Bitcoin for Canada Discussion

[Optional]

Just started using bitcoin this week and everything seemed ok till today . I am using shakepay and blockchain. Shakepay has been extremely fast with withdrawls back to my bank throu etrans.. about 30 min. Then today my first big issue with them . I sent them $1000 converted to bitcoin and initiated a send to my blockchain account at 9am and i get an email saying its been sent to blockchain . 10am still no funds so i get ahold of shakepay support and they state that its slower than usual with transfers but it should go out shortly. 4 hours later same thing and this time im told its a bug on shakepays end and its being worked on . now its 13 hours later and 10pm still nothing . feel like ive been given the run around and im so mad. Not sure what to think if its really an issue or something shady. Ive already had a few thousand in purchases in bitcoin and a few withdrawls back to my bank for around 5k with no ussues so i hope its a legit situation. should i be worried guys? Should i look for a new place to use ?

I'd say see how it pans out first.

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Just started using bitcoin this week and everything seemed ok till today . I am using shakepay and blockchain. Shakepay has been extremely fast with withdrawls back to my bank throu etrans.. about 30 min. Then today my first big issue with them . I sent them $1000 converted to bitcoin and initiated a send to my blockchain account at 9am and i get an email saying its been sent to blockchain . 10am still no funds so i get ahold of shakepay support and they state that its slower than usual with transfers but it should go out shortly. 4 hours later same thing and this time im told its a bug on shakepays end and its being worked on . now its 13 hours later and 10pm still nothing . feel like ive been given the run around and im so mad. Not sure what to think if its really an issue or something shady. Ive already had a few thousand in purchases in bitcoin and a few withdrawls back to my bank for around 5k with no ussues so i hope its a legit situation. should i be worried guys? Should i look for a new place to use ?

I wouldn't worry about Shakepay. They have been nothing less than stellar when it comes to dealing with issues. Sometimes there are problems that are not Shakepays fault, I have read recently that a few people have had etransfers held/blocked by their bank.

Please update us on the outcome. If you don't mind posting the bitcoin address or transaction ID of the blockchain address you requested the btc to be sent to we can all see what has happened. Maybe the transaction is being held up due to the miners fee etc.

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Here are the exchanges I believe are the most trustworthy as of today, based on my personal experience and what I've read from others.
I'm not basing my opinion on buy/sell rates or spreads but trustworthiness.
5) Einstein exchange - Based in Vancouver they are a smaller company with low trade volume etc but no major complaints.

Einstein bit the dust. Exit scam with customer funds - fiat & bitcoin. At one time they were trustworthy but that can change quickly in the crypto world.

https://www.coindesk.com/canadas-einstein-exchange-has-lost-bulk-of-users-claimed-ca16m-receiver

[CAPPER33]

My transfer hit blockchain after about 15 hours. Still not sure if ill keep using them.

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My transfer hit blockchain after about 15 hours. Still not sure if ill keep using them.

This was a blockchain issue due to a backlog of bitcoin transactions, not Shakepays fault as they broadcast the transaction immediately.
You would have had the same problem with any other exchange.

[juvunits]

Hey guys! If I’m using shakepay am I able to deposit into a sports book directly from shakepay. Is it recommended or should there be something in between? Thanks

[Krashman]

Hey guys! If I’m using shakepay am I able to deposit into a sports book directly from shakepay. Is it recommended or should there be something in between? Thanks

I use BRD wallet in between. Out of habit. Not sure if Shakepay would close your account for funding sportsbooks or not.

Also, I think Shakepay always has the same address, BRD uses a new one automatically for each transaction.

[Optional]

Hey guys! If I’m using shakepay am I able to deposit into a sports book directly from shakepay. Is it recommended or should there be something in between? Thanks

Everyone should check this stuff themselves before trusting money to an exchange.

https://legal.shakepay.com/

8.3 Prohibited Businesses and Prohibited Use

In connection with your use of the Shakepay Services, and your interactions with other users, and third parties you agree and represent you will not engage in any Prohibited Business or Prohibited Use, as defined in this section of the TOU. If you represent a Legal Entity, you represent and warrant that your Legal Entity is not involved in a Prohibited Business. We reserve the right at all times to monitor, review, retain and/or disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, sanctions programs, legal process or governmental request. We reserve the right to cancel and/or suspend your Shakepay Account and/or block transactions or freeze funds immediately and without notice if we determine, in our sole discretion, that your Account is associated with a Prohibited Use and/or a Prohibited Business.

The categories of businesses, business practices, and sale items listed in the prohibitions below are barred from using the Shakepay Services ("Prohibited Businesses"). Most Prohibited Businesses categories are the requirements of our banking providers or processors. The specific types of use listed below are representative, but not exhaustive. If you are uncertain as to whether or not your use of Shakepay Services involves a Prohibited Business, or have questions about how these requirements apply to you, please contact us at help@shakepay.com.

The Prohibited Businesses include the following:

“High risk businesses”, which are any businesses that we believe pose elevated financial risk, legal liability, or violate card network or bank policies;

Any business involved in any unfair, predatory or deceptive practices. These include but are not limited to: (a) investment opportunities or other services that promise high rewards; (b) the sale or resale of a service without added benefit to the buyer; (c) the resale of government offerings without authorization or added value; (d) any business that we determine in our sole discretion to be unfair, deceptive, or predatory towards consumers;

Any restricted financial services, including but not limited to check cashing, bail bonds and collections agencies;
Any investment and credit services, including but not limited to securities brokers; mortgage consulting or debt reduction services; credit counseling or repair; real estate opportunities or investment schemes;

Any businesses that involve gambling or games of chance, pornographic content, or illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia; and

Any business that violates any applicable law.

“Prohibited Use” shall be defined as using the Services in relation to any of these Prohibited Businesses, or using the Services in violation of any other prohibition found elsewhere in these TOU. Prohibited Use shall also include:

“Cleansing” Digital Currency by transferring Digital Currency in and out of your Wallet;

Attempting to conceal the origins of funds by transferring currencies through accounts, or any other similar activity; and

Using the Shakepay Services under someone else’s name with or without their consent.

[juvunits]

I use BRD wallet in between. Out of habit. Not sure if Shakepay would close your account for funding sportsbooks or not.

Also, I think Shakepay always has the same address, BRD uses a new one automatically for each transaction.

So is there a benefit to going through a wallet first?

[juvunits]

Everyone should check this stuff themselves before trusting money to an exchange.

https://legal.shakepay.com/

So judging by what you just posted it’s not a good idea to go from Shakepay straight to a sports book. As krashman mentioned above He uses BRD wallet. Is that a Canadian wallet. I’m not sure if it matters if it’s canadian or not and what would be some of the best wallets to use for Canadians?

[juvunits]

And one more thing, isn’t bitcoin untraceable and that is the reason why it is so popular for finding sports books? So how would shakepay even know that it is being used to find a sports book?

[Optional]

So judging by what you just posted it’s not a good idea to go from Shakepay straight to a sports book. As krashman mentioned above He uses BRD wallet. Is that a Canadian wallet. I’m not sure if it matters if it’s canadian or not and what would be some of the best wallets to use for Canadians?

BRD wallet is a desktop wallet software you run on your device. Only you have access/control of it.

It's hard to know how much it helps with each exchange but long term users believe it does help avoid account problems.

And one more thing, isn’t bitcoin untraceable and that is the reason why it is so popular for finding sports books? So how would shakepay even know that it is being used to find a sports book?

1) it's not untracable. The opposite. Every transaction is recorded on a public ledger allowing it to be traced.

And as far as how they work out you have used a bookmaker, one example is if they ask another Shakepay user and they say they have been depositing to a book. Shakepay can then follow those coins to a central wallet the book uses to consolidate funds and then identify the back trail of every spend that leads back to Shakepay from it.

The way you use the account, compared to investors and traders, might make you stand out for attention too.


Over the years most exchanges seem to not really care to go out of their way to look for gambling usage very often, so if you give them a break by not completely ignoring their terms and sending straight to a book from their wallet it probably makes it easier to keep ignoring the issue.

[juvunits]

BRD wallet is a desktop wallet software you run on your device. Only you have access/control of it.

It's hard to know how much it helps with each exchange but long term users believe it does help avoid account problems.



1) it's not untracable. The opposite. Every transaction is recorded on a public ledger allowing it to be traced.

And as far as how they work out you have used a bookmaker, one example is if they ask another Shakepay user and they say they have been depositing to a book. Shakepay can then follow those coins to a central wallet the book uses to consolidate funds and then identify the back trail of every spend that leads back to Shakepay from it.

The way you use the account, compared to investors and traders, might make you stand out for attention too.


Over the years most exchanges seem to not really care to go out of their way to look for gambling usage very often, so if you give them a break by not completely ignoring their terms and sending straight to a book from their wallet it probably makes it easier to keep ignoring the issue.

Thank you. Very helpful information.

[harvesters]

I don’t understand. If you are in Canada, why wouldn’t you play at pinnacle? If you are at pinnacle and you
want cad, don’t send it to an ewallet then cash out, just cash out using either of pinnacles same day straight to your bank account no fee (for the first one of the month) options. If if you’re paying a fee you are still way ahead cashing out straight from pinnacle.

[Krashman]

I don’t understand. If you are in Canada, why wouldn’t you play at pinnacle? If you are at pinnacle and you
want cad, don’t send it to an ewallet then cash out, just cash out using either of pinnacles same day straight to your bank account no fee (for the first one of the month) options. If if you’re paying a fee you are still way ahead cashing out straight from pinnacle.

Not every bettor wants to limit themselves to just one sportsbook.

In fact the smart bettor will have funds in many books so they can compare prices and place their bets at the book with the best price at that time.

Many like to grow their bankroll by chaseing bonuses, so you need as many funding options as possible.

I've had my Pinny account for a long time, before Pinnacle even offered CAD currency accounts so my account there is still in USD and I can't use Interac transfers which are for CAD accounts only. So I still use Instdebit most of the time at Pinny but BTC is good to have as an alternative.

Another example is SBR has many great contests that pay out winnings in BTC.

There are many reasons Canadian bettors want BTC as an option.

[juvunits]

I don’t understand. If you are in Canada, why wouldn’t you play at pinnacle? If you are at pinnacle and you
want cad, don’t send it to an ewallet then cash out, just cash out using either of pinnacles same day straight to your bank account no fee (for the first one of the month) options. If if you’re paying a fee you are still way ahead cashing out straight from pinnacle.

I’m assuming your referring to their interac transfer? The reason I don’t want to play at pinnacle is that I do most of my betting in-play and there are far better in-play options at other books. Pinnacle in-play is very basic.

[harvesters]

Sure - but you could withdraw from other books into a wallet, deposit that money into pinny, meet the AML requirements (I believe 1x) and withdraw. They have another option that you can instantly withdraw $1500 to your bank account other than Interac too.

[harvesters]

I’m assuming your referring to their interac transfer? The reason I don’t want to play at pinnacle is that I do most of my betting in-play and there are far better in-play options at other books. Pinnacle in-play is very basic.

Who has better in play odds than pinny? Other books have more options but their odds aren’t even close to as good as pinny.

[MeanPeopleSuck]

So is there a benefit to going through a wallet first?

You definitely want to have an intermediary wallet. There's several reasons for this:

1. As Opti pointed out above, exchanges don't like dealing directly with sportsbooks, so you run the risk of having your Shakepay account flagged or suspended or basically presenting you with a hassle you don't want.

2. When you request a withdrawal from Shakepay to a sportsbook, you won't know how long it'll take them before they send it out and even then you won't know whether they'll send it fast (higher fees) or slow (low fees) and some books have countdown clocks for your deposits.

With your own wallet, you'll be able to send a deposit exactly when you want to at exactly the speed (fees) you want.

3. More often than you'd guess, exchanges like Shakepay get hacked: https://blog.idex.io/all-posts/a-com...-hacks-updated Often exchanges reimburse their clients for their losses, but not always, so that's a non zero risk you don't want to run. Your personal wallet is unhackable.

OK, so what wallet should you choose?
There's hundreds of options, but I'd recommend this one: https://electrum.org/#download. It's a fantastically easy wallet to download, install and learn how to use, making it a great choice for a first intermediary wallet.

[juvunits]

You definitely want to have an intermediary wallet. There's several reasons for this:

1. As Opti pointed out above, exchanges don't like dealing directly with sportsbooks, so you run the risk of having your Shakepay account flagged or suspended or basically presenting you with a hassle you don't want.

2. When you request a withdrawal from Shakepay to a sportsbook, you won't know how long it'll take them before they send it out and even then you won't know whether they'll send it fast (higher fees) or slow (low fees) and some books have countdown clocks for your deposits.

With your own wallet, you'll be able to send a deposit exactly when you want to at exactly the speed (fees) you want.

3. More often than you'd guess, exchanges like Shakepay get hacked: https://blog.idex.io/all-posts/a-com...-hacks-updated Often exchanges reimburse their clients for their losses, but not always, so that's a non zero risk you don't want to run. Your personal wallet is unhackable.

OK, so what wallet should you choose?
There's hundreds of options, but I'd recommend this one: https://electrum.org/#download. It's a fantastically easy wallet to download, install and learn how to use, making it a great choice for a first intermediary wallet.

Thank you very helpful.

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PayTrie

https://paytrie.com/features

Fastest crypto on-ramp in Canada - instant funding and instant KYC.

Head office in Calgary.

[juvunits]

Hey guys! So I have money in my shakepay account. Now do I have to turn it into bitcoin before I can transfer it to BRD wallet? Also can I just add funds to BRD and transfer the funds to a sports book. Sorry really bad at this

[Krashman]

Hey guys! So I have money in my shakepay account. Now do I have to turn it into bitcoin before I can transfer it to BRD wallet?

Yep

Also can I just add funds to BRD and transfer the funds to a sports book. Sorry really bad at this

It appears you can buy BTC with BRD wallet, with a credit card, debit card. I never have, I just transfer BTC in and out of BRD.

Don't think I would risk giving my credit card number to them.

That's why I like funding with Shakespay via Interac, you don't share personal banking info.

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Canadian Exchange Shakepay Gets Cold Wallet Insurance to Protect Customer Funds

The Montreal-based crypto exchange hired blockchain forensics firm CipherBlade to conduct a full audit of its reserves and security policies. To safeguard its customers’ funds, the exchange also tapped a third-party custodian and secured a specific insurance policy for its cold wallets through Aon, underwritten by insurers with Lloyd’s of London, the exchange announced Wednesday.

Shakepay CEO Jean Amiouny told CoinDesk the exchange supports bitcoin buying and selling, but tries not to actually hold onto its customers crypto holdings any longer than necessary.

This reduces the risk that customer funds can be stolen should the exchange be compromised.

https://maxbit.cc/canadian-exchange-shakepay-gets-cold-wallet-insurance-to-protect-customer-funds/

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Who has better in play odds than pinny? Other books have more options but their odds aren’t even close to as good as pinny.

Pre match odds are often best at Pinnacle but in play or live betting Pinnacle is just ok, there are many other books that are better than Pinny for live wagering.

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A couple of recent developments.

Shakepay has some competition!

First off, Newton.co (for Canadians only) now has interac e-transfer as a funding/withdrawing method and their fees/spread seems to be better than Shakepay. Also, Newton is an actual exchange with multiple coins available, Shakepay only offers bitcoin and ethereum.

The crypto.com app also has interac e-transfers for Canadian customers.

More choices/options are a good thing.

https://www.newton.co/

https://crypto.com/en/index.html

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Forgot to mention crypto.com will be offering a Veeza card for Canadian residents soon.

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So Newton https://www.newton.co/

seems to be the new preferred go to for many crypto enthusiasts in Canada. Shakepay still popular but Newton currently has better buy/sell spreads and so the overall cost is lower.

Also, Paytrie https://paytrie.com/
They are good as an on/offramp for STABLECOINS only.
You Can buy/sell these stablecoins
BUSD
USDC
DAI
USDT
TUSD
PAX
Payouts take an hour via interac e-transfer. 1% fee.

Also, books like betcoin https://www.betcoin.ag/ allow funding/withdrawing via USDT which operates on the Ethereum blockchain so you can cashout to fiat relatively quickly.

Sportsbet.io https://sportsbet.io/sports

allows you to deposit/withdraw AND WAGER in USDT. So no price fluctuations, its price is locked to the US Dollar.

I hope more books start offering wagering in USDT or at least allow it. I know that BetOnline and Bookmaker accept other cryptos as deposit methods. If you know of others please post them here.

I'd recommend having accounts at Binance and Kraken in order to tradde/swap/convert to/from bitcoin using other cryptocurrencies such as USDT etc.

[Krashman]

So Newton https://www.newton.co/

seems to be the new preferred go to for many crypto enthusiasts in Canada. Shakepay still popular but Newton currently has better buy/sell spreads and so the overall cost is lower.

Great timing, was just looking for an alternative to Shakepay.

Did a withdrawal yesterday from Shakepay. Left the Shakepay app immediately. Never received anything!

No reply whatsoever from Shakepay support! Spoke with Interac support and they never received anything on their end destined for my email address.

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Krasher Shakepay is a small business and with the recent run of bitcoin they got swamped, as did many others. I wouldn't write them off just yet and its advantageous to have more than one out.

For Canadians Newton is good and so is crypto.com - both offer interac e-transfer for deposits and withdrawals.

[Krashman]

Krasher Shakepay is a small business and with the recent run of bitcoin they got swamped, as did many others. I wouldn't write them off just yet and its advantageous to have more than one out.

For Canadians Newton is good and so is crypto.com - both offer interac e-transfer for deposits and withdrawals.

You're right, can't have too many options.

Will give Newton a try for my next transaction. Thanks for the info.

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You're right, can't have too many options.

Will give Newton a try for my next transaction. Thanks for the info.

Krashers, let us know about your experience at Newton, for the benefit of others that are looking for another Canadian based exchange.

[Krashman]

I finally got my withdrawal from Shakepay, after 24 hours, but it looks like I am one of the lucky ones! Probably because my WD was relatively small.

Looking at Shakepay's Twitter and Facebook accounts, there are a LOT of unhappy customers, some still waiting over a month for their money, some claim they are filing fraud charges!

Customer support does not respond to anyone!

[AribaAriba]

So guys, what is the best payout method for canadians. BoL offers bitcoin and wire transfer but theire wire payout has 3% fee which is a turn off. If bitcoin, what is the prefered wallet of choice? Thanks

[Krashman]

So guys, what is the best payout method for canadians. BoL offers bitcoin and wire transfer but theire wire payout has 3% fee which is a turn off. If bitcoin, what is the prefered wallet of choice? Thanks

I use BRD wallet.

Then to Shakepay if I want to wthdraw to CAD bank account.

Regarding my troubles with Shakepay noted above, seems to be working smooth once again.