Balaji Srinivasan Proposes His ‘Bitcoin P2P Backup List’: Why Is This Important?

Srinivasan explains how services for peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) trading can help in opposing anti-crypto restrictions imposed by regulators globally. While he does not endorse the services from Foundation Devices’ list, he is sure crypto users should pay attention to them.

“P2P Bitcoin exchanges may be backup plan”: Balaji Srinivasan on new crypto restrictions

Srinivasan shared a list of services that allow trading Bitcoin (BTC) in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner without using a centralized service as counterparty. He opines that they will be useful when the “crypto rails” are blocked.

What happens if they block the crypto rails?
Then P2P Bitcoin exchanges may be a backup plan.

– https://t.co/gsgmZqvUir
– https://t.co/3gzVVJfuo3
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Caveats
1) Please note that this is just about… pic.twitter.com/VI9jyxmBVx

— Balaji (@balajis) April 1, 2023

Ex-Coinbase CTO stressed that his publication should not be treated as advertising the services. Instead, he just wanted to raise awareness about the concept of P2P trading for the largest cryptocurrency.

There are five services in the list initially created by Foundation Devices, a firm that creates solutions for Bitcoin (BTC) usage in various use cases. AgoraDesk, Hodl Hodl, RoboSats, Peach Bitcoin and Bisq made it to the list.

AgoraDesk is a U.S.-based service for peer-to-peer trading with Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) support. Hodl Hodl is a veteran service for Bitcoin (BTC) P2P trading and lending incorporated on Marshall Islands.

Peach Bitcoin is a KYC-free non-custodial wallet with P2P trading functions available. It has mobile applications for iOS-based and Android-based devices.

Facebook co-founder might be counterparty in Srinivasan-Medlock $1M per BTC bet

Bisq is another veteran Bitcoin (BTC) trading service: it is fully non-custodial and governed by a Bitcoin-based decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). RoboSats is the most privacy-focused exchange in the list; also, it natively supports payments through Bitcoin Lightning.

Srinivasan admitted that using peer-to-peer services comes with its limitations and still cannot replace what is offered by CEXes and fiat banks:

I also recognize that it’s hard to move anywhere near the volume you can move with fiat rails.  And ideally you just want states to side with Bitcoin, like El Salvador or Florida. Nevertheless, it’s good to have multiple backup plans

Besides sharing a list of reliable P2P Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges, Srinivasan provided an update on his bet with social-democratic Twitter speaker James Medlock. As covered by U.Today previously, ex-Coinbase CTO placed a $2 million USDC bet on Bitcoin (BTC) reaching $1 million by mid-June 2023.

On March 29, Srinivasan stated that his lawyers are working on legal details. As such, he is seeking an “eligible contract participant” with over $10 million in assets. He invited Dustin Moskovitz, billionaire tech entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook and founder of Asana, to be a counterparty in this unmatched bet.