The C2C Trading Game: My Personal Take on Peer-to-Peer Crypto Transactions

C2C means customer-to-customer trading. In plain English? It’s just people trading directly with each other, rather than with a platform. When I first got into this scene, I thought I’d be dealing with the exchange directly, but nope - I’m actually trading with other folks like me.

The process is pretty clever, though I’m not entirely convinced it’s foolproof. Here’s how it works in my experience:

1. When someone places an order, the seller’s assets get locked in platform escrow
2. I pay the seller directly through whatever payment method we agree on
3. I tell the platform “hey, I’ve paid this person”
4. Platform asks seller “did you get paid?”
5. Seller confirms, and finally I get my crypto

This system gives me some comfort because the platform controls the asset flow. The seller can’t run off with both my money and their crypto. Still, I’ve seen some sketchy behavior where sellers claim they never received payment when they absolutely did.

The trading experience itself is straightforward but not without risks. I’ve had to learn the hard way about security precautions:

Don’t trust anyone using different payment accounts than their verified ones. I almost got scammed once when someone tried using their “wife’s account” - yeah right!

When purchasing crypto, I’m always worried about my payment methods getting flagged. Alipay has definitely blocked some of my accounts before. The platforms claim to have sophisticated risk control, but I’m skeptical they catch everything.

I’ve found using WeChat for everyday life and Alipay for crypto purchases works best. If Alipay gets restricted, at least I can still function day-to-day.

What really pisses me off is how many scammers lurk in these trading communities. Add a trader on WeChat, and suddenly they’re promising to make you rich through some “special investment opportunity.” Please. The biggest platform is already making enough money off our trades - they don’t need more of your cash through side hustles.

The truth nobody wants to admit? The real enemy isn’t the platform or other traders - it’s our own impatience and greed. I’ve watched too many newcomers lose everything chasing quick profits instead of just buying and holding decent assets.