This is a simple step-by-step guide explaining how to use the Mycelium software wallet to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) privately through peer-to-peer exchange. Peer-to-Peer exchange, or P2P in short, means you directly meet your exchange partner in person without the services of a broker or intermediary.
The Mycelium mobile app is available for free for iOS and Android.
How does it work?
The Mycelium app provides marketplace functionality enabling buyers and sellers of bitcoin to advertise the prices (usually denominated in USD) they are willing to buy and sell bitcoin for. Advertising buying and selling prices can be compared to placing limit orders on a traditional exchange or brokerage firm. Advertising, buying and selling using the Mycelium app’s marketplace can be done in full anonymity without the need for registration, simply by specifying a Trader name or Nickname of your choice. This is in stark contrast to buying/selling bitcoin on an online exchange, which requires registration and a compulsory KYC verification.
Buyers and sellers go to the Mycelium marketplace to check if there are any suitable sell/buy offers originating within reasonable proximity of the offer maker’s and the offer taker’s location. If you are an offer maker and an offer taker initiates a trade with you, an automatic email notification is being sent to you. Both, offer maker and offer taker accept the trade and agree on a location to meet to perform the exchange between fiat currency and bitcoin.
I should mention that online exchanges have an advantage over peer-to-peer exchange when it comes to liquidity. Currently, online exchanges have much higher liquidity than peer-to-peer networks such as the Mycelium marketplace. This means that it may take you a longer or a long time to find an interested buyer or seller.
Step-by-step instructions
The following step-by-step instructions don’t explain how to install, configure and fund your Mycelium wallet. There are other articles focusing on that. Here, I only explain the steps required to perform a peer-to-peer exchange using the Mycelium marketplace.
- Open the Mycelium software wallet. On your smart device and under the “ACCOUNTS”-Tab, select an account. In many cases, this will be an HD-Account but it could also be a Single Address Account (SA-Account) you added manually.
- Go to the “BALANCE”-Tab and select button “BUY/SELL BITCOIN”:
- On the next screen, select “Mycelium Marketplace”.
- Make a buy or sell offer in the Mycelium marketplace “MY ADS”-tab.
- Go to the “BUY BITCOIN” or “SELL BITCOIN” tab to verify your Ad is active. These are the tabs potential buyers and sellers will go to in order to check for buy and sell offers.
- Now it’s time to wait for an offer taker to accept your offer. Once an offer taker accepts your offer, you will receive an email notification.
- Go back to the Mycelium marketplace. Use the messaging function to set up a meeting venue, date and time with the offer taker.
- After you have settled meeting venue and schedule, go back to the Mycelium marketplace and accept the trade on your side.
- Meet with the offer taker in person, for example, at a coffee shop, to exchange fiat currency for bitcoin. At the meeting, both, buyer and seller require the Mycelium software wallet to perform the exchange. In addition, the buyer needs to bring the amount of cash in the currency agreed upon.
Stay safe, stay private!
The BKK Sledgehammer Messiah
