Summary

Bitquick connects bitcoin buyers and sellers via cash deposits in the seller’s bank account. Bitquick holds seller funds in escrow until they are notified that the cash deposit has indeed hit the seller’s bank account, at which point they transfer the funds to a buyer’s third-party bitcoin wallet. This allows basically anyone to buy bitcoin for cash, without the need to meet directly with the seller, and while entering only an email and a bitcoin address onto the bitquick site.

The buyer is charged 2% for the service, and generally receives bitcoin within three hours of depositing in a sellers account – often in less than an hour. Compared to the process required for opening and funding an exchange account, that is an extremely fast on ramp.

Prices seem to hover about 3-5% above market rates, so there is a pretty big premium for using the service.

Security

Buyers have bitcoin transferred to their own third party wallet, the address of which must be input on a buy order. Bitquick holds the coin of each seller in a segregated escrow account held with leading multisig wallet provider bitgo. Bitquick provides, courtesy of bitgo, a “proof of reserve” display which shows the amount of coin held in each of the escrow accounts.  Sellers can check in real time that their coin is safely held in the corresponding wallet, and there is an overall display of the total amount of coins held against the number of coins up for sale.

Gravitas

Bitquick has been rather rapidly expanding from their North American base, and now have operations in India and Taiwan. We are unsure as to the efficacy of the project there, but the bitquick model is extremely scalable, low cost, and simple to execute remotely. They have also expanded into the altcoin market, using the shapeshift API to offer 30+ altcoins for sale.

Bitquick received about $15,000 in seed funding from BoostVC, a crypto-currency focused start up incubator. BoostVC offers consultation from extremely successful mentors in the bitcoin space, who have expressed their support in BitQuick.

Opening an account

One needn’t actually open an account with bitquick to buy or sell bitcoin. Buyers must simply enter an external wallet address and an email, and transact through bitquick on a transaction by transaction basis. Sellers must fill in a slightly larger form, but again it seems that sales are handled as they come – rather than opening a fixed account, sellers simply enter their details for each and every additional bitcoin sale they would like to manage through bitquick.

Buying bitcoin on BitQuick

After launching “quick buy” users are prompted to enter the amount of bitcoin they wish to purchase, after which an email and bitcoin wallet address must be entered. The user is then shown a list of banks, each with a corresponding price per bitcoin shown. After picking a convenient local bank, the user is sent a confirmation email listing the relevant bank account number to which the cash should be deposited. The sum must be paid at any branch of the selected bank. Please note – it is extremely important to pay ONLY with cash. The process depends on the instant crediting of the money in a sellers account, which is possible only using cash deposits – any other method could take too long to appear in the bitcoin seller’s account, who will be unable to confirm that the deposit was actually made within the agreed SLA of three hours.

After making the deposit, the buyer must take a picture of the receipt and upload it to the link provided in the order confirmation email from bitquick. This is necessary in the unlikely event that the seller disingenuously insists a deposit has not been made. Generally speaking, the seller simply notifies bitquick that the money has been received, at which point the bitcoin is transferred from escrow into the buyer’s wallet – usually within three hours of the deposit. However, should the hold period end without the seller confirming reception of the funds and without the receipt uploaded, the bitcoin will again be listed publicly for sale. If for whatever reason a user is unable to upload the receipt within the holding period, email bitquick support immediately.

Selling bitcoin on BitQuick

Selling bitcoin is a relatively easy process for those looking to avoid transacting through an exchange, and is entirely free. First, simply fill out the seller’s form, which essentially details bank information needed for the transactions and a bit of biographical data.

A seller must then set the amount of bitcoin to sell, as well as the minimum transaction size allowed. The desired price can be dynamically set to track the price of bitcoinaverage (a price aggregator), bitfinex or bitstamp, and a seller can specify a percentage amount above/below the going exchange rate. After submitting all this information, an address is displayed which will be the personal escrow address of the seller – after the relevant bitcoin amount is sent to this address, the order will appear live on bitquick. Once a buyer places a hold on the bitcoin, a seller will receive a confirmation email, with two links – one to confirm the deposit and the other to dispute the deposit. The deposit should be instantly credited to a bank account, as it is paid in cash – and thus the seller must respond within three hours of receiving the confirmation email.

Should a seller wish to withdraw bitcoin from the escrow address, bitquick charges a 5% fee. Please make sure that you definitely want to sell your bitcoin on bitquick before actually depositing in the escrow address – that 5% is a big bite!

BitQuick Fees

Bitquick takes a 2% fee from the buyer side on transactions. There are no fees for selling bitcoin through bitquick.

BitQuick Mobile

The site is responsively designed, and buy and sell orders can easily be placed using handheld devices.

BitQuick Support

Bitquick is on call during banking hours to manage the escrow side of transactions. They respond relatively quickly to emails, which can be sent from their on site ticketing system.

Might Look Elsewhere if:

You don’t need to deposit in cash.

Obviously.  Check out our reviews of the best US bitcoin exchanges for alternatives.  If bitquick is your attempt to stay under the radar, check out localbitcoins before you take the bitquick plunge.

Bottom Line

Bitquick is a really clever, low tech way of facilitating the buying and selling of bitcoin for cash. It is one of those smart, simple ideas that make you ask “why didn’t I think of that?!” Want to buy some bitcoin but can’t be bothered to open an exchange account? Don’t actually have a bank account? Not comfortable with entering all your personal details at an exchange? Cool, Bitquick is a good solution for you. You’ll pay a bit more, and you need to get off your sofa and go to the bank with cash, but it does what it is meant to do.