Frequently Asked Questions

For this description, let's use a case study of Bitcoin. The same idea actually applies for trading Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum on UnifiedPurse

A. If you already have some Bitcoin that you are willing to sell, then:

• Go ahead and load your wallet
• Then proceed by setting up your selling rates and processing fee.
• Now, once a buyer initiate a trade, you will be contacted via all available notification means. You will then have to agree-to-process the transaction (or reject) within the stipulated response-window, otherwise, the transaction will be automatically canceled.
  Please note that whatever the outcome of this process be, also affects the calculation of your rating/reputation
• If you agree-to-process the transaction, the equivalent Bitcoin will be removed from your balance into the escrow, while you await the payment to be made by the buyer into your indicated payment method (e.g Bank, Western Union..)
• The buyer will normally supply you with a proof-of-payment (and you will be notified, with an expectation to respond promptly)
• Once you can successfully confirm the buyer's payment, you will be expected to indicate this from your transaction log, and the pending Bitcoin will be automatically released to the buyer.
• If you could not confirm the buyer's claim of payment after 1 hour, you may dispute the claim from your transaction log, and a UnifiedPurse agent will intervene to resolve this issue manually.
• Please Note (IMPORTANT): If the buyer has supplied the proof of payment, but you do not respond (to agree or dispute), the purchased Bitcoin will be automatically released to the buyer after the elapsement of the stipulated time that equals to your specified payment-window from your rate settings

B. If you want to start selling other currencies (e.g Perfectmoney, USD...), and accepting payments through (buying) Bitcoin :

• Then proceed by setting up your buying rates and processing fee.
  

  Since it is very unlikely that a customer will want to trade with you when you have no reputation/rating, it is expected that you first gain some reputation by selling Bitcoin as indicated above. This reputation (from selling Bitcoin) will be automatically used to offset your reputation on buying Bitcoin; until you perform your first transaction and your new rating is computed accordingly

• Once a seller initiate a trade, you will be contacted via all available notification means. You will then have to agree-to-process the transaction (or reject) within the stipulated response-window, otherwise, the transaction will be automatically canceled.
  Please note that whatever the outcome of this process be, also affects the calculation your rating/reputation
• If you agree-to-process the transaction, the equivalent Bitcoin will be removed from the seller's Bitcoin balance into the escrow, while you will be expected as to (as soon as possible) make the payment/transfer of the correponding account (e.g Bank, Western Union..), that the seller had indicated while initiating the transaction.
• Then supply your a proof-of-payment (from your transaction log page) and the buyer will be immediately notified to confirm your payment
• Once the seller has successfully confirmed your payment, the Bitcoin will be automatically released from escrow into your UnifiedPurse wallet.
• If you have supplied the the proof of payment, but the seller do not respond (to agree or dispute), the Bitcoin will be automatically released to you after the elapsement of the stipulated time, that equals to your specified payment-window from your rate settings
• If the seller could not confirm the your claim of payment after 1 hour, he/she may dispute your payment claim, and a UnifiedPurse agent will need to intervene to resolve this issue manually.

Side Notes

Your personal market-url can be found on your dashboard, you may also like to share it with your customers on different platforms for increased patronage.

It is also smart to generate a passive income revenue for yourself by introducing people to the business on UnifiedPurse exchanger platform (through your exchanger referral-url located at the bottom of this page. They will become your referral automatically after signing-up, and you will start getting credited with 10% commissions instantly from every charges on their trades for 6 months

For the newbies, mostly, the basic principle of the trade is to find out a reputable and reliable source (e.g: through google here) or even ( maybe on UnifiedPurse market), where you will buy Bitcoin at fairly considerable rate.
Then proceed to set-up your rates for selling, at a slightly higher rates than the amount at which you bought.

It's important having good digital security, but it's especially important when you're trading CryptoCurrencies. When you have advertisements up selling a Digital Currency you also tell the world that you have CryptoCurrencies, which can make you an attractive target to cyber criminals if you don't have your security in check.

Most common attacks are done using spear phishing techniques. That's where the attackers will first attempt to get access to other services that you use, mainly your e-mail or cell phone account. From there they will try to get access to your financial services. This is why it's very important to keep all of your online accounts secure, not just your UnifiedPurse account. By following these steps you can be sure that your account is protected from most security threats.

• Enable Email Authentication from your profile settings, prevent logins to your account without an e-mail confirmation. This is not enabled by default for older accounts, please make sure it is turned on.
• Enable Two-Factor authentication on your UnifiedPurse account , this adds a second layer of security in case your password falls into the wrong hands. Make sure you do not store the backup code electronically, write them down and store the code safely. Enable it from your security settings.
• Use a different e-mail address for your UnifiedPurse account that is not used for anything else. Don't give this address out to your customers, use a separate e-mail account for customer correspondence. Gmail accounts are good as you can protect them with two-factor authentication.
• Review your login history & authorized browsers. From the account security settings you can view your account Login history and authorized browsers. It's a good habit to check these from time to time.
• Be VERY cautious of any images, links and other files that customers or unknown people send you, it can be an attempt to infect your computer with malware or worse. Run periodic malware and anti-virus checks on your computer.
• Don't use the same password on more than one site , instead use unique and randomly generated passwords. A password manager, like KeePass, allows you to do this without having to remember all your passwords. Using the same password on more than one site very dangerous, it can allow an attacker to get access to many of your accounts by knowing only one password.
• Enable Two-Factor authentication on services that support it , Google, Facebook, Dropbox all support it.
• Educate yourself on cyber security. Having knowledge is probably the best defence, read up on common attack techniques such as spear phishing to know how to identify potential attacks.

Verify the buyer

If you are selling Digital Currencies for a payment method that is reversible you should verify that it is the buyer who is making the payment with his own account.

When you receive a new trade, take a look at the buyer's UnifiedPurse profile to gauge the reputation of the buyer. Go through the buyer's previous feedback and his trading history. Check that the users IP address is from the same country as the payment is coming from.

If you're selling using a payment method such as transfer with specific bank where the buyer's name is visible, limiting your advertisement to only users who has verified their ID with UnifiedPurse is a good idea.

Enable first time buyer limits

A large part of fraud occurs from new accounts. Setting first time buyer limits on your advertisement helps you limit the risk you expose yourself to and any potential damage from fraudulent buys. They prevent a no-reputation buyer sending high volume trade requests. Setting the limits itself discourages the fraudulent buyers to contact you. See more above in the section Setting up an advertisement.

Reversible payments

Most of online payment methods are reversible. The payment provider can take back a payment even after it has arrived to your account. For example, PayPal payments are reversible up to 180 days.

In many countries, online banking is not protected by two-factor authentication. This means that whoever gains the control of user computer, using malware or otherwise hijacked computer, can do unauthorized bank transfers. This is an issue for SWIFT, SEPA and wire transfers. Receiving money from a stolen source may lead to freezing your bank accounts for the duration of criminal investigation. The way to mitigate this risk is to check that the buyer id matches the sender bank account name.

Characteristics of fraudulent activity

Scammers take advantage of the fact that CryptoCurrency transaction are irreversible or they try to trick you into releasing CryptoCurrencies without sending payment. That's why it is important to never release CryptoCurrencies from escrow until you have payment. Even if it's a regular buyer and someone you know, as once the CryptoCurrencies have been released from escrow, there is no way for you to get them back.

With reversible payments, scammers will attempt to pay using stolen credentials or purchase proof. Requiring the buyer to have ID verified their UnifiedPurse account, and always checking that the users real name matches that of the payment information helps you stop these attempts.

In case you encounter a suspicious user you can always open a dispute for the trade and UnifiedPurse support will help you ensure a safe trade.

Quick tips on identifying scammers

• Fraudulent buyers are often in a hurry. The more a customer asks you to hurry/rush the more suspicious you should be, real customers always have patience.

• Fraudulent buyers often suggest doing all or part of the transaction outside escrow and then do not complete their part of the transaction.
• Be careful about photoshopped payment evidence, don't release CryptoCurrencies until you have confirmed that you have received the money. You are not obliged to release a trade until you can verify that you have received the buyer's payment.
• Don't open any links that your trading partner is sending to you. If you must, use different browser than the one you are using.
• Don't visit websites other than UnifiedPurse.com with the browser that you're using to trade. Use a different browser for other websites.
• Bookmark UnifiedPurse.com in your browser and always use the bookmark when visiting the website. This helps you avoid accidentally visiting phishing websites, they exist and can be very convincing. Even experienced traders have fallen victim to phishing websites.
• If you're unsure about a user, you can always contact support for help.

Disputes

Please also read our terms of service.

• UnifiedPurse.com support handles disputes based on evidence supplied by trade participants and their reputation.
• Disputes can be started 1 hour after payment is marked complete.
• If the buyer has fewer than 3 completed trades, the seller may open a dispute after 1 hour.
• After the escrow has been released by the seller the trade is considered finished by UnifiedPurse.com and cannot be disputed.
• When a CryptoCurrency seller is unresponsive, UnifiedPurse will release the CryptoCurrency to the buyer if the buyer can provide valid proof of payment.
• If the buyer is unresponsive after starting a trade, the escrow will released back to the seller by UnifiedPurse support.

• Receiving payments online for your products and services or donations.

  By blowing-open the wide range of payment methods available to payers, you have no worry about how your customers are going to acquire the type of digital currencies that you accept for payment.

• Transfering funds between persons or countries without currency barrier

  Supposing a person in Nigeria, need to make a payment in USD to the bank account of a recipient that recides in the United States.
  The payer can simply get some bitcoin (for example) here, then proceed to find an exchanger in the United States, that will buy the Bitcoins and pay in local currency (USD) to the recipient's bank account in the United States.

• Trading (buying and selling) digital currencies to make profits

  Even if you already have a website (from which you buy and/or sell digital currencies), you can still trade on UnifiedPurse, taking advangate of the simplicity and broader market-reach.

There are 4 ways you can get your UnifiedPurse account funded

1. Receive payments through Shopping Cart Interface (SCI) by simply directing the payeer to your SCI page, as explain here in this documentation
2. Receive direct transfer when you give your UnifiedPurse username to another user for an instant transfer from their UnifiedPurse wallet balance to yours
3. Buy digital currencies through trading transactions from customers by setting up your rates
4. Keep receiving passive income in form of referral commissions from every charges on transactions performed by the people that you have referred to sign-up. You can copy your referral url from your trade settings page or from your dashboard