Terms of Service and Use

LocalCoinSwap is a software development company providing non-custodial technical infrastructure, including escrow mechanisms and a peer-to-peer interface. LocalCoinSwap does not act as a broker, custodian, exchange, money service business, or payment processor. All cryptocurrency settlement occurs peer-to-peer on-chain between users. Users may create offers to buy or sell cryptocurrency and respond to offers from other users. When a user sells cryptocurrency, the funds are secured in an on-chain non-custodial escrow mechanism native to the relevant blockchain (for Bitcoin, a multi-signature script output; for other chains, a smart contract). LocalCoinSwap never has unilateral control or custody of funds. LocalCoinSwap may, at its discretion, provide dispute tools; doing so does not make LocalCoinSwap a party to any transaction. LocalCoinSwap does not provide an exchange service.

These Terms of Service and Use ("Agreement") form a legal agreement covering the provision of services ("service" or "services") provided by TechHouse Ltd ("LocalCoinSwap.com" or "LocalCoinSwap" or "us" or "our" or "we") to you as an individual ("you" or "your"). Your use of the services will be governed by this Agreement, along with the LocalCoinSwap.com Privacy Policy. Please read through this Agreement and Privacy Policy carefully before accepting them.

Acceptance and Change of Terms

By signing up for an account on LocalCoinSwap you accept both the Terms of Service and Use, and the Privacy Policy. By accepting this Agreement or by using the Service, you expressly acknowledge and agree that you are entering into a legal agreement with LocalCoinSwap, and have understood and agree to comply with, and be legally bound by, this Agreement.

We may amend, modify, or replace these Terms at any time in our sole discretion without prior notice. The updated Terms will be posted on the Platform and will supersede all prior versions. Continued use of the Platform after such updates constitutes your acceptance. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any other referenced policies, form the entire agreement between you and LocalCoinSwap.

Registration and User Account

To use the Services you must register a user account (“Account”) and provide accurate, current, and complete information. We may refuse, suspend, or terminate access to the Platform or any of its resources if information is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or if otherwise required by these Terms.

You must be at least 18 years old to sign up for a LocalCoinSwap account. You may only use your own account and you may only have one account registered. The “one account” rule applies to individual users; Company Accounts are governed by the Company Accounts terms below. You may act only on your own behalf. You may not act as an intermediary, broker, agent, trustee, or nominee for any third party. You may not sell, share, or otherwise make available your account or any access credentials to others.

Restricted Jurisdictions and Sanctions. You may not access or use the Platform if you are a citizen, resident, located in, ordinarily resident in, or accessing the Platform from any restricted jurisdiction (each a “Restricted Jurisdiction”). Restricted Jurisdictions include: Belarus (BY), Burundi (BI), Central African Republic (CF), Democratic Republic of the Congo (CD), Cuba (CU), India (IN), Iran (IR), Iraq (IQ), North Korea (KP), Lebanon (LB), Libya (LY), Mongolia (MN), Nicaragua (NI), Russian Federation (RU), Somalia (SO), South Sudan (SS), Sudan (SD), Syria (SY), Venezuela (VE), Yemen (YE), Zimbabwe (ZW), any jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions by the United States, European Union, United Nations, or UK HM Treasury, and any other jurisdiction that LocalCoinSwap designates as restricted for risk, legal, or policy reasons. LocalCoinSwap may update the list of Restricted Jurisdictions at any time without notice. You also will not use the Platform to transact with any person or entity on a sanctions list administered by OFAC, the EU, the UN, or UK HMT.

You must not attempt to circumvent these restrictions (including via VPNs, proxies, spoofing, or falsified information). If you become a resident of, relocate to, or access the Platform from a Restricted Jurisdiction, you must immediately stop using the Platform. LocalCoinSwap may restrict or terminate account access to enforce this section.

You represent and warrant that all cryptocurrency and fiat currency you use on, or in relation to the Platform, are legally obtained, not connected to unlawful conduct, and not in violation of sanctions.

You are responsible for maintaining adequate security and control of your private keys, as well as any usernames, passwords, two-factor authentication codes, or other credentials you use to access the services. Export and securely back up any seed phrases and private keys; LocalCoinSwap cannot reset, recover, or reissue keys, or seed phrases..

Your account must not contain misleading or fraudulent information, including, but not limited to, the use of a non-personal phone number. Creating fake reputation information, falsifying your country of origin, or providing fraudulent identification documents is prohibited.

Company accounts

If you wish to use our services as a company or other entity you are required to verify your account as a company. A company-verified account is individual and can only be used by the person who registered it. Company accounts are not allowed to be shared with or used by other individuals or entities.

Accounts that are company-verified are allowed the following exemptions from these Terms of Service and Use:

A company may have several active user accounts at any time, provided they are all company-verified and operated by a single employee of the company. A single employee may only register and operate a single account.
A company may have active offers from several accounts with the following exceptions:
Ads are not allowed to overlap between accounts. E.g. you’re not allowed to create offers using the same limits with the same price in the same payment method category in the same country.

Identity Verification

LocalCoinSwap reserves the right, at our sole discretion, to require Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) documentation from you in specific circumstances, including but not limited to: (i) dispute resolution, (ii) suspicious or potentially fraudulent activity, or (iii) requests from regulators or law enforcement authorities.

If requested, you must provide accurate and complete verification information, which may include government-issued identification, proof of address, payment evidence, and other documents. Failure to comply may result in suspension or termination of your account, denial of dispute resolution, or cancellation of trades.

Prohibited Uses and User Representations

By using the Platform, you represent, warrant, and agree that:

You are transacting solely on your own behalf and for your own account, and not on behalf of, or as agent, trustee, nominee, or representative for, any third party.
You will not use the Platform to operate or facilitate any unlicensed or unauthorized money service business, cryptoasset exchange, payment processor, or similar financial service.
You will not engage in structuring, layering, “smurfing,” or any other activity intended to conceal the nature, purpose, source, or ownership of funds or cryptocurrency.
You will not access or use the Platform to deal with sanctioned persons or jurisdictions under OFAC, EU, UN, UK HMT, or other applicable sanctions.
You will not attempt to circumvent geoblocking or other controls, including by VPN, proxy, falsified residency, or device spoofing.

Any violation of these representations may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account, denial of dispute resolution, cancellation of trades, and reporting to competent authorities where required by law.

Cryptocurrency Trading

You can initiate cryptocurrency trades ("trade" or "contact") to either buy or sell cryptocurrency by sending trade requests to offers created by other users.

By sending a trade request you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the trade as selected and determined by the advertiser (whether by selecting from options available to advertiser for offers or by any freeform terms and conditions set out by the advertiser in the Terms of trade field) and displayed on the offer page. The terms and conditions specified by the advertiser are valid in all cases except when they contradict or violate these Terms of Service and Use, are unreasonable or otherwise difficult to comply with, are illegal, or if both parties of the trade consent to alter the terms and conditions of the trade.

The exchange rate, cryptocurrency amount, payment window, payment method and other terms and conditions of the trade that are visible on the offer page prior to sending a trade request cannot be altered once a trade request has been sent and the trade has started.

When you are selling cryptocurrency it is your responsibility to check that you have confirmed, independent of the buyer and their payment evidence, that you have received payment for the full amount, that the payment is not made by a third party to the trade, and that it was made according to your instructions given to the buyer. After you have released a trade to the buyer it is not possible to cancel, reverse, dispute or otherwise recover or return the cryptocurrencies to you.

Payments made by buyers must be sent by the same person that registered and uses the account. Payment details provided by sellers must match the name of the LocalCoinSwap account holder. Making, providing, or attempting to make or provide payments to or from third parties is considered a violation of this agreement.

All communication relevant to the trade must happen in the trade chat part of the trade in such a way that it is readily available for LocalCoinSwap support staff to review. Communication that has not occurred on LocalCoinSwap or that has been hidden, encrypted or otherwise obstructed from view is not taken into consideration during dispute review and dispute resolution.

Disputing Cryptocurrency Trades

If a buyer and seller cannot resolve a trade, either party may open a Dispute. LocalCoinSwap may, at its sole discretion, review the evidence provided and determine how the on-chain escrow smart contract should be resolved. As part of this process, LocalCoinSwap may sign or withhold its signature in a multi-signature escrow, in accordance with these Terms and the applicable dispute resolution rules. We may require you to provide supporting documents, including payment records or KYC information, as a condition of dispute resolution.

Any decision reached by LocalCoinSwap in a Dispute is final. Our involvement in Disputes does not make us a party to the underlying transaction, and we disclaim all liability arising from any dispute resolution outcome.

Disputes can only be started on trades that are open and marked as paid by the buyer. Trades that are not marked as paid, released by the seller, cancelled, automatically cancelled, or already disputed and resolved are considered completed and cannot be disputed, reversed, or altered.

Unresponsiveness

When you are involved in a cryptocurrency trade it is important that you remain active and available from the time the trade is started to the time that the trade is completed, canceled, or resolved. This means that you must be able to provide a response to a request by LocalCoinSwap support in a disputed trade within 12 hours or you may be deemed as unresponsive and the dispute may be resolved against you.

Spoof Trading

Reputation is important to P2P traders and part of maintaining a healthy community is to ensure that trade count and other account metrics are honest and reliable to reference between users. As a result, spoof trading is strictly prohibited when using the LocalCoinSwap platform. Performing spoof trades can result in your account being permanently banned without warning to ensure that other users are protected from potentially malicious activity. A trade is considered to be a spoof trade when you are performing trades repeatedly with yourself or another associated party with the goal of increasing your trading statistics. While performing a test trade is acceptable, performing multiple micro trades for the purpose of spoofing reputation is not an acceptable use of the platform. LocalCoinSwap support will deem what is and is not spoof trading on a case-by-case basis and take appropriate action.

Dispute review

During a dispute review LocalCoinSwap support may give you instructions that you are required to follow. The instructions given to you may require you to provide proof of payment, proof that you have or have not received payment (e.g. bank transaction history), additional ID verification, photo; audio; or video evidence, or any other documents deemed relevant by LocalCoinSwap. Unless otherwise specified by LocalCoinSwap, these documents must be added to the disputed trade itself. Failure to follow the instructions may lead to the dispute being resolved against you.

Dispute resolution

A disputed trade is most commonly resolved by LocalCoinSwap support applying or withholding its required signature in the multi-signature escrow (or initiating the relevant resolution function in a supported smart contract) so that the cryptocurrency is released to the buyer or the seller, once the dispute resolution criteria are met.

In very rare situations where neither party fulfill the criteria, or it is in other ways unclear or not possible to determine which party has fulfilled the dispute resolution criteria, LocalCoinSwap may decide to apply its escrow signature in a manner consistent with a split (evenly or unevenly) between the parties, where the escrow mechanism supports such an outcome..

Dispute resolution criteria

LocalCoinSwap can resolve a disputed trade to a cryptocurrency buyer when one of the following criteria are met:

The buyer has made payment according to the instructions provided by the seller in the trade chat, offer terms of trade, or offer payment details and the buyer has provided sufficient proof that the payment was made according to these instructions.
The seller has become unresponsive.

LocalCoinSwap can resolve a disputed trade to a cryptocurrency seller when one of the following criteria are met:

The buyer has not provided payment or not provided payment in full
The buyer has become unresponsive
The payment made by the buyer has been held/frozen/stopped by the payment provider
The buyer has not provided payment according to the instructions provided to them by the seller in the trade chat, offer terms of trade or offer payment details.
The payment is made by a third party to the trade OR the payment is made from a payment account not registered in the name of the buyer.

If the buyer or the seller of a disputed trade provides fraudulent information or fraudulent documents or makes false claims or otherwise tries to force a certain outcome of a disputed trade the dispute may be immediately resolved against the user.

Incorrect dispute resolution

If you believe LocalCoinSwap has resolved a dispute you are a party of in a way which is not in accordance with these terms you have a right to request a review. To request a review you need to notify us and specifically request a review by contacting customer support no later than 120 days after the dispute resolution.

Trades

You can create cryptocurrency trade offers ("offer" or "ad" or "ads") to advertise that you want to buy or sell cryptocurrencies. Other users can send trade requests to you from the offers that you’ve created. When a trade request is sent to you a cryptocurrency trade is automatically started.

When you have offers enabled you are required to be active and available to reply to trades started from these offers. If a dispute is initiated in a trade against an advertiser who is not active and available the advertiser may be deemed unresponsive as per this agreement and the dispute may be resolved against them.

Information and payment details you provide in offers and trades must at all times be correct and up to date. Disputes may be resolved against you if you include out-of-date payment details and a buyer completes payment accordingly. Refusal to complete trades or to provide payment details for trades opened from your offers is considered a violation of this agreement.

The price or price equation that is defined in the offer details must contain any and all fees that the advertiser requires the buyer to pay. After initiation of a trade the price is locked and cannot be changed or any additional fees added without consent from both parties of the trade.

Limitation, Suspension, and Termination of Your User Account

Occasionally situations arise where we may need to limit, suspend, or terminate your account. Account limitation ("limit", "limitation") results in a temporary or permanent loss of access to a certain specific part or parts of the services we offer. Account suspension ("suspension", "block", "ban") results in a temporary loss of access to most parts of the services we offer. Account termination ("termination", "permanent ban") results in permanent loss of access to all services we offer as well as termination of this Agreement.

We have the right to, limit, suspend, or terminate your account or access to the services that we provide to you if:

we have a reason to believe that you have acted in violation of these Terms of Service and Use or applicable laws or regulations or if we have a reason to believe that any content or material submitted or shared by you in or through the services violates these Terms of Service and Use or applicable laws or regulations or third party rights;
we suspect that you use the services to engage in, attempt to engage in, or in connection with fraudulent activity, money laundering, terrorist financing or other financial crime;
we have reason to believe that you have supplied false, misleading or deceptive information in connection with your registration, identity verification, trades or any other use of our services, either to us or to another user;
we are required to do so under any applicable law, regulation or an order issued by an authority;
make available content or behave in a way that libels, defames, invades privacy, stalks, is obscene, pornographic, racist, abusive, harassing, threatening or is offensive;
if you use the services in a manner which may cause the services to be interrupted or damaged or such a way that the functionality of the services is in any way impaired or attempt to bypass or break any security mechanism of the services or if LocalCoinSwap believes in good faith that such action is reasonably necessary to protect the security of its services or its property or brand or the security, property and rights of its users or those of third parties;
attempt any unauthorized access to user accounts or any part or component of the service.

We will normally give you a notice of any limitation, suspension, or termination of your account but we may, if it is reasonable to do so (for example we consider it advisable for security reasons), limit, suspend or terminate your account without prior notice to you.

You acknowledge that our decision to limit, suspend, or terminate your account, may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to our risk management and security protocols and that we are under no obligation to disclose the details of our risk management and security procedures to you.

In the event that we limit, suspend or terminate your account we will lift the suspension as soon as possible once the reasons for the suspension or termination no longer exist.

In certain situations, your ability to access the Platform or initiate trades through the interface may be restricted. LocalCoinSwap provides only an interface to user-controlled wallets and escrow mechanisms native to each supported blockchain (e.g., Bitcoin multi-signature scripts, smart contracts on other networks). LocalCoinSwap does not hold, freeze, or otherwise exercise custody over your cryptocurrency.

Restrictions may be applied to your account (for example, by limiting your ability to open new trades) if we suspect unauthorized access to your account, fraudulent or unlawful activity, or if required by law. General restrictions may also occur during service outages, software maintenance, blockchain disruptions, or in other circumstances where continued operation poses a risk to the integrity of the Platform.

Any such restriction affects your use of the Platform only and does not affect your independent control of cryptocurrency in your personal wallets or escrow addresses. LocalCoinSwap aims to remove any restriction as soon as the underlying reason no longer exists.

LocalCoinSwap does not store or have the ability to access or recover your private keys. You are solely responsible for securely backing up any private keys generated or used through the Platform. Failure to backup your private keys may result in permanent loss of access to your cryptocurrency if your Platform account is suspended, terminated, or otherwise inaccessible. Export and securely back up seed phrases and private keys for any wallet created or connected through the Platform; LocalCoinSwap cannot reset, recover, or reissue keys, seed phrases, or on-chain addresses.

Fees and Pricing

The services are provided to you against fees determined on a per transaction and/or per trade basis in accordance with the prices and pricing principles set out on our website. Such fees may include fees for incoming and outgoing transactions, and percentage based fees for trades completed.

Network fees are paid by users to the relevant blockchain. Platform service fees, where applicable, are collected automatically from escrowed amounts or as specified in the offer terms at the time of trade execution

Taxes

You are solely responsible for determining, withholding, reporting, and paying any taxes, duties, and assessments arising from your use of the Platform and your trades. LocalCoinSwap does not provide tax advice and does not calculate, collect, or remit taxes on your behalf.

Supporting Blockchain Forks and Other Cryptocurrencies

From time to time, new and alternative cryptocurrencies and/or forks of existing blockchains may be created. This may result in holders of private keys receiving a corresponding amount of the new cryptocurrency on the newly created blockchain (“air-drop”). LocalCoinSwap does not support or guarantee access to forks or airdrops. Users are solely responsible for managing their private keys and for claiming any forked or airdropped assets.

LocalCoinSwap has no obligation to support any fork, airdrop, or newly created asset, nor to determine which chain will be treated as the “main” chain for any cryptocurrency. Decisions about forks or airdrops are the responsibility of users, who should withdraw and manage their cryptocurrency independently if they wish to ensure access to such assets.

You acknowledge and agree that:

LocalCoinSwap is not liable for forks or airdrops relating to cryptocurrency that is held in escrow during an ongoing trade. Any forked or airdropped assets that may accrue to escrow addresses are outside the control of LocalCoinSwap and may not be accessible to either party.
LocalCoinSwap is not responsible for ensuring that you receive any forked or airdropped assets, regardless of whether your cryptocurrency is in escrow or in a user-controlled wallet.
If LocalCoinSwap chooses, in its sole discretion, to support a fork or new asset, such support will be communicated through the Platform. Unless otherwise stated, these Terms apply equally to any supported new cryptocurrency.

If you are concerned about forks, airdrops, or other blockchain events, you should ensure that your cryptocurrency is stored in a wallet where you have exported and securely backed up the private keys, rather than in an active trade escrow. Only by holding and controlling your own private keys outside of escrow can you guarantee independent access to forked or airdropped assets. LocalCoinSwap disclaims any liability for loss, expense, or missed opportunity resulting from forks, airdrops, or related events. Assets locked in an active escrow may not receive or permit access to forked or airdropped assets; see Disputes and Platform Access Limitations for related constraints

Allowed Jurisdictions

To use the services you must comply with the laws of your country and state of residence. You are solely responsible for such compliance.

Intellectual Property Rights

You acknowledge and agree that all copyrights, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights in and related to this site and our services is exclusively the property of LocalCoinSwap and our licensors. We grant you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable and limited license, subject to the terms of this Agreement, to access and use our site and service, as well as related content, materials and information (collectively, the "Content") solely for approved purposes as permitted by us from time to time. Any other use of the Content is expressly prohibited and you agree not to copy, transmit, distribute, sell, license, reverse engineer, modify, publish, or participate in the transfer or sale of, create derivative works from, or in any other way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

This site and the services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis for your information and use without any representation or endorsement. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we make no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, in relation to the site or the services, including but not limited to, implied warranties of satisfactory quality, functionality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security, accuracy, condition or completeness, or any implied warranty arising from course of dealing or usage or trade.

LocalCoinSwap is not associated with and does not itself support or claim to be in partnership with any of the payment methods, services or companies which may appear visible in the Online Payment method lists or offer details. Also, services provided by LocalCoinSwap are not authorized, approved, endorsed or sponsored by any of the payment methods listed on the website or their respective trademark owners. Payment method listings are visible on LocalCoinSwap.com for informative purposes only.

LocalCoinSwap is not responsible for any user-generated content on its site including but not limited to messages, feedbacks or offers but may remove or modify said content without notice or liability at any time in its sole discretion.

This site may contain links to other sites on the Internet. These sites may contain information or material that some people may find inappropriate or offensive. These other sites are not under the control of LocalCoinSwap.com, and you acknowledge that (whether or not such sites are affiliated in any way with LocalCoinSwap.com) LocalCoinSwap.com is not responsible for the accuracy, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the content of such sites.

LocalCoinSwap.com reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of this site and/or any software, facilities and services on this site, with or without notice, and/or to establish general guidelines and limitations on their use.

The value of cryptocurrency is highly volatile and you may lose your entire investment. You assume all risks associated with the use of cryptocurrency and the Platform, including but not limited to: fraud, payment reversals, software bugs, internet outages, malicious software, third-party interference, sanctions enforcement, and regulatory changes. You are solely responsible for determining the suitability of using the Platform.

If and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we will not be liable for:

any economic losses (including without limitation loss of revenues, profits, contracts, business or anticipated savings);
any loss of goodwill or reputation;
any special or indirect or consequential losses, howsoever arising

in any case whether or not such losses were within the contemplation of either of us at the date on which the event giving rise to the loss occurred. Without limitation, you (and not us) assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction in the event of any such loss or damage arising.

Nothing in these Terms of Service and Use shall exclude or limit our liability based on willful conduct or gross negligence. If and to the extent applicable law does not allow the above limitations of warranty and liability, such limitations shall not apply to you.

Notwithstanding any other provision in these Terms of Service and Use, nothing shall limit your rights as a consumer under mandatory provisions of applicable consumer protection legislation.

Indemnity

You agree to be fully responsible for (and fully indemnify us against) all claims, liability, damages, losses, expenses, including legal fees and costs suffered by us and arising out of or related to any breach of this Agreement by you or any other liabilities incurred by us arising out of your use of the services, or use by any other person accessing the services using your user account, device or internet access account; or your violation of any law or rights of any third party.

General

We may transfer or assign our rights and duties under this Agreement to any party at any time without notice to you, but this will not affect your rights or our obligations under this Agreement. You may not, however, transfer or assign any of your rights and duties under this Agreement to any other party.

This Agreement (as amended from time to time) contains the entire agreement and understanding between us in respect of all matters which are referred to herein and supersedes any prior written or oral agreement between us relating to such matters. No oral explanation or oral information given by either of us shall alter the interpretation of this Agreement. You confirm that, in agreeing to accept this Agreement, you have not relied on any representation that is not expressly included herein and you agree that you shall have no remedy in respect of any misrepresentation which has not become a term of this Agreement. However, nothing in this Agreement purports to exclude liability for any fraudulent statement or act.

If any part of provision this Agreement is deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be severable from this Agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions of the Agreement.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision in this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision unless acknowledged and agreed to by us in writing. Except as expressly set forth in this Agreement, the exercise by either party of any of its remedies under this Agreement will be without prejudice to its other remedies under this Agreement or otherwise permitted under law.

Governing Law

You agree that this Agreement and any dispute between you and us shall be governed in all respects by the laws of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and you unconditionally submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The services is offered by us from Saint Kitts and Nevis. We make no representations that the services are appropriate or available for use in any specific countries. Users of LocalCoinSwap are themselves responsible for making sure they are in compliance with legislation of the jurisdiction they operate and reside in. If your local laws do not permit you to use the services provided by LocalCoinSwap, you may not access this website.

Terms of Service and Use - LocalCoinSwap