LocalMonero / AgoraDesk will be winding down its operations

LocalMonero / AgoraDesk will be winding down its operations​

announcement (archive)

Hey everyone,

After almost 7 years of operation, due to a combination of internal and external factors, we have made the difficult decision to close our platform.

We're extremely thankful for the love and support we've received over the years. We couldn't have done it without you. We love you all ♥

LocalMonero has been around for most of Monero's life. Fortunately, the Monero ecosystem has matured a lot over these years, and with the imminent launch of Haveno and other DEXs like Serai, atomic swaps, the coming addition of FCMP (full blockchain anonymity set replacing rings of 16) as well as the continuing and rapidly accelerating development of the Monero protocol, we're confident that Monero's future is bright, with or without our platform.

The winding-down process begins today, and finishes 6 months from now. Our support staff will be available for help throughout this period.

1. Effective immediately, all new signups and ad postings are disabled;
2. One week from now, on May 14th, 2024, new trades will be disabled as well;
3. 6 months from now, on November 7th, 2024, the website will be taken down. Please reclaim any funds from your arbitration bond wallet prior to that date, otherwise the funds may be considered abandoned/forfeited.

Can I still register / post an ad?​

No, registrations and ad postings are disabled, effective immediately.

Can I still trade if I have an account?​

You will be able to trade until May 14th, after which new trades will be disabled.

How long do I have to access my account and recover any funds?​

Until November 7th, 2024. After that, the funds may be considered abandoned/forfeited.

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With this shutdown, it appears there are no exchanges left that allow fiat purchases of Monero without KYC. It was the last one on GetMonero's list of exchanges.

 

[Queen Aleena]

Crypto continues its slow march toward becoming nothing it was actually envisioned as. This is probably because of what happened with Samourai and Biden being a Democrat.

 

[Edict of Expulsion]

Wow. A site I actually used a lot, for a while.

There are supposedly all kinds of decentralized exchanges, with which I have no experience.

But if you can get BTC for fiat, or any cryptocurrency really, then convert to Monero, you should be fine.

Craigslist or whatever, plus probably some copycats of local Monero will be around for peer to peer.

 

[figure it out persons]

Damn this a major L for my onion bros, I'm sure a copycat will pop up but who knows how long that will take.

 

[Baguette Child]

Bummer. Monero was the only crypto I really had any interest in but without a KYC-free option it's dead in the water as far as true privacy is concerned. Not unexpected though, there was no way they were going to let it get away with it forever.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Bummer. Monero was the only crypto I really had any interest in but without a KYC-free option it's dead in the water as far as true privacy is concerned. Not unexpected though, there was no way they were going to let it get away with it forever.

You can still buy Bitcoin on KYC-free P2P exchanges, then swap Bitcoin for Monero. So it's still possible, but there's extra steps, amount limits, and liquidity constraints.

You could also buy Bitcoin on KYC-compliant exchanges, swap for Monero, then send Monero to another wallet you own and lose the track there. You're still on the record buying crypto, but you have plausible deniability where it went. Just keep in mind that if the government is mad enough at you, they'll assume you still have it, or you spent it on whatever boogeyman they're chasing. You'll need a lawyer to argue your way out of it, he'll have grounds to make a proper case, but you're risking a tech-illiterate judge and jury understanding the situation.

 

[Edict of Expulsion]

You'll need a lawyer to argue your way out of it, he'll have grounds to make a proper case, but you're risking a tech-illiterate judge and jury understanding the situation.

Never been in that situation and I hope I never am but I wonder if you could go the "retard defense" of going full-normie and the judge would like you more for also being tech-illiterate. You would need a setup with enough plausible-deniability. The line of "I have no idea what any of that is, my computer must have been hacked."
And have a hidden partition with real stuff and data storage hidden in the house or online, and the main computer is some unpatched windows 7. Plus some passwordless WiFi.

 

[º¿º™]

Wow. A site I actually used a lot, for a while.

There are supposedly all kinds of decentralized exchanges, with which I have no experience.

But if you can get BTC for fiat, or any cryptocurrency really, then convert to Monero, you should be fine.

Craigslist or whatever, plus probably some copycats of local Monero will be around for peer to peer.

Including the new uncoming decentralized DEX's coming up, other current services like Changelly work for converting without kyc.

 

[SFINAE]

Well, shit. At least I have some buffer money for the services I pay for. I'll hunt down my Monero guy before Tuesday to stock up on some more, then figure out swapping I guess.