Bitzlato Platform Offers Zero Escrow Fees to African P2P Traders

UPDATE: Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato, a Cryptocurrency Exchange, Charged with Unlicensed Money Transmitting. It is alleged that Bitzlato Ltd. Processed More than $700 Million Dollars’ Worth of Illicit Funds, Including Millions in Ransomware Proceeds. Find out more details here.

THE REVIEW BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BEFORE THE DEVELOPMENTS NOTED ABOVE.

Since bitcoin became a tradable crypto asset, many people have been able to buy and sell it for profit. The opportunity to earn money from the bitcoin exchange rate is still attractive today, thanks to the inherent volatility of the cryptocurrency.

There are quite a lot of ways to buy bitcoins now including via peer-to-peer exchange platforms such as Bitzlato which started its work in 2016 when a crypto-exchange called Changebot.info was launched in Telegram. It was the first service of this kind in Telegram, which users immediately embraced since it made it possible to exchange cryptocurrency in a few minutes. In 2021, Bitzlato expanded its offering to include a P2P exchange, P2P loan system, and secure wallet services.

Today, Bitzlato provides several products and has over 2.5 million users. The monthly turnover of the system exceeds 200 BTC and the daily turnover of the platform is around $7.5 million with over 9000 transactions per day, according to the company.

Peer-to-peer transactions on the Bitzlato platform mean that the exchange occurs between two individuals registered on the platform. Users can buy, you can sell, or you can do both. The platform acts only to facilitate smooth transactions between buyers and sellers in a similar way to how platforms that deal with fiat only p2p trading transactions such as Gumtree, OLX, or eBay work.

Advantages of P2P exchange platforms

The advantage of the peer-to-peer approach is that there is no need to pay intermediaries, which allows you to form attractive rates for buying and selling bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The buyer does not pay commissions to the exchanger for deposits, exchanges, and withdrawals. The buyer sends money directly to the seller’s account and receives cryptocurrency to their wallet.
On Bitzlato, the buyer pays for crypto in the most convenient way. Sellers of the P2P exchange accept e-money, gift cards, and bank card transfers.
The exchange protects users. It blocks the seller’s deposit for the duration of the exchange. If there is a dispute between the parties, they will be judged by the support service, which will check the transaction and send the coins to the party that has honestly fulfilled all the conditions. If the seller does not complete the transaction, arbitration helps the buyer get the cryptocurrency.
The Bitzlato exchanger shows the sellers rating: after the exchange, buyers rate the sellers. The exchanger indicates the number and volume of transactions, losses in disputes, and trust rating in the information about the seller.
Using filters, people find each other and conduct deals if the conditions suit both parties. The process is straightforward: at the beginning of the transaction, the seller freezes the coins on the account, after which he waits for funds to arrive. As soon as the seller confirms receiving the funds, the coins are sent to the buyer’s account.
The advantage of the P2P exchange is its decentralization; that is, the service does not have any central authority that can be hit to stop its activity. If a regular exchanger comes under attack, all operations are frozen. On P2P, thousands of users exchange with each other — there are thousands of accounts in various payment systems, each of which cannot be traced for blocking.
The advantage is also the independence of P2P sites from state power. Many governments require exchanges to collect user data and hand it over to the authorities. In the P2P exchange case, no one collects explicitly such data, which leads to better anonymity.
Another advantage is the speed and security of transactions.

Some cool features offered by Bitzlato

No strict KYC policy. You do not need to pass verification on the platform to participate in cryptocurrency trading.
Currently Bitzlato does not charge escrow fee for trades that are executed in local African currencies like NGN, ZAR, KES and other african currencies. 0% — if you respond to another user’s offer, 0% — if somebody responds to your offer.
There are six types of cryptocurrencies available for P2P trading: BTC, ETH, USDT, LTC, DASH, DOGE.
The service regularly gives out vouchers for a free withdrawal. When you use a voucher to withdraw bitcoin or other cryptos, the service pays a network commission for you.

Bitzlato supports a large number of payment options. The system supports banking systems of 69 countries, electronic money and alternative payment methods.
Offer good security. BTC is not debited from the wallet until the transaction is successfully completed.
The ability to choose a convenient way to exchange bitcoins. You can make it via Web platform or Telegram chatbot.
For traders, Bitzlato also has an exchange for trading cryptocurrencies in real-time.

In general, the service will be useful for those who want to make a one-time exchange and those who need a reliable platform for regular exchange transactions with bitcoins.

How the Bitzlato P2P exchange works

The buyer transfers money to the seller’s account, and the seller sends the cryptocurrency via an exchange. The only intermediary for P2P exchange is a program that transfers cryptocurrency from the seller’s escrow to the buyer’s wallet.

The exchange operates as follows:

The seller creates an ad. It specifies the cryptocurrency to sell, exchange rate, and payment method.
The buyer responds to the advertisement, the seller confirms the transaction.
The exchange escrows the seller’s cryptocurrency deposit.
The buyer sends money to the seller.
The seller confirms the payment is received.
The exchanger sends cryptocurrency from the seller’s deposit to the buyer’s wallet.
Both sides give each other a rating and a small review (optional).

How to buy or sale crypto in the web version of the Bitzlato P2P exchange

First of all, go to the bitzlato.com website and click the “Go to web version” button. At the top right, you’ll see the “Log in” button. Click on it, go to the authorization window, and select “Register”. Enter your username, email address, password, and click “Continue.”

Now you need to confirm your email address. To do this, click the link in the email that Bitzlato sent to your email address. Once you click on the link, you will be redirected to the Bitzlato license agreement page. Read and accept the terms of the Agreement to continue working with the platform.

Now, once you have registered in the Bitzlato system, let’s take a quick look at your personal account’s main functions:

In the “Wallet” section, you can check your balances in various cryptocurrencies and their approximate equivalent in Rand or Naira.
In your account, you can see all the main settings and indicators: rating, reviews, security settings, and others.
Pay attention to the “Referral program” tab. If you like trading on Bitzlato, you can invite new users to join us and earn a referral commission. You can find the referral link and terms of participation in the program in the relevant tab.
In the “Telegram” section, you will find all links to the exchange bots’ official accounts. You need to know that all Bitzlato accounts can be combined into one!
The “Reports” section allows you to download several types of financial reports, where you can view all your operations on the Bitzlato platform.

Now, go to the web version of the exchanger. In its interface, you see the message board.

It displays:

Users offering cryptocurrency.
Transaction payment method.
The price at which the trader sells cryptocurrency.
Limits — the price range in which the trader is ready to make a deal.

To the left of the message board is an ad filter.

In it you choose:

Will you buy or sell cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency you want to buy or sell.
The fiat currency that you wish to receive for your crypto, or for which you wish to purchase it with.
In the “Payment method,” choose a payment system that is the most convenient for you.
You can click on the slider “Active users only.” These are users who are now online and can make a deal soon.
If the “Only Verified Users” slider is enabled, only the user who has already passed the verification process will be offered to you — for obvious reasons, transacting with them is much safer.

So, to start the transaction process, click the “Buy” or “Sell” button, depending on what you want. We will consider the transaction by the example of buying bitcoin through Chipper Cash.

After selecting the parameters you need, a deal window opens. In it, enter the amount in the fiat currency that you wish to buy bitcoins with — it will be automatically converted into the number of coins that you will receive.

In the “Transaction information,” you can see the key indicators, the same as on the message board, and the seller’s rating. In the column “Terms of trade,” the user enters the requirements they need. Here you can leave a comment for the buyer. After studying all the information, click “Start a deal.”

When the user confirms the transaction, the “Details” window will open. What remains is to click the “I paid” button and wait for the user to confirm receipt of funds and send the coins.

This was the process of buying a cryptocurrency, now let’s look at how to sell it.

Here we select the appropriate terms on the message board and click “Sell”. Next, enter the desired amount that you would like to get from the sale of cryptocurrency, or the number of coins that you want to sell.

In contrast to the purchase transaction, you need to add details for which you will receive payment for coins. Click “Start transaction,” wait for its confirmation, and then wait until the buyer sends the funds to the account that you specified in the details.

After receiving money, click the “Send coins” button. Then confirm their arrival and rate the user. User rating is critical, so please don’t ignore this.

How to buy/sell crypto in Bitzlato Telegram bots

Buying and selling cryptocurrency in our telegram bot differs from the process in the web version of the exchanger. Let’s see how to buy or sell cryptocurrency through Bitzlato bots. For example they have @BTC_CHANGE_BOT which is their Bitcoin exchange bot. They also have @ETH_CHANGE_BOT, @TETHER_CHANGE_BOT, @LTC_CHANGE_BOT, @DOGE_CHANGE_BOT, @DASH_CHANGE_BOT, @BCC_CHANGE_BOT, and even @BZ_CHANGE_BOT which is their universal multibot for trading all available digital assets.

Go directly to the Telegram bot that you need: in BTC Banker, you can exchange bitcoins; in Ethereum Banker, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are available.

We will consider the purchase and sale of Bitcoin using the Chipper Cash service.

Go to the BTC Banker bot and click on the menu “Exchange BTC/NGN”. In the message received, select “Buy.” Now the bot sends you a list to choose the payment method. We select “Electronic payments” then “Chipper cash”.

After that, the bot offers you to select several options:

The first one is the user you want to deal with.
The second is the price range in which the user is ready to make a transaction.

Use the buttons at the bottom to go to the next page and continue selecting the user you want to transact with.

After selecting a user, click on his/her nickname, and the bot will send all the essential information about this person: the verification status, rating, reviews, and so on. In terms of trade, users prescribe mandatory conditions that need to be satisfied in order to exchange with them.

Please continue by clicking “Start transaction”. After that, the bot will ask you to enter the amount corresponding to the user’s price range. Enter the amount in Rand or Naira that you want to buy with. If you’re going to specify the required amount in cryptocurrency, then enter BTC after the digits.

After that, the bot will offer to confirm or cancel the transaction. After you confirm it, you need to wait for the other party to confirm it as well.

After the confirmation, the bot sends you the transaction details. Now we pay for the transaction by transferring funds to the seller. After this, click “I paid” in the bot. Your partner checks the receipt of funds and releases the coins. The crypto is transferred to your wallet. The waiting time for confirmation and receipt of coins usually takes no more than one minute. When you get funds, check your wallet balance by clicking on the “Wallet” menu.

Now let’s look at the sale process. Here we’ll use the same payment method — Chipper Cash, and the crypto asset for sale will be bitcoins.

For example, click the “Exchange BTC/ZAR” button, then select “Sell”.

We use the same Bank transfer and choose “Chipper Cash”. Now we are looking for someone who’ll be suitable for us to transact with. As in the case of a purchase, you can view user information, trading conditions, and, once you choose relevant ones, proceed by clicking the “Start a transaction” button.

Now the bot offers you to write down the amount of money you want to sell bitcoin for. In the next message, the bot asks you to send the transfer details. Write down your details for the selected payment method — in our case, it is the Chipper Cash account number. Now you need to confirm the transaction and wait for the funds to be transferred to you.

After the funds are credited to your account, you can send the coins by clicking “Release coins to the buyer” and confirming your decision in response to the bot’s question.

The last action is giving a rating. It’s quite crucial for all users of the platform for building trust and reputation on the Bitzlato platform. Users are encouraged to do their own research and due diligence and exercise caution when trading cryptocurrencies.