recover them. It is recommended to sell using low-risk payment methods to traders with a good reputation and a solid trade history to make sure you will not be scammed.

Never, in any case, release your cryptocurrency from the escrow if you have not received and verified the payment. There is no option to raise a dispute and there will be no way to get your cryptocurrency back if the buyer does not make the payment. Do not fall form photoshopped transaction screenshots, take the time to verify the transaction on your own.

You also have the option to become a trader who facilitates cryptocurrency deals on LocalCoinSwap. In order to do this, after registering on the platform go to post a trade on the top of the screen. This will take you to a screen where you can input all the details needed to create your own advertisement to buy or sell cryptocurrency.

You can make a passive income from trading cryptos at LocalCoinSwap or even can do this full time. It only depends on how good are your trading conditions.

To become a seller on LocalCoinSwap, follow the following steps.

1. Select the crypto you would like to advertise your services for
2. Select the location you would like to serve. You can facilitate global crypto purchases as well, it really depends on the payment methods you can offer at a reasonable price. If trading via Western Union or SWIFT international transfer then you can select worldwide as they are both payment methods accepted across international borders.
3. Choose a payment method you can reliably use when needed.
4. You can set trade limits in fiat currency for setting a minimum and maximum of your future order. This can help you to only engage in deals that are profitable and executable for you.
5. You have two options to decide on your pricing method. The basic margin pricing is the more simple method, you just need to enter the margin you would like to apply and it will be added automatically to the market price. When posting trades using the basic margin pricing formula, LocalCoinSwap uses prices taken from CoinMarketCap.com. These are updated every 5 minutes. You can also opt for a fixed formula based price if you prefer that, in this case, your price will be irrelevant to market conditions.

There are some advanced features you can set when becoming a seller, such as tracking liquidity (to make sure you do not over-transact your budget) or setting the trade sizes (not the same as minimum and maximum, this is to ensure you receive the payment as you desire). In the trading conditions field, you can enter literally any condition you want the user to complete before you accept a deal.

You can require a photo ID, a phone verification, or a minimum rating from other traders. You can also set you availability hours so users can see when can they accept you online, this can have your advertisement not visible for times when you will be unable to respond (aka sleeping for example).

Once all details are set, click on Publish Trade Advertisement and your crypto ad will be live right away.

Support on LocalCoinSwap

LocalCoinSwap has a very clean design and it is easy to navigate on the platform. However, there are so many options to choose from it may paralyze users from acting. The 250 different payment method includes over 100 different gift card, you surely will find your card on the list, just have the patience in scrolling down between the options.

In case you have any questions, you can reach out to the support staff using a ticket opened on the platform. Additionally, they are responding to user queries directly on social media platforms, like Reddit as well if needed.

Security on LocalCoinSwap

LocalCoinSwap is providing escrow protection for each and every deals down through the platform. This means you do not need to be afraid of paying to an unknown counterparty in the hope they will fulfill their obligations. LocalCoinSwap plays here the role of the middlemen which both parties can trust at the same time. The funds are only released from escrow protection if both parties are comfortable with the trade.

The platform also uses a multi-factor authentication method to increase the safety of the account. If you would like to withdraw from the platform or releases funds from escrow, you are required to confirm your actions using email, phone or Google Authenticator, depending on your choice.

LocalCoinSwap keeps 95% of the crpyto funds in offline cold storages. All outgoing transactions are executed manually from cold wallets which are supervised by the support staffs 24/7. Above a certain amount of funds, the company directors authorize transactions to ensure maximum compliance with trading rules.

As LocalCoinSwap is a P2P exchange the provided service they offer is highly depending on the trader who offers liquidity on the market. There could be bad players on the market, the support team makes every effort to get rid of those users who do not fulfill their obligations as required. Still, make sure you use a trader with good credibility history on the platform to minimize the risk of being scammed.

Pros and Cons of LocalCoinSwap

Pros

• many coins and payment method supported
• multi-blockchain P2P exchange
• transparency about company background

Cons

• reliability of service is depending on the sellers on the platform
• too many options to choose from can paralyze users
• high crypto prices

Supported Payment Methods

• Wire Transfer
• Alipay
• Credit Card
• Paypal
• Perfect Money
• SEPA
• Wire Transfer
• Skrill
• Neteller
• Payoneer
• And many more …

Supported Countries

Costumers from all countries are allowed.

Conclusion

LocalCoinSwap is a great initiative to provide a P2P exchange place where you can buy and sell any kind of cryptos in a decentralized but still safe way. You can choose from tons of different payment methods and many cryptocurrencies are supported on the exchange. The escrow service protects both parties during the trade and makes cryptocurrency trading a fast, secure and private experience as it always should be.

Go to LocalCoinSwap.com