Millions of Bitcoins are changing ownership on an anonymous network

As governments around the world impose their paranoia against money laundering in bitcoin exchanges, alternatives are emerging for those who want to be truly decentralized.

2019 was to be the year of the DEX but in reality very few decentralized exchanges have gained ground on their centralized cousins.

Localbitcoins made it easier to buy and sell BTC for those living in repressive countries with capital controls, which are actually large areas of South America and Asia.

There are now decentralized exchanges that use anonymization networks like Tor to execute bitcoin nodes. According to Trustnodes, a little-known bitcoin exchange called Bisq is processing millions of BTC every week doing just that. The vision section of the portal states;

"It often seems that the dominance and vulnerability of centralized trade is the Achilles' heel in the current Bitcoin ecosystem."

Anonymous and suspicious movements

DEX uses a bitcoin node and desktop software instead of a centralized website to process up to $ 8 million per week in peer to peer bitcoin trading.

Due to the decentralized technicalities of running a node, it uses computer resources for synchronization and is not instantaneous like some of the slick interfaces on popular trading platforms.

The software creates a bitcoin address, which means that users must already have a BTC as a deposit which can be a barrier to entry.

The report adds that the system was designed to work autonomously with buyers and sellers by selecting their payment platforms for fiat transactions. The platform uses arbitrators and a DAO as a governance system for resolving disputes if a party abuses the trust granted for negotiation.

There is also a complex revenue generation system for trading expenses and developer support. Bisq is even beyond the reach of ICANN and ISP as it can be run from a home computer using a proxy.

The exchange has been active since 2016 but is starting to grow in popularity as LocalBitcoins has also succumbed to strict KYC regulations in some countries. Many countries are simply prohibited from using some of the major centralized exchanges because of their overzealous regulations.

Binance blocks Wasabi withdrawals

Binance was recently reported to have blocked Wasabi withdrawals to comply with local Singapore regulations. Wasabi is a privacy-focused bitcoin wallet that includes Tor and mixing features.

Binance users went to Twitter last week to express their anger at the exchange that was bowing to government requests for personal and financial information.

The world of cryptocurrencies needs more decentralized exchanges, but it is becoming a bigger battle with governments that clearly don't want people to move their money anonymously.

Will 2020 be the year of the DEX? Let us know in the comments below.