Here at Paxful, we love hearing stories from customers and how our platform has changed their lives. Our community may be large, but it’s the genuine improvements we see made in lives across the world that make us feel closer.

As you know, bitcoin has been blazing its way through South America and Paxful is proud to be working with some incredible people that share our vision of financial inclusion. The once elusive digital currency has taken off in Colombia, where younger generations have taken a charge against major institutions. Instead, they’re looking to platforms like Paxful for opportunities they were once denied.

John N. is a vendor that hails from a town in the south of Colombia called Mercaderes Cauca. For the past 20 years, however, he’s been living in the city of Cali. Situated near the water southwest of Bogotá, Cali is a bustling place full of energy and hungry young minds. For that reason, the interest in cryptocurrency has spiked among the youth. Though he was initially on a similar track to many of his peers, he took a turn and decided to try something new.

“I didn’t finish college. I graduated from high school and started at university, but felt that it was not what I really wanted for my life. I didn’t want to be in a daily routine and retire at 60 years old to enjoy what I had built and so, I decided to drop out.”

At the young age of 23, John began investing in a curious new currency that the world was talking about. He made some initial investments but out of the blue, the platform he was using disappeared. That caused many people, including John himself, to lose a lot of money. That was a turning point for him. At that moment, he made the decision to handle bitcoin on his own. Enter Paxful.

Interested in what Paxful has to offer, John ended up paying 700 USD to an acquaintance in order to learn how to use our platform. He admits, however, that it did not teach him all that much. Instead, he opted to teach himself by engaging in trades and other users. 

“At first, I used to trade with small amounts and now I work with larger volumes just from having made compound interest. On top of that, I have earned more by referring my friends and family.”

Thanks to people like John, Paxful’s user base in Colombia has been growing at a rapid pace. Opening opportunities for people from all kinds of backgrounds are exactly what our co-founders had hoped for and slowly but surely, it has become a reality. John still has a lot he wants to accomplish and it’s evident that he has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“In the future, I see Paxful as one of the biggest platforms that are very safe against money laundering. What I’d like to achieve with Paxful is to be able to save enough money to buy my own house my way and in the way, I would like to.”

Visit Paxful to buy bitcoin.