Localethereum: OTC trading platform is a guarantee of safety

Compared with traditional currencies, one of the main advantages of cryptocurrency is that it eliminates the risk of third parties and adopts a decentralized storage model for transactions. Without the authorization of the private key of the cryptocurrency owner, no one can revoke, transfer, destroy or access your cryptocurrency. This is the charm of blockchain technology.

This feature applies to all cryptocurrencies today, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it is only guaranteed if you hold your private keys securely. When you buy cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange or deposit cryptocurrencies into a centralized exchange, you do not hold the private keys to these cryptocurrencies. Such exchanges, like banks, hold your assets on your behalf. When you store your assets on a centralized exchange, you will not be able to enjoy the security features of cryptocurrencies. Instead, your deposits are at great risk of loss or theft due to the various combined risks associated with centralized exchanges:

1. Centralized exchanges are often the target of criminals.

Due to the irreversible nature of cryptocurrencies, centralized exchanges are often the target of theft crimes. To date, billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen from centralized exchanges.

2. The immature technology of centralized exchanges will lead to the erasure of virtual currencies.

Since there are still many untapped business opportunities in the cryptocurrency world, many entrepreneurs with no technical experience continue to pour in and try to apply new technologies to adjust exchanges. Previously, there have been many incidents in which start-up centralized exchanges lost funds due to simple mistakes.

3. User assets are often not protected.

In most countries and regions in the world, bank accounts are often guaranteed by the government, but this rule does not exist in the cryptocurrency world. In addition, insurance companies tend to avoid cryptocurrency-related businesses due to poor management and rampant theft.

At the beginning of the rise of cryptocurrency, centralized exchanges were the most important virtual currency trading platforms. Now, peer-to-peer trading platforms have emerged, and over-the-counter trading platforms can help virtual currency owners avoid the above risks. OTC trading platforms provide a place for buyers and sellers of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and ETH to publish information. The trading model is similar to the "Taobao" model, and buyers and sellers conduct one-to-one transactions based on the published information. After receiving the payment from the buyer, the seller will directly release Bitcoin and other digital currencies to the buyer user, or release the funds to the seller user after receiving Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Virtual currency is not stored on the platform, but is kept by the owner himself. Localethereum.com is such a platform. In the first week of trading, about $120,000 worth of ether was traded on the website. Now, only a few months after the trading function was opened, the daily trading volume is far more than that, and there have been no security incidents.

Localethereum exchange group: 783740442

Centralized exchange security incident calendar:

Mt. Gox account theft (2011)

Bitomat wallet accidental deletion incident (2011)

Bitcoin7 hack (2011)

Mt. Gox invalid address incident (2011)

Bitcoinica theft (2012)

BTC-e Reserve Funds Theft (2012)

BitFloor incident (2012)

Vircurex theft (2013)

Bitcash.cz theft (2013)

Mt. Gox collapse (2014)

Poloniex theft (2014)

MintPal theft and fraud incident (2014)

BTER Theft #1 (2014)

Bitfinex suspected of manipulating orders and market prices (2014)

796 hacking incident (2015)

Bitstamp hack (2015)

LocalBitcoins hack (2015)

BTER hacking incident #2 (2015)

KipCoin hack (2015)

Bitfinex Hack #1 (2015)

Cryptsy hack (2016)

Cointrader hack (2016)

Gatecoin hack (2016)

Bitfinex Hack #2 (2016)

QuadrigaCX Smart Contract Incident (2017)

Bithumb hack (2017)

BTC-e Crash (2017)

OKEx Incident (2017)