CEO of Nigeria-based cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card Chris Maurice made his first foray into the cryptocurrency industry selling Bitcoin on eBay.
Usually traded through exchange platforms or used as in the form of a transactional currency, selling Bitcoin through eBay stands as an unusual method. It seemed to work for Maurice, however, as he sold Bitcoin on the sales platform at a 100% markup. Enthusiastically, Maurice recounted his first venture into cryptocurrency back in 2015 to Cointelegraph:
“We did that for about a week and we did over $40,000 in sales at a 100% markup,” Maurice told Cointelegraph in an interview. “We were seeing stars at this point.”
According to the CEO, he was introduced to Bitcoin in 2013 by the co-founder of Yellow Card Justin Poiroux, and soon realised there was an opportunity for more profit than trading or selling through a platform. He discovered that Bitcoin price was almost three times the value on eBay than its market rate on exchanges or peer-to-peer marketplaces.
Bitcoin traceability and untrackable nature
The business venture through eBay lasted approximately a week when issues came in with fraudulent activity from buyers of the cryptocurrency. Maurice explained the credit card chargeback was a major problem:
“People were just stealing credit cards online, coming to us on eBay and charging the cards. When PayPal found out, they pulled the money back from us, and then we had already sent the Bitcoin. Of course, that was how I also learned just how irreversible Bitcoin is. Credit cards, not so much.”
Credit card chargeback, a feature afforded by banks to give the user a chance to take their funds back after a transaction, is something which Bitcoin does not provide. This is because the digital token, based on blockchain technology, is untraceable and all transactions are irreversible, meaning that once the funds are sent, they cannot be retrieved.