So I can buy "Bitcoin" on venmo, but I can't actually transfer it away from venmo? Are they fucking scammers and this isn't Bitcoin or am I just a dumbass and doing something wrong?
Discussion
If you can't custody it yourself, it's not Bitcoin and not your Bitcoin.
I'm painfully aware of ownership and how much I hate the institutions that fraudulently (but somehow legally) take people's money, and tell them it's still theirs when it's not.
I'm more wondering if I'm just doing something wrong and am mistaken, or if I truly cannot send my sats to my cold storage.
I don't know enough about Venmo.
But at this point, you cannot recover them. They are essentially held hostage.
Yeah, that's what I think they've done. Looks like I may have to play the dirty Fiat game with them all the way to the bank (literally) and buy Bitcoin from there. Sad sad.
I'm laying down with my little one for nap time currently. I'm going to try one last ditch effort and scan a QR to send instead of copy/paste an address and see if that does anything for me. Maybe a desperate attempt and contact customer support before I convert back and send to my bank. It's pretty pathetic the way these companies put so much more effort into extorting their customers instead of just providing quality service and EARNING the money that they're instead stealing.
The best way to buy sats is KYC free. Try nostr:npub1p2psats79rypr8lpnl9t5qdekfp700x660qsgw284xvq4s09lqrqqk3m82
I dca monthly and plan to try to robosats for that this month.
This Fiat is rent that I usually turn around and put back into the property. I just had a little extra and figured I'd like to see how buying Bitcoin directly through them is. I guess I didn't like it at all 😅
Trial and error. Mistakes. We learn lessons along the way. I've made costly lessons for myself. I don't feel like paying for it again tho!
Bitcoin ethos has helped greatly.
Don't trust. Verify.
Scanning a QR rather than a copy/pasta of the address seems like it may work. Jumping through their kyc hoops currently. I think waiting on verification before allowing my send. But it at least looks promising.
PayPal did the same thing although I think they eventually enabled withdrawals. I haven't looked.
Back when CashApp was new I decided to give that a try. Bought a little Bitcoin and withdrew it. The next day they suspended my account for 'suspicious transaction activity'. Bitches.
Now days I actually buy on overpriced on ramps like Moonpay for the simple reason that they send the sats directly to my wallet.
I receive regular payments through venmo (even though the payee buys and sells Bitcoin, I'm not sure why he won't just pay me in Bitcoin...) and thought I'd try the route of convenience and exchange right there and send to myself. However, unless I'm doing something wrong, it looks as though they don't give me the ability to send outside of their own app.
Yeah it's an 'investment' and you have no way of knowing if they're even holding the Bitcoin they claim to be holding for you. So it might just be paper Bitcoin.
I had the same experience with PayPal. I bought some, realized I couldn't withdraw it, and sold it.
I think they enabled withdrawals like a year or two ago though.
Venmo will probably do the same.
As far as I'm concerned, if I can't send my own Bitcoin to myself, it doesn't exist and whatever it is, it sure the hell isn't Bitcoin.
iirc PayPal is Venmo's parent or sister corp. So if that's how PayPal operates, I'm sure that's exactly how Venmo operates, too.
Yeah as I understand it venmo is just a service wrapper for PayPal. PayPal provides the financial plumbing for venmo.