Deposits, coins, and the walletless flow
Three coins and one mode for the reader who does not want to carry a wallet. Each coin below has a reason people pick it and a reason to be careful with it. The deposit process is the same shape for all three, and it is worth walking once, before anything is owed.
The three coins
| Coin | Why people use it | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | The most common, the one most vendors price against. | A public ledger. Do not pay from an exchange address you reuse everywhere; the transactions link. |
| Monero | Private by default. Regulars often pay in XMR for exactly this reason. | Ring signatures and stealth addresses mean the ledger shows almost nothing about who paid whom. |
| Litecoin | Cheap and fast, good for small or one off purchases. | Cheaper than Bitcoin to move, but still a public ledger, so the same reuse caution applies. |
Walletless pay
Walletless pay is the mode for the reader who does not run a wallet. The market gives a deposit address, you pay it, and the balance appears. The trade is the keys. In walletless mode the keys are held by the platform, not by you, so the funds live and die with the market. For a first purchase that is a fair trade. For a running habit of orders, a wallet of your own is the better default, and the options are on the wallets page.
A deposit, step by step
- Open the wallet pageInside the market, go to the wallet page and pick the coin you are paying with. The page shows your current balance for each coin and the deposit address for the one you chose.
- Read the addressThe page generates the deposit address for that coin. The amount that lands there is the amount that counts. There is no "deposit to any address", it is this address, for this coin.
- Send the exact amountSend the amount the form asks for. If the form shows a range, stay inside it. An exact match is the cleanest, and an amount outside the range can sit unconfirmed or get flagged.
- Wait for confirmationsThe exact number of confirmations required is shown on the deposit page, and that number is the one to trust. It differs by coin: Bitcoin needs several blocks, Monero a handful to a dozen, Litecoin a small number. Do not guess it from memory, read it off the page in front of you.
- Balance appears, funds move to escrowOnce the confirmations land, the balance shows in the wallet. From there an order pulls the funds into escrow, which is the 2 of 3 contract on the escrow page. The money is yours, held by the contract, until a release.
Fees
Fees exist, and there is more than one kind: a deposit fee, a withdrawal fee, and a percentage on the order itself. The exact numbers live inside the market and they change. Count them before the first deposit, from the page that shows them today. A fee table that was current last month is not a contract. It is a number that has already moved.
Mistakes that cost real money
- The wrong coin to the address. Bitcoin sent to a Litecoin address is not a fee, it is a loss. The address is for one coin, and the coin you send has to be the one it expects.
- An amount above the form's maximum. Overshoot the range and the deposit can stall or be rejected after the fee is gone.
- Paying from an exchange. It works, and it ties the deposit to an identity the exchange keeps. It is the least private option on the list.
- Reusing one address for everything. Every deposit from the same address links the purchases together on the ledger. A fresh address per deposit keeps them separate.
Which wallet to run for the regulars is on the wallets page. The questions that come up most about deposits and coins are on the FAQ.