For a while now I have been employing extensive frugal methods of avoiding the exorbitant fees that are involved when withdrawing SBD to Bitcoin. It has been working for me but it was very involving and had a bit of risk attached to it.

Recently, a fellow Kenyan Steemian @stbrians recommended that we take a look at localethereum.com. You can view his post here: An Easier Way To Cashout Money From Steemit In My Country

This is a comprehensive review of my experience using the service and what you should look out for to avoid getting into the pitfalls of being a first time user.

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Table Of Contents

• What is LocalEthereum.com
  1: Create an Account on LocalEthereum.com
  2: Deposit Ether into your account.
• How to use Blocktrades.
  3: Finding a buyer for your Ether.
  4: Opening the Trade with your trader of choice.
• First Pitfall: Factor in the fees!
• Second Pitfall: Do not fund Escrow before agreeing to proceed with the transaction with the trader.
  5: Releasing the funds from Escrow.
• Conclusion

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What is LocalEthereum.com?

LocalEthereum.com is not related to localbitcoins. It is a private peer-to-peer marketplace which allows you to trade Ether for local currencies via escrow smart contracts. Trades can be made via different methods such as online bank transfers and face-to-face cash trades amongst other payment methods including Mobile Payment Service, Mpesa, for Kenyans.

LocalEthereum charges a 0.25% fee for the maker (the person who placed the offer listing) and 0.75% for the taker (the person responding to the offer).

How do you go about converting your SBD or STEEM to Fiat?

I am using the Mpesa payment service as an example but everything I demonstrate here can be juxtaposed with any other payment service used around the world.

1: Create an Account on LocalEthereum.com

Creating an account on localethereum.com is very easy and fast. All you will need is a Username, Email, and a strong Password. It is important to note that you cannot change the Username later just like on Steemit.

I also highly recommend using two-factor authorization to secure your account sufficiently.

2: Deposit Ether into your account.

Unlike Bitcoin, the fees for sending Ethereum are significantly lower and the transaction confirmation speeds even faster. Fees are usually between $2 to a couple of cents depending on the transaction confirmation speeds. The confirmation speed may take anywhere from 4 - 10 minutes to confirm.

You will notice that every time you deposit Ether you will always have a new address for the next time you want to deposit on localethereum.

The obvious way to go about converting SBD or STEEM to Ether is by using Blocktrades.

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💡 How to use Blocktrades.

Simply navigate to blocktrades.us. In the Send Textfield you will have SBD/STEEM and in the Receive Textfield you will have Ether.

In the Receive Address Textfield, you will copy the Ethereum address provided in the localethereum.com account and paste it in. Make sure that 'Address is valid' appears above the textfield before you proceed to click on 'Get Deposit Address'.

NOTE: Blocktrades has recently updated their website and now offer you a much easier way to perform your transactions much more securely and efficiently.

You will be prompted to key in your Username and then click on 'Transfer Using SteemConnect' to proceed with the transaction.

Wait for about 4-10 minutes for the Ether to arrive in your localethereum account.

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3: Finding a buyer for your Ether.

LocalEthereum makes this process very easy.

1. You can sort traders by Buy or Sell, Payment Method (Paypal, Bank Transfer, Cash in person, Cash Deposit, International Wire, Alipay, WeChat Pay and Other), and finally by Location

2. You can then again sort trades by Popularity or by Price. Each has its own advantages and is basically just a matter of what you are most comfortable with.

3. Finally, pay close attention to the limits the trader has set.

4: Opening the Trade with your trader of choice.

Once you have found your preferred trader, click on their sell price and you will be brought to the page displayed above. Input the amount of Ether you would like to sell and make sure to factor in the fees!

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💣 First Pitfall: Factor in the fees!

Let us say you want to sell 0.06000 Ether. Make sure that in your wallet you have enough Ether, at least 0.01 Ether to cover the fees. So, in this case, you will have a total of 0.07000 Ether in your account and in that particular wallet you sent your Ether to from Blocktrades.

💣 Second Pitfall: Do not fund Escrow before agreeing to proceed with the transaction with the trader.

I learned this the hard way. Since these transactions are using the Ethereum Smart Contracts, canceling a trade and receiving a refund actually has an associated Blockchain fee. Therefore, once you click on 'Open Trade' send a message to the buyer using the encrypted textarea to make sure that indeed they can buy your Ether.

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Assuming that everything goes off without a hitch, the buyer will request you to send the funds into Escrow. This will send out the transaction to the Ethereum Blockchain as a Smart Contract and as proof of funds,

The buyer will then send you the funds via whichever payment method you had chosen. Make definitively sure that the funds are indeed in your account before proceeding to the next step.

5: Releasing the funds from Escrow.

Once you have established that the buyer has sent the funds to your particular account, they will indicate that they have paid you the money on their page.

You will then click on the 'Release Funds' button so that the Ether is sent to the buyer.

If you want also, you can leave a review of the trade. Make sure to leave a good rating if the buyers' service was excellent. Always build the honest and hardworking individuals in the society.

Conclusion

That brings us to the end of the review. As you might have noticed, it is not so different to localbitcoins in terms of the process of trading, however, the technical part of it is much more different.

LocalEthereum is relatively new and that means they still need to make a few changes to the way the handle the User Experience. One of the biggest challenges has been explained in the first pitfall. The second would be that they don't indicate when a trader is online.

On localbitcoins, it is very easy to know when a trader is online especially if you want to make a trade during uncommon hours. That would really make it a little bit more easy for people to trade on the localethereum platform.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I would definitely appreciate an #upvote on this comprehensive content. I hope it was useful to you that is reading this. A #resteem would also push it to other people who might find it useful too.

Thanks again and have a great day.

Best wishes,
Denis K.J

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Support Community Curation Project @boosterke for Steemit Kenya with an SP delegation, Steem or SBD.

Would you #Follow, #Upvote or #Resteem me? I hope to see you in the next one! 😉😉