Bitcoins have been around for over a decade now, and for many investors is an alternative to invest in stocks like Apple or Skyworks stock. It is surprising that many people are still unaware about the methods that can be used to purchase bitcoins.. One would think that with all the hype around bitcoins that was generated in 2017, Bitcoins would have crossed the mass awareness stage but it seems that there is room for more awareness among the masses.
Bitcoins are a digital currency and therefore in order to purchase bitcoins one needs to fulfill certain pre requisites. The pre requisites to buying bitcoins include having a bitcoin wallet and access to funds through a credit card or PayPal account. Needless to say that without a bitcoin wallet you cannot really buy bitcoins or any crypto currency for that matter and access to funds through a bank or PayPal account is required to purchase bitcoins. Once these two pre requisites are met, then you can proceed to the actual process of buying bitcoins.
It has to be remembered that buying bitcoins through bank or PayPal will reduce the privacy of bitcoin users, for most people this should not be a problem, as government regulations are only there to make sure that bitcoins are not used for any illegal or illicit activity.
You will need to take the following steps to buy bitcoins through PayPal
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Set Up Your PayPal Account For Use
The first step will be to make your PayPal account. This should be preferably done sometime before you actually want to buy the bitcoins because the registration and authentication process may take a few days.
Making an account on PayPal is easy but the authentication may take a couple of days. You will be required to submit your personal details such as name, identification and bank details in order to connect your bank with your PayPal account.
It must be noted that PayPal doesn’t operate in every country in the world. You must check before planning to buy through PayPal. You can make an account if you are in country that does not work with PayPal, but you will not be able to connect your bank account.
Once you have made your account, you are now ready to go to step two and that involved choosing between a bitcoin exchange or a Peer to peer platform.
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Find A Trusted Exchange To Buy Bitcoin With PayPal
A bitcoin exchange is a place here you can exchange your bitcoins for local currency and vice versa. These exchanges are regulated and therefore like PayPal you will not be able to have total privacy. Your data will be shared with your government and therefore the government will know that you have bitcoins and can track you.
Having said that, most people do not consider this as a necessarily bad thing because bitcoin exchanges are safe and convenient when it comes to transactions. There are however very few exchanges that actually use PayPal as a payment method. This is because of the charge back issue. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible and therefore if buyers come up with any issue then PayPal and the sellers get into a tricky zone. In the early days some frauds were reported by PayPal involving both the sellers and the buyers and this is why bitcoin exchanges are reluctant when it comes to using PayPal as a method of payment.
Nevertheless, lately a few exchanges have stepped up to bring PayPal back as payments platform. Coinbase is the most well known bitcoin exchange but it offers only limited usage of PayPal. It allows users to receive payments through PayPal when they sell bitcoins but it doesn`t allow PayPal as a payment option for purchasing bitcoins.
eToro is one major exchange that allows users to sell and purchase using bitcoins. You will simply need to make an account on eToro. Since eToro is a regulated exchange your data will be shared with the relevant authorities and for this you will be required to submit personal identification details at the time of making your account. Once you submit your details, the details will be verified and once your account is verified you will be allowed to sell and purchase bitcoins.
After this you will simply need to connect your PayPal account to eToro as a payment option and once you have connected your account, you will be able to buy and sell bitcoins through your PayPal account.
After this you will simply need to go to the buy and sell page and buy your desired amount of bitcoins.
These are the most simple methods for buying bitcoin using PayPal, however, you can read more about eToro, Coinbase, Wirex, LocalBitcoins and other popular methods here: https://www.smartbitcoininvestments.com/buy-bitcoin-with-paypal/
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Locate The Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces.
If you are concerned about privacy issues then you can perhaps look for peer to peer platforms to purchase bitcoins through PayPal as a payment option. It won`t be easy because the same chargeback issue applies to peer to peer platforms but Local bitcoins is one such platform that allows users to purchase bitcoins through PayPal.
If you aren`t aware, a peer to peer platform is a platform where buyers and sellers can come together to transact, it is like a market place that allows buyers to find sellers and vice versa, so the here is going to be that you must fin d a seller who is willing to take payment through PayPal. If you can do that, then the process will be really simple.
You will need to choose the amount that you need to buy and then carry out the transaction and within moments the bitcoins will be transferred to your bitcoin wallet.
Which ever method you use to purchase bitcoins through PayPal, make sure to carry out your own due diligence at first and try to go for trusted options. The risk is higher with P2P platforms as they aren`t regulated and unlike bitcoin exchanges you will be dealing with individual sellers. Therefore it is always better to carry out proper due diligence before committing to a method for buying bitcoins.
