Don't Buy Bitcoin With Cash App - Try This Instead

3 Reasons not to use cash app for buying or holding bitcoin.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. This is just an experiment for entertainment purposes only.

[whale_talk]

Ive been with you since 2016 brother, thank you. dont let them stop you.

[leviwensel]

Cash app has always had a shady Disposition

[cutthroatmob]

I'm going on 2 years with the verification process how could I finally get strike

[davecorley]

KYC: “Know your customer”: If you’re a U.S. citizen, the federal government requires that strike (or any other app in which you can purchase or sell bitcoin or other currencies) gather specific identification data: government ID# (driver’s license/state or passport ID, full name, birth date).

So, it’s not companies like Strike that require your ID. It’s the US government.
Why would the US government be interested that you are registered with Strike or CashApp, or Wells Fargo Bank? Because the federal government is interested in tracking illegal and legal monetary transactions such as terrorist transactions and criminal money laundering. This is a polite way of saying that the government has a means of warrantless search and seizure of your property. Further, it’s the government that stores this data in an enormous database managed by an entity called FinCen. You should be concerned. US government databases are almost a daily occurrence.

Strike charges no fees for purchasing or selling bitcoin for US Dollars? Not really. But they get compensated for the exchange transaction by using a “spread”.

What is a spread? If you buy 1 bitcoin and the market price is $26, 000.00, Strike will sell you that one bitcoin for $26, 200. The math is complicated, but your basically paying Strike a transaction fee that is $200 / $26, 000 = about 0.7 percent of the purchase price.

It’s better to think of these buy/sell fees as a percentage rather than a dollar amount.

CashApp would sell you that one bitcoin for $26, 000 at zero spread. But the purchase fee works out to about 2 percent. To purchase $1 of Bitcoin the purchase fee is about 3 percent.

So the overall percentage to purchase bitcoin from these two apps is about:

CashApp: Total 2-3% of purchase price.
Swan: charges a purchase fee and a spread. Total is about 1.5% of purchase price
Strike: 0.7-1%

Regarding “security”, when you purchase bitcoin from either of these apps, the resulting bitcoin’s private keys are put in a custodial account. So, you don’t possess the keys! The custodian possesses your private keys. So, it is literally NOT your Bitcoin.

If you have bitcoin in a custodial account managed through these or other apps, transfer that bitcoin to your own wallet ASAP. Your trust in the executives at these companies is misplaced. Cory Klippsten, the CEO at Swan and Jack Mahlers, CEO of Strike and CashApp is owned by Square whose CEO is Jack Dorsey. These are pretty reputable people. But “pretty” is not 100%. When it’s transferred to your wallet the actual transfer is to an address to which YOU can unlock with the private keys. Only you can transfer (send) bitcoin from your wallet because the private keys that can “unlock” that address are “stored” in your wallet.

That “self-custody” wallet is the Bank of You. In financial terms private keys in your wallet represent a “bearer asset”. It’s the same as if you physically possessed physical gold.

If you lose the keys, you can “recover” your wallet with a twelve or twenty-four word “recovery phrase”. But if you lose that recovery phrase, you lose the ability to recover that wallet.

The recovery phrase is created when you create the wallet. You should inscribe the recovery phrase onto “media” that will last through the years and not be compromised by water or fire or theft. Personally, I inscribe my recovery phrase on a stainless steel metal plate. I store this plate in a place where only the executor of my will can access and only gain legal access after my death.

I also store the bulk of my bitcoin (anything more than about $100 worth), in “cold storage” devices.I’ve spent a lot of time researching cold storage devices. I favor Blockstream “Jade” product. It’s about the size of a small pinky finger. I believe it’s the most anti-fragile of all the cold storage devices on the market. That means it’s more likely to survive zombie apocalypses, government takeovers, criminal confiscation and other bad events.

Don’t trust, verify.
Not your key, not your coin.

[leesantana]

I've been waiting like almost 2 3 weeks for verification on strike

[threedog]

Still mining. But best to keep your crupto on a hardware wallet but 6600s are the lowest power GPUs and meow coin is calling me to Mine it right meow.

[threedog]

Wow no fees to buy or transfer that's good did you have to give them ID to buy tho inwanted to buy but I don't like to give my ID card cos am an scared someone use my ID and do a crime but am innocent