This is the second post in our Sovereign money series. You can find our first post in the series here.
We’ve already discussed the reasons why its important to build a strong network for crypto on and off-ramps. We need the correct adversarial framing. Let’s begin with asking ourselves, “if I needed to live on crypto at this exact moment, could I accomplish that?” We want to solve for as many different possibilities and pitfalls as possible. You don’t need to solve them ALL, but you DO need to be able to continue living productively within this new framing.
Lets break down some of the available options and their trade-offs. We’ll look at complexity, trust, and privacy for all of these options. We’re also only looking at solutions that help a user get in and out of crypto.
Kycnot.me has a rating system for exchanges and services. The rating system metrics are:
“The information about the exchange is used to compute a score. The higher the score, the more KYCNOT-friendly is the exchange.
The scoring system has changed as of August 2022. It had been bringing me many headaches as many people were contacting me about a score being “too high” or “too low” for certain exchanges. I was even accused of inflating the scores for some exchanges as if I was accepting bribes or something, which is absolutely false.
The scores are now limited to integer numbers. The computation of scores is much simpler and can bee seen here.
Color Green equals a “good” score [10 to 7], Yellow is medium [5 to 6] and Red is a bad score [0 to 4].”
I suggest avoiding banking services as “suspicious” purchases may get your account flagged and also leaks privacy to the other party. We are also using this exercise as if we don’t have access to a bank account. We’re focusing on cold hard cash, both moving out and moving into cash.
The assumption is that we have zero exposure to crypto. You have no crypto. You’ll need an on-ramp.
Localmonero.co & Agoradesk.com ratings courtesy of https://kycnot.me/
Localmonero.co & Agoradesk.com
Tor hidden service available: YES
Cash accepted: YES
Javascript-free: YES
Bitcoin/XMR offered: YES
If starting with 0 bitcoin or monero and you have cash available, you can check out localmonero.co or agoradesk.com. Both services are managed by the same people. Localmonero.co is focused on XMR while agoradesk.com is focused on BTC, but also offers XMR.
This guide from @KYCfree is a great guide that goes over the basics to get any newbies started on the Agoradesk.
Localmonero and Agoradesk are great services to obtain btc/xmr via a few private methods. You can use cash by mail or in person trades with cash. Its always a good idea to pay for tracking numbers to make sure you can verify that the funds have been delivered.
This is also a good service to sell xmr or btc. As a note, you want to use a secure mailing address. Be sure to consider how you’ll list the address you’ll use to receive cash to, as this will be visible to users of the platform. Try the sell-side service out while you’re not under a time crunch because if SHTF and you need to turn crypto into fiat, its best to be comfortable with your situation before you’re in over your head.
Check out our post on private mail drops for further info around this topic.
LocalCryptos
Tor hidden service available: NO
Cash accepted: YES In-Person ONLY
Javascript-free: NO
Bitcoin/XMR offered: BTC – YES, XMR – NO
The benefit of meeting a buyer in person is that after a successful trade, you can take your purchases offline and contact your buyer/seller via private communications and avoid using an online service to coordinate purchases or sales.
HodlHodl
Tor hidden service available: NO
Cash accepted: YES In-Person ONLY
Javascript-free: NO
Bitcoin/XMR offered: BTC – YES, XMR – NO
HodlHodl and LocalCryptos both work similarly, HodlHodl is focused on bitcoin only. This FAQ will give you information on how to use HodlHodl.
RoboSats
Tor hidden service available: YES
Cash accepted: YES In-Person ONLY
Javascript-free: YES
Bitcoin/XMR offered: BTC – YES, XMR – NO
Here is a good beginner’s guide to get started on RoboSats.
Robosats aims to be a private P2P lightning exchange. An added bonus is that the site is Free and Open Source (AGPLv3). You’re advised to use a new identity per trade which is a great bonus for privacy, but as a trade-off, this doesn’t lend itself to having a reputation system.
Bisq
Tor available: YES
Cash accepted: YES – In-person and Postal money order
Javascript-free: YES
Bitcoin/XMR offered: YES
You can follow this getting started guide for Bisq. Bisq is an example of an actual decentralized exchange. The software runs on your machine. It enforces all connections over Tor. The software is FOSS. The downside is “you need bitcoin to begin trading on Bisq.” You can use bisq only after you’ve first obtained BTC as it’s needed for a security deposit.
P2P Trades (meet-ups, friends, anyone that falls into your local network)
Disclaimer: If you don’t need to ever worry about turning crypto into cash, then you can ignore this. The odds are that you can’t pay with everything via no-KYC crypto. If you need to cover other products or services that will only take fiat, you can use this strategy to be able to turn crypto into fiat.
The discussion around off-ramps doesn’t occur enough. There is a lot of talk around acquiring and even spending crypto, but having some kind of exit ramp to turn crypto into cash is an important tool to have if the moment presents itself.
Head to meet-ups, make friends that are interested in btc/xmr. Build a strong book of people that you can buy and sell from. This is one of the most important resources you can have. The more people you have as buyers/sellers, the more adept you can be in regards to selling/buying bitcoin or monero. You can turn btc/xmr directly into cash with your friends. This happens in a discreet manner and you’ve got a great off-ramp if you need to sell crypto. There is usually not a time-constraint in regards to getting on-ramp’d into btc/xmr. On the other hand, cash from an off-ramp may need to be expeditious. It’s good to add more people into your social circle that are interested in buying crypto from you. A larger book of buyers will benefit you greatly if the time arises and you need to turn btc/xmr into cash.
No-KYC CEX’s/Instant Exchanges
I won’t go into these since there isn’t a way to get fiat onto these no-kyc exchanges without giving up identifying information. Once you obtain btc/xmr you can transfer into these platforms, but this is out of the scope of this post.
Mining
Bitcoin mining
You can begin mining bitcoin with ASICs. Check out Kaboomracks or Hardwaremarketchannel to try and source ASICs. You can also go to local bitcoin meetups to try and source some hardware. Bitcoin mining is relatively easy once you’ve acquired the hardware. It’s also important to keep in mind that to preserve privacy, you should consider mining behind a VPN.
XMR mining
You can mine XMR on a computer, as long as you have more than 4 GB of RAM. @Sethforprivacy has a good guide here to get spun up and mining quickly. It is much easier to get exposure to XMR via this mining method, than it is for BTC as the specialized hardware is much tougher to get a hold of. Though your mining capability will vary depending on your CPU. It will be slow to get some XMR but its possible to use this as a method if you don’t have many other options available. You should consider mining behind a VPN or Tor to preserve privacy.
Azteco Voucher
Use the locator listed here to find a vendor around the world that is selling Azteco vouchers. The KYC policy varies from store front to store front but most are non-existent as the kyc policy is up to the store front to enforce.
Bitcoin/Crypto ATMs
@Econoalchemist has a guide located here that we’ve referenced a few times, on how to purchase at an ATM. The video Econo includes is also helpful.
You’ll need a burner phone number, so there is another added cost along with the fee placed on top of your bitcoin. You can use this guide by @heady_wook to build a strong private phone workflow. This workflow is very similar to Azteco vouchers as you go to a store front and exchange cash for bitcoin. Different ATMs offer different crypto, so your mileage will vary on whats offered at each location. This is also true for the fee charged on-top of your purchase. Check out Coin ATM Radar to find ATMs near your location.
Micro-tasks/Marketplaces/Services
You can use any social media to search for potential offers. This can be done as discreetly as you’d like.
Services like
– Bitejo.com
– Microlancer.io
– Bitcoinp2pmarketplace
– AgoristMarket
– ShopAgorist
– https://sms4sats.com/
are some platforms that you can trade services or products for crypto. You can also find more services listed here or here.
Thanks to @anarkiocrypto as they’ve got some great resources on living directly only btc/xmr.
You can also refer to this post about other potential ways to acquire bitcoin via no-KYC methods written by @x21
Sovereign Stack 