Bitejo is currently in beta testing. High value transactions are not advised.
Bitejo – The Free Bitcoin Marketplace
With Bitejo, members can use Bitcoin to freely trade with their friends, community and the world.
- Buy and sell products, find work and hire people, exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat – all in one place.
- Reviews and reputation help members to find the best listings.
- All without KYC – keeping financial participation accessible for everyone.
View the beginner's guide and watch the introductory video.
Platforms
Merkato Classifieds
With Merkato, members can buy and sell products online and locally. Merkato supports Bitcoin, Monero and cash payments and fixed or flexible pricing. Members can review completed trades, which builds their reputation.
Examples
- Adewale wants to sell his old laptop. He finds a buyer, they meet in the mall and the buyer pays him in cash.
- Charlie is a music artist and sells digital downloads of their albums in exchange for Bitcoin.
- Haruki is looking for an apartment where he can pay rent with Bitcoin. He makes a search listing and finds a Bitcoin-friendly landlord.
Tasko Jobs
With Tasko, members can post job listings to find workers, as well as create a freelancer profile to find work. Tasko supports local and remote jobs and fixed or flexible payments via Bitcoin, Monero or cash.
Examples
- Manuel is looking for someone to paint his house. He makes a local listing and finds someone to paint his house for cash.
- Noor is a software developer looking for work for Bitcoin. She makes a freelancer profile showcasing her skills. Now employers can hire her directly.
Valuto Exchanges
With Valuto, members can exchange Bitcoin, Monero and fiat, for example, via cash in person, bank transfer, Paypal or gift cards. Additionally members can offer invoice payment services to earn Bitcoin or Monero, while helping members who don’t have a bank account or Paypal.
Examples
- Ramesh wants to buy Bitcoin but there are no Bitcoin ATMs in his city yet. He makes a Buying Bitcoin listing and meets up with a trader to buy Bitcoin with cash.
- Adam needs to pay a bill but doesn’t have a bank account. He finds someone who wants to buy Bitcoin via bank transfer. Adam sends the Bitcoin and the trader pays Adam’s bill.
Monero Support
As well as Bitcoin and cash, members can pay with Monero. In addition to strong privacy, Monero offers low fees, a 2 minute blocktime, accessible CPU mining and easy-to-use wallets.
Coming Soon
Coming Soon Grupo Groups
With Grupo, members can meet fellow Bitcoin fans from their city, hobby or profession. Members can create a public or private group about anything, which includes a forum, chatroom and group listings.
Examples
- Wei wants to meet fellow Bitcoin fans in his city. He starts a local group, buys from local Bitcoin-friendly businesses, and visits local meetups.
- Martina is a writer and wants to meet other writers interested in Bitcoin. She joins a writing group, chats with fellow writers and finds copywriting work for Bitcoin.
Coming Soon Fido Escrows
In addition to reviews and reputation, Fido Escrows help members to trade safely.
Members can signup as a mediator and build their reputation through reviews.
2-3 multisig creates a safe streamlined process, in which mediators can’t directly access the funds. For successful trades, the traders can transfer the Bitcoin as normal, without involving the mediator. In the case of a dispute, the mediator talks with the traders and if necessary can refund the money.
Escrow is not implemented yet. Because of this, Bitejo cannot refund failed or disputed trades or give support regarding failed or disputed trades.
Coming Soon Bitcoin Ecosystem
Bitejo wants to build a diverse, accessible and practical cryptocurrency ecosystem, where everyone can participate. Bitejo views cryptocurrencies as an inclusive and fair alternative to banking and a global and digital counterpart to cash.
Bitejo aims to educate individuals, communities and small businesses about how easy it is to create a Bitcoin wallet and send and receive money. In addition, Bitejo aims to make local Bitcoin ↔ cash exchanges easier, for example through peer-to-peer exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs.
Bitejo plans to support other KYC-free crypto projects through fundraising, advertising and collaboration. Examples are Bitcoin ATMs, Bitcoin-friendly businesses and crypto platforms.
Coming Soon Federated Marketplaces
Currently, Bitejo is a centralized website. In the future, Bitejo will develop an open-source federated marketplace platform.
Sellers and communities will be able to host their own private or federated marketplaces. Members will be able to use one account and reputation across all federated marketplaces. Bitejo.com will remain supported as a federated marketplace.
The marketplace platform will be easy to install and configure and extensible via themes and plugins. For members, a regular web browser will be enough to view and trade on marketplaces. This should make the platform more resilient, customizable and allow users to host their own data.
Principles
Easy-to-use
Members don’t need to download anything, buy any hardware or configure any software. Bitejo works with a regular web browser on a computer or phone, also with slow internet connections and older devices.
Members don’t need any technical knowledge to use Bitejo. Bitejo is a regular website and all actions are designed to be easy-to-use.
Bitejo can be used worldwide. It supports all locations, supports many currencies and will be translated into more languages in the future.
Privacy-friendly
Privacy is important to Bitejo. Bitejo will never ask for KYC or other private information. Bitejo doesn’t use tracking, display ads or sell user data.
Members can create pseudonymous and throwaway accounts, hide their purchase history, Bitcoin address or reviews, and delete their accounts at any time. In addition, private messages are AES-256 encrypted.
For increased privacy, members can use a VPN or Tor and use external PGP for private messages.
Peer-to-peer
The internet has created a unique space where everyone can freely access information, learn new things, and meet and collaborate with people from around the world.
With accessible, fast and affordable global money transfers, Bitcoin makes worldwide free markets possible, where everyone can participate with self-determined prices, fair conditions and individualized products, all without third parties.
Bitejo provides a marketplace for online and local trading. Members can buy food from farmers, work remotely for Bitcoin, raise money for the local school, and buy Bitcoin from a neighbor. This supports community fair trade, builds independence from large corporations, and gives individuals and communities the power to trade without borders.
KYC-free
In 2008, Satoshi developed Bitcoin as a digital version of cash, without third parties, censorship or barriers. Bitcoin requires only a secure cryptographic key pair as authentication and proof that you own and can spend the money. No names, addresses or government-issued IDs are required to participate in the network.
After years of creative and practical use cases of cryptocurrencies, many platforms suddenly began in 2018 to introduce mandatory KYC. This means that people are now required to show a passport or driver’s license to access the platforms.
Not only is this risky for privacy and personal safety, it also excludes people who don’t have these documents. Millions of people worldwide can’t obtain government-issued ID, often due to circumstances that are not their fault, such as discrimination, statelessness, poverty or corruption. This form of discrimination unjustifiably restricts access to necessities such as employment, housing, education and healthcare. In addition, KYC already prevents access to traditional finances such as banking, credit cards, Western Union and Paypal, which excludes millions of people from financial participation, as the trend toward “cashless payments” increases.
Unfortunately, these platforms don’t offer any alternatives to government ID KYC, such as lower limits, SMS verification or uploading a photo. Additionally, there are currently no non-government IDs (e.g. from NGOs or Blockchain companies), which are accepted for KYC purposes.
Bitcoin must remain a payment method for everyone. Therefore, Bitejo will never require KYC and further aims to support other KYC-free platforms with fundraising and collaboration.
Free to use
The idea of Bitejo began in September 2018 after multiple Bitcoin freelance websites, online stores, exchanges and other platforms closed down or – counterproductive to Satoshi’s ideals – introduced mandatory KYC, making these platforms inaccessible.
Between 2019-2021, Bitejo was developed out-of-pocket in my free time as a full-stack developer. Bitejo was released May 1 2021 and an open source marketplace is planned for release in 2023.
There was no ICO, investors or sponsors. Bitejo has no ads, no fees and doesn’t sell data. Bitejo isn’t intended to become a for-profit corporation.
Instead, Bitejo just wants to create a space where people can freely trade using Bitcoin and promote inclusive and fair Bitcoin circular economies.