OK, this is a story for y'alls.

I like trying out various innovative Bitcoin products, everything from hardware to exchanges and lending products (#860305, #855114).

Being tapped into the European banking system, I find it very convenient to use Peach Bitcoin from time to time. (If you're unaware of it, it's a Swiss version of Robosats #877796, a P2P non-KYC service, with less clunky interface and more reliance on fiat banking leg.)

I’ve used the service a dozen or so times in the past, never without a hassle.

The only complaint is that the liquidity is sometimes a little low, especially for amounts larger than 500k sats or so. It might take a few days to find a decent match—obvious growing pains that will improve if/when more people use these types of services.

Usually, the way these things work is a simple four-step process: match; exchange of banking details; money in account; bitcoin released.

Effortless. No fuss.

Yesterday I had the great misfortune to engage with someone with a combination of

So, first I get a message complaining that the funds aren’t in escrow; as far as I know, Peach doesn’t let us post sell offers until they’re funded (i.e., automatically escrowed). Gaslighting is fantastic.

Second, I’m told my fiat details are wrong. (They’re not; and my family member sent me the funds this morning, using the same payment mechanism and details.) After about an hour of back and forth, explaining how and where they're supposed to put in the details to send funds, I receive back a desperate message saying “pls, family member banking details?” I reluctantly agree.

At this point I’m getting Nigerian prince vibes. WTH have I gotten myself into? Did I just leak information to some scammer? (Can I just cancel the trade somehow??). I continue, hoping that this will work out in the end.

An hour or so later with no response, trading partner tells me they have hit a daily spending limit on their fiat account, and so they’ll only send me about 88% of the agreed-upon amount. Realizing that this is a nervous newbie of sorts, I try to be helpful and explain how to update those limits (it's a simple two-three click process, and this is a payment platform I've used many times.)

Nothing.

Half an hour later, I’m informed by my family member that they received 88% of the amount. I tell the Peach trading partner that no, this isn’t legit. Send the full amount, or don't trade. This isn't a partial payment plan going on. I won’t release the funds until you’ve paid up entirely (I lose my leverage and the whole purpose of escrow if I do.)

“What, no, I paid you, send funds no-no!” and a bunch of similar messages follows.

I lose my patience and think, Fuck it, it’s time to check how well Peach does mediation.

So I hit the button, which sends me an email; since I chose “not received payment,” it automatically asks me for documentation. OK. I screenshot the trading details, write down what happened, have my family member send me a screenshot of the received amount, and submit all of this to the Peach email.

Then, waiting. …followed by wailing in the Peach chat.

_”why have you requesting for dispute”

…it’s always the grammar that gives away scammers/asshats...

“I sent [0.88X] and I want to send the remaining."

So, send it I say.

“Yes, tomorrow. Please cancel the Dispute.”

At some point this morning, after they had paid the final bit in the middle of the night (waking up my family member), messaged me five-six times and had the dispute resolved in their favor—thus released the escrowed bitcoin—they started babbling about someone asking her to “go to blockchain recovery."

“I went to my wallet… I did’n’t see the coin on my wallet.”

...told you about the grammar!

“Seller, you have caused why my wallet was compromised and the coin has been stolen.”

I scroll the chat and repeatedly the Peach staff member, with way too much patience, explained what was up and that you should never give out seed phrases to strangers and that Peach won't ask for them.

I honestly don't care what comes of this. The dispute resolved against me, which I suppose was the technically easiest way to release the escrowed funds—I did receive the full amount in the end, after a lot of drama.

From the name that popped up when the trading partner sent the funds, I can venture a guess that it's a nervous, technophobic lady rather than a Nigerian Prince scammer... But what if it's much worse than that? It's not that common for old Swedish ladies to buy BTC non-KYC, so maybe some real scammer/thief stole this lady's phone and tried to get away with bitcoin rather than fiat banking loot that leaves a trail (and often have transactions rolled back anyway). That would suck.

Services like these (or the bitcoin-backed lending I covered in the Firefish post #860305), would never function/be profitable if a large enough proportion of interactions required policing or mediation. They, fundamentally, rely on trading partners behaving well. Behaving well means getting punished, too, when you misbehave.

Afterwards I thought, wow, what if I caused lasting damage to this person’s impression of Peach and/or bitcoin because of this? Maybe I was sort of complicit in a crime here? Maybe I was too annoyed for the wrong reasons?

The grammar and the urgency for sure.

If, in the beginning, she had just calmly and openly said she's new to all of this; and then instead of fussing with limits or involving my family member, just said she would pay me in the morning, I would probably have used the Peach option to extend payment time and never thought twice about it.

I guess we'll see if I get a nice, polite phone call from the police in the next few days. Who knows.