Looking for ways to maintain the value of our savings is a global practice, and in critical economies like Venezuela, using them becomes vital. In the last decade, Bitcoin has positioned itself as an excellent option for savers, either because of its high market value or because of its upward trend. Despite all the advantages that Bitcoin can provide us, the question always arises: How can I buy this currency? For outsiders, it can be downright confusing. If this is your case, don’t worry, This guide aims to clear your doubts.
Here’s where it comes into play Surbitcoinweb portal which allows you to buy and sell bitcoins using Venezuela’s local currency, the bolivar. Without having to turn to funds of dubious trust or people who can threaten our security, Surbitcoin has been one of the most active digital currency markets in Venezuela since its launch in 2014.
Surbitcoin offers us the ease of acquiring and selling our bitcoins, without compromising on security. This is the case that for payment and withdrawal, this portal will ask us to enter a photo of our identification document, which prevents people from laundering money on this portal for criminal purposes.
Now, what a list of school supplies we must have on hand before starting:
- Digital photo of personal document (Cedula or passport)
- Photo or PDF of our RIF
- A personal “selfie” photo that holds the identification document and makes it clearly visible.
With all this in hand, let’s begin.
The first thing we’re going to do is go to the main page Surbitcoin. Once there, we’ll select the Register button.
Homepage of the bitcoin to bolivar exchange site, Surbitcoin.
After clicking, the registration form opens where we have to fill in the fields with our data. Finally, we will be asked to confirm our email and, after doing so, a box will appear in which we will enter the unique confirmation number that was sent to our email.
Once you’ve done this, READY! we have our own account; but this is the easy part, now we have to verify it to be able to deposit and withdraw money. To do this, we will go to the menu on the right and select ‘Verify Your Account’as shown in the image below.
Here we have to enter personal data. We must remember that these data must be real, because if they do not match the documents that the verification will ask for, we will not be able to use the service. After filling in the fields, in order to continue, we must upload the documents we mentioned at the beginning of this guide (Cedula or Passport, RIF and Personal Photo) as shown in the following image.
If we doubt how to take a photo, below is an example of how we should take a “selfie”.
After we’ve done this, we’ll let you continue. Our verification at that time will remain in ‘processing’ as we have to wait for the administrators to verify the veracity of the information provided. To check the status of our account, we can go to the menu section My profile and see our verification status as shown below.
If we see ‘Yes’ in the verification (as in the picture), GREAT! We already have a verified account and are ready to make transactions on the Surbitcoin platform.
Deposit bolivars to Surbitcoin
When our account is verified, Surbitcoin gives us the possibility to pay both bolivar and bitcoin. To do this, we go to the menu section Deposits and the following screen will open.
Surbitcoin deposit section. Deposit options in bolivars and bitcoins.
At the top we have to select our preferred method. Don’t worry though, in this tutorial we’ll show you how to make a deposit both ways.
We will use as the first case deposits in bolivars. After clicking on this option, a box will open in which we can choose the bank to which we want to make a deposit. It should be noted that the Mercantile account deposit option is not enabled at the time of publication of this guide, so only the Banesco current account deposit option is available. After selection, the following screen will be shown to us.
Bank account selection screen for deposit.
Here we have to enter the exact amount of the deposit that we will make and pressing continue will generate the next field.
Instructions for deposit payment.
This information is used to pay the deposit, which we can print by clicking the button below. If deposits are made directly from Banesco, Surbitcoin guarantees that the transaction will be effective in thirty (30) minutes accompanying. On the other hand, if you do it from other banks, you have a period of up to 72 hours.
After we make a deposit or transfer, we need to take a photo of the receipt that will be requested to confirm the deposit. To perform this validation, we will go to the ‘Deposits’ section and see the table of deposits made, as shown in the following image.
Once there, we will verify the transaction according to the amount we have made, click on send receipt and fill in the requested information, as well as attach a document or photo of our payment receipt. Having done all this correctly, all we have to do is wait for the amount paid to be displayed on the right side of the menu, and that’s it, we will have our money available to buy bitcoins.
Deposit Bitcoins and Surbitcoin
On the other hand we have bitcoin deposits, which are somewhat simpler. In the same section ‘Deposit’ we click on Deposit Bitcoin, Here a box will be generated warning us that an address will be created for one transaction. After that we will press continue and it will give us the address cartera bitcoin, just like his pair of QR codes. It is important to note that the specified address can only be used for one shipping transaction, so if you want to send a new shipment later, you must use a new one.
Bitcoin wallet address for one deposit in Surbitcoin. If you want to make another transaction, you need to request a different wallet address.
After we have already sent our shipment, we will have the availability of our bitcoins on the Surbitcoin platform after they receive a confirmation from the miners of the Bitcoin network, as shown in the following image.
READY! We already have the means to acquire bolivars. Let’s continue.
Buying and selling bitcoins
Now that we have funds in our account we can start our operations. There are currently two methods for buying and selling bitcoins in Surbitcoin. To enter the first method, we will click on the Surbitcoin logo in the upper left corner, which will take us to the next page (it can also be accessed by clicking on the option ‘Order Book’ from the menu on the right).
The ‘Order Book’ section for buying and selling. Shows all offers on the portal.
Here, as we see at the top, we can set the amount we want to buy or sell, setting the price per bitcoin. On the right side, we can see the quotation of the current buying and selling rate in bolivars. For beginners, this is usually a bit cumbersome, so I recommend a much simpler method.
In the side menu, we will click on the option ‘Buy or Sell’there it will take us to the next window.
‘Buy or Sell’ section to exchange at market price.
The method here is simple, it is only necessary to set the amount of bolivars or bitcoins that we want to buy or sell, and the system will automatically perform the operation depending on the current market buying and selling rate. Therefore, we do not need to ask at what price to buy or sell them. Also note that Surbitcoin will charge us a commission amounting to about 1.5% of the total transaction.
After we complete our transaction and it is confirmed, the resulting balance will be displayed in the right menu with the transaction fee already deducted, as shown in the following image.
A section showing the balances of users’ bolivar and bitcoin accounts.
This same menu will serve as shortcut to perform deposit and withdrawal actions in bolivars and bitcoinsusing the buttons shown with incoming and outgoing arrows shown next to each state.
Withdrawal of funds
After we have already completed our purchase and sale transactions, the next step is to withdraw funds from the portal. To do this, we go to the Withdrawal option, which will open the following window.
Withdrawal section of Surbitcoin. It allows you to send bolivars or bitcoins outside the platform.
Once here, we have to choose whether we want to withdraw our bolivars or bitcoins.
To withdraw bolivars, we have to press the corresponding button and choose which option we prefer to make the transfer. The options that Surbitcoin offers us are: Banesco current account, Other national banks and Provincial bank. (In the case of a Banesco current account, the withdrawal is made in a few minutes)
Regardless of the option, the data we have to fill in will be very similar: client account code, bank, account type, amount to withdraw, owner’s name, ID number and email. As shown in the following figure.
Screen for withdrawing Surbitcoin bolivars to the user’s bank account.
Just in case bitcoin withdrawal We have to select the appropriate button and the following window will open.
Surbitcoin bitcoin withdrawal screen to user’s personal digital wallet.
Here we must enter the address of our personal wallet, which can be scanned with a QR code if we have a web camera on our computer; We will also enter the amount we want to withdraw. Surbitcoin does not allow withdrawals of less than 0.001 BTC per transaction. After we have done all this, we will select the OK option and all we have to do is wait for the transaction to be confirmed in order to have the currencies in the wallet.
Surbitcoin is currently in full growth and due to the high demand that currently exists in the country, there are often cases when the portal will tell us when making a purchase that at that moment there is not enough cryptocurrency supply to cover our demand. So, if you are one of the adventurous types, and like to keep your savings in good hands, Surbitcoin is fully available to help you.
Update: Surbitcoin ceased operations on February 3, 2017.
