Blockbid Experience 2021: The Crypto Exchange Test
10 Stars
The Australian crypto exchange Blockbid is currently advertising with a very promising offer: extensive asset selection, low fees, high security standards and competent customer service.
But can these promises be kept? What really distinguishes the platform? How good is the support? And which cryptocurrencies can you buy here?
Can our Blockbid experiences convince us of the investment platform?
We take a critical and systematic look at the Australian crypto exchange Blockbid and share our experiences with the platform.
Here you can find out everything you need to know in order to
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
What is Blockbid?
Blockbid is a platform for trading and buying cryptocurrencies and originates from Australia. The Blockbid CEO is David Sapper. Sapper believes that the era of cryptocurrencies has just begun. His platform aims to include more coins in its offering than any other platform.
In this way, Blockbid aims to address the biggest problems of trading cryptocurrencies: Until now, investors have had to use many different platforms because they cannot buy certain coins everywhere. This is to change with Blockbid.
Blockbid is also supposed to accept a variety of fiat currencies as a means of payment. At the moment, all this is still pie in the sky, because Blockbid is still in beta. Nevertheless, some of Blockbid's functions are already available, so you can already use this platform to a limited extent.
Blockbid distributes its own crypto token, which you can use to save the fees of the platform: Each token is currently equivalent to a 100% fee discount on a trade opened with Blockbid. The token is based on Ethereum's ERC-20 standard and is called BID.
Blockbid advantages and disadvantages
Blockbid advertises itself with a whole list of promises. Security and convenience are at the top of the list. Blockbid states that it wants to secure 95 percent of all customer funds on offline wallets in order to prevent the loss of these funds through a hack. In addition, the broker has comprehensive insurance cover.
Furthermore, Blockbid wants to free its customers from having to use a multitude of different platforms for trading by building up a particularly wide range of different coins. Of course, these should then also be able to be purchased with different fiat currencies.
And Blockbid also wants to create high standards on the fee side by charging particularly low trading fees. Trading is even supposed to be particularly fast: Up to 1 million transactions are supposed to be possible per second.
Whether Blockbid can keep these promises remains to be seen. Because Blockbid is currently still in development. Nevertheless, the platform can already be used for some things. For example, a handful of currency pairs on the Australian dollar and two currency pairs with bitcoin are currently supported.
Blockbid Review - the offer
Buy and trade Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptos with Blockbid: Blockbid promises to set up a very broad offering in the future. At the moment, however, only very few cryptocurrencies are available for purchase here. Payments can only be made with the Australian dollar.
Two currency pairs with bitcoin are also already served. We list them below and link to our guide texts on the respective coin.
Blockbid currency pairs:
BCH/AUD (BITCOIN CASH) | TUSD/AUD (TETHER) | LTC/AUD (LITECOIN) |
|---|
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
Step by step guide Blockbid
Customers cannot currently buy cryptocurrencies via Blockbid. Nevertheless, you can already register and view the offer of the Blockbid crypto exchange. We will show you how to do this here.
Step 1: Registration
To open an account, you have to provide some personal data. Please note that the mobile phone number you enter will later be used for the 2FA method, so you have to enter your correct number here.
To be able to buy Bitcoin on Blockbid, for example, you first have to register. This is no big deal: you will be asked for an email address and a password, and then you can start.
After you have entered your first details and confirmed the registration, you will receive an activation link by email. Use this link and your profile is ready for use. Now the Blockbid login works via the registration window.
Step 2: Two-factor authentication
The two-factor authentication, which considerably increases the security of your account against cyberattacks, is not optional with Blockbid. You already have to use 2FA after your first login. For this, you need an authenticator app, such as one from Google.
With this app, you can scan the QR code that the page displays. Your smartphone will then translate the code into a sequence of numbers that you now have to enter at Blockbid.io.
Step 3: Verification
After your Blockbid registration, you will be able to get an overview of the marketplace interface. Theoretically, if you are a resident of Australia, for example, you could start trading and buying cryptocurrencies now. This would require verification.
You can find the option for this in your profile settings. Follow the instructions to have your profile verified by Blockbid. The service is not yet available for customers.
Step 4: The deposit
You can either transfer cryptocurrencies from your wallet directly to your account or deposit various FIAT currencies. One simply has to click on the point "Deposit" and follow the requirements.
Step 5: Trading
For trading, one picks out his preferred cryptocurrency and gives his money or the required coins in return. Within a few minutes, you are the owner of cryptocurrencies.
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
Blockbid Experience: Fees & Charges
What fees do you have to pay when using Blockbid to buy and trade cryptocurrencies? Blockbid advertises a particularly simple formula: There are 0.1 per cent fees on every trade.
No matter whether you want to buy or sell cryptocurrencies. During the beta phase, however, there are no fees at all, so you can currently use the platform almost for free.
If there were not a catch: customers cannot currently use the offer. This applies to currency pairs with the Australian dollar as well as those with bitcoin.
Costs would still be incurred in the form of mining fees, which are structured differently for the respective cryptocurrencies. These fees are incurred when using cryptocurrencies and are needed to maintain their networks. The Blockbid exchange is not responsible for these fees.
Fee type | costs |
|---|---|
Bid fee | 0.1 percent |
Ask Fee | 0.1 percent |
Both buying cryptocurrencies with the Australian dollar (AUD) and trading cryptos against each other (for example, Bitcoin against Ether) requires verification on Blockbid.
That's why you can't currently use the platform for these purposes. Unless you live in one of the countries that Blockbid already supports.
Blockbid experience: Payment methods
To use crypto exchanges like Blockbid, you usually have to transfer money to your registered profile. Blockbid also provides this procedure.
As long as Blockbid is in the testing stage, there are not many payment methods to choose from. This will probably change as soon as the Australian provider can publish its platform properly. Then customers will probably also be able to use Blockbid.
At the moment, Blockbid only accepts fiat transfers via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). This corresponds to an ordinary bank transfer.
In addition, users who have their main residence in one of the accepted countries also have the option of exchanging cryptocurrencies for each other. This is currently only possible with Bitcoin, and only two altcoins can be exchanged for Bitcoin: Tether and Ethereum.
Payment methods:
Payment method | yes/no |
|---|---|
Credit cards | no |
Paypal | no |
Instant bank transfer | no |
Skrill | no |
Neteller | no |
Paysafecard | no |
Bank Transfer | yes |
Bitcoin exchange with Tether and Ethereum | yes |
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
Blockbid experience: Licence and security
Blockbid provides partly detailed information on common security issues in the current FAQ. Is Blockbid regulated? However, the platform does not give a clear answer to this question. Blockbid states that it fully complies with the requirements of the Australian financial regulator AUSTRAC - but whether AUSTRAC also checks compliance remains unclear.
Since Blockbid does not offer CfDs, it remains completely unclear to what extent regulation of the exchange can take place at all. So it seems that this is not the case.
Is Blockbid fraud-proof?
At least that is what the marketplace claims. According to the FAQ, 95 percent of all crypto assets are stored on offline multi-signature hardware wallets. This should make them safe from hacks.
Furthermore, the exchange is insured against cyberattacks.
You can also increase the security of your account with the help of two-factor authentication.
How do you protect yourself against Blockbid fraud?
When you buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, you take on the role of the bank: You are primarily responsible for the security of your investments. You should keep your private keys and other confidential information safe at all times and not disclose them to anyone.
In addition, you should take advantage of offers such as two-factor authentication wherever possible to increase the security of your accounts. Choosing a suitable wallet and properly documenting all your trades, data and passwords also play an important role.
Many exchanges - including Blockbid - allow you to conveniently store your crypto assets on your profile. For this purpose, the exchanges generate individual wallets that are connected to the platforms. But as convenient as this is, we generally advise against using this option.
Because in the event of an exchange insolvency or a cyberattack, the security of your assets is by no means guaranteed. It is therefore better to always transfer the cryptocurrencies acquired on the Blockbid Exchange to your own wallet.
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
Blockbid Experience: Customer service, contact & support
Good customer support is actually irreplaceable for any platform on which you invest your hard-earned money in cryptocurrencies. Because if there are any problems, you want to be in good hands, reach the support quickly and receive competent help. So what about Blockbid's support?
We search in vain for a live chat option at Blockbid. There is also no telephone number where we could contact Blockbid support. Only one option is available at the moment: A ticket system that can be used equivalent to a contact form.
Blockbid also offers a comprehensive FAQ where we can get answers to most of our questions. However, the FAQ is not available. As things stand, knowledge of English is still a prerequisite. It will probably take some time until Blockbid has properly expanded its support programme. We do not learn what concrete plans there are here via the homepage.
How to contact:
Contact way | yes/no |
|---|---|
phone | no |
yes | |
Live chat | no |
contact form | no |
FAQs | yes |
The Blockbid App
Blockbid is at a very early stage of development, with many features intended for the platform not yet available. There is currently no Blockbid app for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is not foreseeable that this will change in the medium term.
This is because platforms that do not offer trading options usually do not have apps. Apps are primarily of interest to traders who want to react to trends and price movements independent of time and place. When buying cryptocurrencies directly, however, the little helpers are less relevant.
The fact that there is no Blockbid app therefore has no influence on our evaluation of the crypto exchange. A regular Blockbid registration is fully sufficient to use the services of the crypto marketplace. Whether Blockbid expects its own app in the future is still unclear at this point.
The Blockbid review
The Blockbid exchange promises to be a great marketplace if it can deliver on its promises. At the moment, the platform is far from that. In the beta stage, it is not available to customers.
They can register on Blockbid, but neither trade cryptocurrencies nor buy Bitcoin & Co. directly. One day, this will all be completely different: Then Blockbid wants to have the largest offer on the market. Whether the platform can achieve this remains to be seen.
In terms of security, Blockbid can score points in our Blockbid experiences: 95% of all crypto assets are held offline. In addition, Blockbid has, according to its own information, comprehensively insured itself against cyberattacks.
And it complies with the regulations of the Australian Financial Services Authority of its own accord - even if the authority presumably does not yet control the offer, this is a laudable claim and more than many other exchanges have to offer. Standards such as 2FA are also already an integral part of the Blockbid beta.
Blockbid experiences: The bottom line
There are deductions for Blockbid in the rating for support. Because at the moment there is nothing here apart from an email address. We did find answers to many of our questions in a comprehensive FAQ.
Nevertheless, we sorely miss a live chat option, telephone number or email address that would make it easier for us to contact support. Whether and when Blockbid will improve this cannot be said at the moment.
Again, Blockbid collects plus points in our evaluation for the fee model. It is as clear as it is inexpensive. Moreover, the site is already clearly designed and comparatively easy to use. Because Blockbid is still in the beta stage, we are only able to give a preliminary assessment.
Blockbid is not a broker and therefore does not offer CfDs. We recommend a Blockbid alternative such as eToro, where you can both buy cryptocurrencies and trade them using CfDs.
Our recommendation: Buy cryptos with eToro
Incl. wallet
Buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the wallet
Paypal, credit card and instant bank transfer
Regulated provider
Real cryptos or CFD trades
FAQ
The provider is a crypto exchange where cryptocurrencies can be bought and sold.
In our test, Blockbid was only moderately convincing. However, the trading options attract many customers, most of whom are reasonably satisfied with the provider.
The amount you invest should depend on your own liquidity, the cryptocurrency you choose and your own risk tolerance. In general, you should never invest money that you actually need elsewhere, as profits can never be guaranteed.
The platform is convincing here. Withdrawals are processed very quickly and are in your account within a few minutes to 2 working days, depending on the selected withdrawal method.
You should always know what you are investing in. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, so you should first get to know the selected coin in detail. If you have the necessary know-how, as well as the occasional bit of luck, then nothing stands in the way of early profits.
