Hi friends,

Find out Where to Buy Bitcoin Anywhere in the World

I am in Brazil, and I have several friends who have asked me how they can buy Bitcoin or other cryptos. Certain services like Abra make it possible, but are not easy to use. (Abra, for example, requires that you meet with a "teller," and if you are not in a large city, this will be impossible.)

Furthermore, some countries are cracking down on Bitcoin and altcoins. In February, the Venezuelan government revoked the bank account of Surbitcoin, the country’s largest bitcoin exchange, and the Chinese government issued a string of new policies to crack down on bitcoin exchanges in that country. (see http://www.newsbtc.com/2017/02/04/venezuela-police-arrest-4-miners-surbitcoin-sees-bank-account-revoked/ and https://www.ft.com/content/415bf86c-ef67-11e6-930f-061b01e23655)

Hawaii is the latest example. In September, the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions passed a regulation that forced Coinbase to maintain cash reserves equal to the digital currency funds held on behalf of customers. That’s like asking a brokerage firm to match its clients’ funds. (Right now, TD Ameritrade has some $1.7 billion in cash and short-term investments, while client assets are $774 billion. Can you imagine asking TD Ameritrade to put up another $772 billion to match its clients’ funds?) So in February Coinbase told its Hawaiian customers that they’d have 30 days to close their accounts and remove their funds.

(See http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-just-stopped-serving-bitcoin-hawaii/ and https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2754027-coinbase-accounts---hawaii)

Fortunately, Coinbase isn't the only place to buy and sell Bitcoin. One of the services Chinese and Venezuelan bitcoin owners turned to when their exchanges were closed is LocalBitcoins. Soon after China announced its new bitcoin exchange policies in February, trading volume on LocalBitcoins nearly quadrupled. And in Venezuela, it also exploded after the crackdown there (see chart below).

(https://steemitimages.com/DQmW5xjEph7B6MTNoDJ2pfAE9vZ43zPn34RT7EbS2vVdw4U/20170313-pbd-01.png)

(Source: Coin.Dance)

You can buy and trade Bitcoin in many different countries, and since we have people in our Steemit community from all over, I think it is a good idea to share some of these places. Let's start with LocalBitcoins.

1. LocalBitcoins

Nearly everywhere in the world, you can use LocalBitcoins. LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer exchange available in at least 248 countries and 14,398 cities. Here is an up-to-date list -- https://localbitcoins.com/statistics.

Here is the direct link for the LocalBitcoin exchange: https://localbitcoins.com/

2. Bitsquare

Similar to LocalBitcoins, Bitsquare is a decentralized bitcoin exchange. Bitsquare supports the following currencies: Australian dollar

Bahraini dinar

Brazilian real

British pound

Cambodian riel

Canadian dollar

Chinese yuan

Costa Rican colón

Euros

Israeli new shekel

Japanese yen

New Zealand dollar

Norwegian krone

Polish zloty

Swedish krona

Swiss franc

U.S. dollar

https://bitsquare.io/

Next I'll look at what countries are served by some of the services I have personally used, or have been recommended to me.

Bye for now!