How The Orange Pages Work — FAQ

The Orange Pages FAQ

The Orange Pages are a free directory of Bitcoin businesses, tools and resources on YouBuyBitcoin.com. This page sets out the rules: what gets listed, how a listing is checked, what each label means, how the order is decided, and what we never do.

Free to read. Free to list yourself or your business. Submissions welcome. No ads, no paid placements, no paywall — ever.

Read it top to bottom, or jump to a section. If anything here is unclear or wrong, write to [email protected].

What The Orange Pages are

What are The Orange Pages?

A free, independent directory of Bitcoin businesses, tools and resources. Places to buy, hold, spend and earn bitcoin. Software and hardware for running it. News, education, communities and events. Professional services. And the projects and companies built around bitcoin, each labelled for what it is.

Every listing says what it is in plain words, and carries one label that tells you how it relates to bitcoin.

What does it cost?

Nothing. It's free to read and free to list. There are no accounts, no ads and no paid placements.

No paywall, ever. That isn't a pricing decision that could change later. Pushing back against paywalled Bitcoin knowledge is why this site exists.

Who can be listed?

Anyone with a real connection to bitcoin: a company, a project, a person offering a service, a community, a podcast, an event. You can list yourself or your business, and you can suggest a listing you know. Services that have nothing to do with bitcoin are not added.

What does “Bitcoin is money if it is used” mean here?

It's the founder's principle, and the directory is built on it. Bitcoin works as money when people use it: buy it, hold it, send it, spend it, earn it.

So the two ₿ labels go only to places where real bitcoin is used as money, and to tools for doing that. Everything else that is about bitcoin gets its own fair label, so you can tell at a glance what a listing is. The same idea sets the order: Bitcoin first.

Is a listing a recommendation?

No. A listing means it passed our checks and is described truthfully. It doesn't mean we vouch for the business, and nothing here is financial advice. Read any notice, check the sources, and decide for yourself. See the disclaimer.

Some listings deal in other coins too. Why are they here?

Many exchanges, wallets and data sites handle more than bitcoin. They're listed for what they offer for bitcoin, and their label says what that is.

Can I reuse the directory?

Yes. The directory's text is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. Share it and adapt it, credit “The Orange Pages — YouBuyBitcoin.com”, and publish your version under the same licence. Business names and logos belong to their owners.

Submitting a listing

How do I submit a listing?

Email [email protected]. The contribute page has the other ways to help.

No form, no template, no minimum. Send what you have:

the name and the website;
one or two sentences on what it does for bitcoin;
where it operates, if it's local;
anything a reader should know: open source or not, Lightning, whether you have to verify your identity (KYC), whether it holds your coins;
a source for any claim we can't see on the website itself;
whether you run it or you use it.

Can I submit my own business? Someone else's?

Both. Owners submit their own businesses. Community members submit services they know. Every submission goes through the same checks.

Do I have to pay, or give anything in return?

No. We never ask for payment, a link back, a discount, an affiliate deal or anything else in return for a listing. A business with an affiliate programme gets no head start, and a business without one is not held back.

What do you check before a listing goes live?

Every submission is checked before it's listed:

It's live and it's what you described. The website loads, the name matches, and the business does what the submission says.
The claims are true. We check them against the business's own site, docs, official announcements or code first; then official registries and regulators; then reputable press.
Recent incidents. We search the news for hacks, breaches, closures, acquisitions, bankruptcies, lawsuits and sanctions. Anything we find is confirmed from a primary source and shown on the listing as a notice.
The label. We decide which one of the eight labels fits, using the rules on this page.

If something can't be confirmed, the listing waits until it can.

When is a new mining pool listed?

Once it has found at least one block and paid its miners for it. Until then there is nothing yet to check: no block anyone can look up, and no payout a miner has received.

Will you publish my description as written?

Not always. Every listing is written in the same plain style, so readers can compare like with like:

factual and in the present tense: a tagline of about 70 characters, a description of two or three sentences;
no superlatives such as “leading”, “largest” or “best”, unless quoted and attributed;
claims attributed (“according to the company”), and figures that change shown only with a date and a source;
the plain website address, with no referral or tracking parameters.

How long does it take?

Submissions are reviewed by hand, so we don't promise a number of days. If you've heard nothing for a while, write again. Email does go missing.

How do I correct or remove a listing?

Every listing has Suggest an edit and Report a problem buttons. Both open an email to [email protected] with the listing's name filled in, or you can write to us directly. Say what should change, and include a source if you have one. A correction is checked like a new submission before it's published.

Owners can ask for their listing to be removed. If you can, write from an address at the listing's own domain so we can confirm the request comes from you. Each request is handled by hand. A business that has closed, changed what it does or been acquired moves to Once upon a time instead of disappearing.

The labels

What is a label?

Every listing has exactly one Bitcoin label. It answers one question: how does this listing relate to bitcoin as money? There are eight, shown here in their order on the page.

The eight Bitcoin labels, in page order
Label	What it means
₿ USE	Real bitcoin moves through it for you.
₿ TOOL	Software or hardware for running, securing, inspecting or building on Bitcoin.
INFO	Learn about, follow or track bitcoin. No bitcoin moves through it.
SERVICE	Professional help around bitcoin, from people or companies.
PROTOCOL	A separate network, sidechain, layer 2 or token system built around bitcoin.
WRAPPED BTC	Bitcoin only as wrapped, bridged or synthetic tokens on other chains.
TREASURY	A company whose link to bitcoin is the BTC on its balance sheet.
NO BTC	No direct Bitcoin economy: bitcoin is not used there as money.

The label is separate from a listing's other tags: features such as Lightning or Open Source, and Affiliate or PROMO. A listing can have many tags. It always has one label.

What does ₿ USE mean?

The test: real bitcoin moves through it for you, on-chain or over Lightning. You can buy, sell or swap real BTC there; hold it, or have it held for you (software wallets, hardware wallets, custody, multisig); send or receive it; pay with it or accept it (payment processors, point-of-sale, merchants, gift cards); borrow or lend against real BTC; or earn it, by mining (pools, hosting) or as rewards.

Examples: exchanges and on-ramps, Bitcoin ATMs, peer-to-peer markets, wallets and hardware wallets, custody, payment processors, bitcoin-backed loans, mining pools.

Why it exists: this is bitcoin used as money, which is what the directory is for. ₿ USE listings are in the first group.

What does ₿ TOOL mean?

The test: software or hardware for running, securing, inspecting or building on Bitcoin itself, where the tool doesn't hold or move your coins for you as a service.

Examples: Bitcoin Core and other node software, node operating systems, Lightning implementations, developer libraries, block explorers, mining hardware and firmware, mining protocols, test tools.

Why it exists: the network works because people run it and build on it. Tools for doing that share the first group with ₿ USE.

What does INFO mean?

The test: you learn about, follow or track bitcoin there, and no bitcoin moves through it. Bitcoin has to be a real, substantial part of what it covers. If it isn't, the label is NO BTC.

Examples: news, media, podcasts, books, courses, education sites, research, design guides, analytics and market-data dashboards, treasury trackers, communities, forums, meetups, conferences and events.

Why it exists: knowledge isn't money, but it's how people learn to use it. INFO opens the second group.

What does SERVICE mean?

The test: professional help around bitcoin, provided by people or companies, where the product is the service, not moving your bitcoin.

Examples: lawyers, tax advisers, tax and accounting software, insurance, compliance and chain-analysis firms, consultants, investment and venture firms.

Why it exists: these help you deal with bitcoin, but you don't use bitcoin through them. SERVICE shares the second group with INFO.

What does PROTOCOL mean?

The test: a separate network, sidechain, layer 2, staking or token system built around bitcoin, with its own token or its own consensus; or a protocol aligned with bitcoin that isn't about money. Real BTC can sometimes be pegged in, but the listing is the other system.

Examples: Stacks, Babylon, Nostr.

Why it exists: when you use one, you use that system and its rules, not bitcoin directly. The label says so, without calling it good or bad.

What does WRAPPED BTC mean?

The test: it deals in bitcoin only as wrapped, bridged or synthetic tokens or derivatives on other chains: WBTC, cbBTC, or BTC perpetuals settled in stablecoins, for example. Real BTC never goes in or out.

Examples: Uniswap, dYdX, PancakeSwap.

Why it exists: a token that tracks bitcoin's price is not bitcoin. Wrapped and bridged tokens depend on whoever holds the real coins behind them; synthetic ones have no bitcoin behind them at all. The label has its own colour so you can spot it.

What does TREASURY mean?

The test: a company whose link to bitcoin is the BTC it holds on its own balance sheet. It offers you no way to use bitcoin.

Examples: Strategy, Metaplanet.

The listing carries the line “Not your keys, not your bitcoin.” Owning a company's shares is not owning bitcoin: you own part of a company, and you hold no keys.

Why it exists: a treasury company is about bitcoin, but you can't use bitcoin there. The label says that plainly. TREASURY comes second to last.

What does NO BTC mean?

The test: no direct Bitcoin economy: bitcoin is not used there as money. The site may talk about bitcoin or show its price, but it isn't a place to use bitcoin, a tool for it, information or a service about it, a protocol, a treasury or a wrapped-BTC venue.

At the time of writing, no active listing carries it.

Why it exists: so that every listing gets a truthful label. Anything that fails every other test is named for what it is and placed last. It isn't hidden. NO BTC is a plain tag, not a warning.

How are hard cases decided?

By written rules, not by taste. The main ones:

Label what the listing mainly is, as a reader would use it. A company whose main product moves real bitcoin is ₿ USE, even if it also publishes articles. A publisher that runs a small shop is still INFO.
Decentralized exchanges. A decentralized exchange that swaps real, native BTC is ₿ USE. One that only trades wrapped BTC is WRAPPED BTC. One that lives on a bitcoin layer 2 and mostly trades pegged tokens is PROTOCOL, unless a working native-BTC route is its main product.
Hardware. Hardware wallets and signing devices are ₿ USE: they hold your bitcoin. Mining hardware is ₿ TOOL. Mining pools and hosting are ₿ USE: they pay out real BTC.
Public mining companies. MARA, Riot, CleanSpark and Core Scientific are TREASURY, a founder’s ruling: they are listed companies, and their shares are not bitcoin. MARA’s own pool, MARA Pool, is TREASURY too. Independent mining pools are ₿ USE.
Nodes. Node software is ₿ TOOL. Step-by-step guides for running a node are INFO.
Tax. Tax and accounting software is SERVICE. ₿ TOOL is for tools that work on the Bitcoin network itself.
Treasuries. A site that tracks treasury companies is INFO. The companies themselves are TREASURY.
Payments. Accepting bitcoin as payment doesn't make a listing ₿ USE on its own. A media site that takes bitcoin donations is still INFO.

When two labels genuinely fit, we pick the closer one and record the reason. The hardest calls go to the founder, and those rulings are written down, so the next similar case is decided the same way.

Where does a label come from?

From the listing's own record, when that settles it. Otherwise from the web: the official site first, then its docs, then reputable press. PROTOCOL, WRAPPED BTC, TREASURY and NO BTC are always checked on the web. Every label is checked again in the monthly review.

How is ₿ USE different from the “Accepts BTC” tag?

“Accepts BTC” is a feature tag: the business takes bitcoin as payment. The label is about what the listing offers you. A podcast that takes bitcoin donations has the tag and the INFO label. A data site that doesn't take bitcoin can still be INFO.

What do the other tags mean?

Accepts BTC: Accepts bitcoin as a payment method.
Lightning: Supports the Lightning Network.
No-KYC: Listed as usable without identity verification (KYC). Rules can change, so check with the provider.
Open Source: The source code is public.
Custodial: The company holds the keys to your bitcoin. Not your keys, not your bitcoin: learn about self-custody.
Shared keys: You hold enough keys to move your bitcoin on your own; the company holds one more key.
Group-held: A named group (a federation, validators or bridge signers) holds the bitcoin, not you alone.
Non-Custodial: Only you hold the keys to your bitcoin.
Tor Required: Reachable only over the Tor network.
Affiliate: The listing has an affiliate link. See Affiliate links.
PROMO: The listing offers readers a discount code, and YouBuyBitcoin earns nothing from it. See PROMO codes.

Feature tags reflect the listing data. Requirements can change, so check with the provider.

How do you decide who holds the bitcoin?

From each company’s own terms or documentation. Every listing with a custody class shows one line saying who holds which key or which group holds the bitcoin, the source, and the date we checked it. A listing has one class or none: none means we have not settled it, never that it is non-custodial. Mining pools, peer-to-peer escrow and exchanges that mix several kinds of bitcoin get a custody line instead of a class. Custody models change, so the monthly truth pass checks every class again.

I think a label is wrong. What do I do?

Write to [email protected] with the listing's name and your reason, and a source if you have one. A label change goes through the same review as any other correction.

The order: rules, not money

In what order are listings shown?

Bitcoin first, by label group:

₿ USE and ₿ TOOL
INFO and SERVICE
PROTOCOL
WRAPPED BTC
TREASURY
NO BTC

Inside each group: open-source listings first, then everything else, then listings marked Not recommended. Inside each of those, the order rotates every Monday (UTC). It's the same for everyone all week, so no name keeps the top spot.

Why Bitcoin first?

Because this is a Bitcoin directory, and people come here to use bitcoin. What a listing offers for bitcoin is a fact you can check on every listing; it isn't a judgement of quality. Anything Bitcoin, even with a warning on it, comes before anything that isn't.

Why open source first?

Anyone can read open-source code and check what it does. That's something you can verify, so it can set the order without anyone's opinion. A listing counts as open source when its source code is public.

Why does the order rotate?

A fixed order gives the same names the top spot forever. The weekly rotation shares it out. It isn't random per visit or per person: everyone sees the same order all week, and it changes on Monday.

Why isn't A–Z the default?

Because names that start with “Bit…” would always win. At the time of writing, about one listing name in seven starts with “Bit”. Sorting by name is still one choice away. It just isn't the default.

What happens when I pick a sort or search?

Your choice works inside the label groups. Sort by name and you get A–Z inside ₿ USE and ₿ TOOL, then A–Z inside INFO and SERVICE, and so on down. Search results are ranked by how well they match, inside the same groups.

One sort is different, and only when you pick it: Open source first puts every open-source listing on top, then the rest. Inside each half, the groups still come first.

Is anything hidden?

No. The order decides where a listing appears, never whether it appears. Filters you choose narrow the list; we don't filter anything out for you. A category page starts with its category selected, and you can clear it.

The only listings outside the main list are archived ones, and they have their own section: Once upon a time.

Can money change the order?

No. There are no paid placements and no featured slots. The code that orders the list never reads whether a listing has an affiliate link. A listing that pays a commission and one that doesn't are ordered by the same rules.

Notices

What is a notice?

A dated box at the top of a listing, with facts you should know before you use it: what happened, when, the sources, and our position. There are two kinds: Advisory and Not recommended.

What does an Advisory mean?

Facts you should know: a hack, a data leak, a closure or wind-down, a regulatory action, a service that's offline. Each advisory carries its date, links to its sources, names them, and asks you to check them yourself.

An advisory is information, not a verdict. The listing works as usual. A hack that was fully covered, or a business winding down with a window to withdraw your funds, gets an advisory.

What does Not recommended mean?

It's the site's own position, explained on the listing. We use it only after a serious security failure that put users' funds at risk. The notice states the facts with their sources, our position, and what would lift it, such as an independent audit and a full public post-mortem.

The listing stays visible: nothing is hidden, including the warning. It goes last in its label group. It has no main “Open website” button. The link sits below the notice, after a one-line caution.

Can a business relationship change a notice?

No. Partners, affiliates and everyone else get the same treatment. The same kind of fact gets the same visibility, wherever it appears on the site. A notice is never softened or removed for a business reason.

How long does a notice stay?

As long as it's true. Every notice is checked again in the monthly review: is it still current, or has the situation ended? When a business closes for good, its listing moves to Once upon a time with the date and the reason.

I know about an incident that isn't shown. What do I do?

Send it to [email protected] with a link to the source. We confirm it from a primary source before we publish a notice.

Affiliate links: never forced

What is an affiliate link?

A link that carries YouBuyBitcoin's referral code. If you sign up or buy through it, the business pays YouBuyBitcoin a commission. Some listings have one.

Do I have to use it?

No. A listing with an affiliate link shows two equal buttons, side by side:

Open website (affiliate link): through our referral code.
Open website (plain link): the same website, with no referral code.

Pick either. If the listing is marked Not recommended, both buttons sit below the notice.

Do I get anything for using the affiliate link?

Sometimes. If the business gives our readers a benefit through the link, such as a discount, it's shown next to the buttons. If nothing is shown, we know of no benefit for you.

Does a commission change anything?

No. A commission never changes the order, a label or a notice. It's never a reason to list a business, or to leave one out. Each affiliate listing says so next to its buttons.

We don't publish the exact share. The terms of an agreement aren't always ours to publish. What we do publish, on every affiliate listing, is that a commission exists.

Why use affiliate links at all?

They help keep the site free: no ads, no paywall, no paid placements.

How do I see which listings have one?

They carry an Affiliate tag. You can filter for it, or filter it out.

Does the affiliate link tell the business anything?

It tells the business the visit came through YouBuyBitcoin. That's how the commission is counted. The plain link carries no referral code. After that, the business's own privacy policy applies, whichever button you use.

Once upon a time

What is “Once upon a time”?

The archive of The Orange Pages. A listing moves there when the business closes, stops being a Bitcoin service, or is acquired. Each one keeps its date, the reason and the sources. Kept for the record.

Why not just delete them?

Because the history matters. Someone looking up a name they once used should find what happened to it, with sources. A directory that quietly erases its past can't be checked.

Why aren't the old websites linked?

Domains get sold. A link to a closed business could send you to whoever owns the name now. So the old address is shown as plain text, and the sources are linked instead.

Are archived listings in search and the counts?

No. They're not in the main list, the counts, the filters or search. They appear only in Once upon a time.

Keeping it true

How do you keep listings accurate?

With a full check of every listing, every month. For each one:

Is the website live, and is it still the same business doing the same thing?
Are the claims still true, checked against the business's own site, docs and announcements, official registries and regulators, and reputable press?
Has anything happened recently: a hack, a breach, a closure, an acquisition, a bankruptcy, a lawsuit, sanctions?
Is an existing notice still current?
Is the label still right?

Who decides what changes?

The monthly check only proposes fixes, and its research is done with AI assistance. Nothing changes on the site until a person has reviewed the change. Approved fixes then go through the site's normal release checks before they're published.

What do the Listed and Updated dates mean?

Listed is the day the listing was added. Updated is the day its record last changed. Neither one is a “verified on” date.

I found a mistake. What do I do?

Use Report a problem or Suggest an edit on the listing, or write to [email protected]. Tell us what's wrong, and include a source if you have one. When something we published turns out to be untrue, we fix it.

Privacy

No cookies, no accounts, no IP logging by us. We count visits anonymously with Cloudflare Web Analytics.

What's stored about me?

We store nothing about you while you browse. Your saved listings, your compare pick (kept only until you close the tab), your theme and similar settings stay in your own browser's storage and are never sent to us. Clear this site's data in your browser to remove them.

What happens when I open a listing's website?

It opens in a new tab, and from then on you're on that business's site, under its privacy policy. Listing links don't pass on the page you came from. An affiliate link carries our referral code, so that business can tell the visit came through YouBuyBitcoin. The plain link doesn't.

The full details are in the privacy policy.

Using the directory

How do I search?

Type in the search box. Press / to jump there. Search looks at names, tags, taglines, categories, places, features and descriptions.

What are search words like `cat:` and `btc:`?

Short words that narrow a search. cat:wallets keeps one category. btc:use keeps one Bitcoin label. Combine them with ordinary words. Press ? to see them all.

How do filters work?

Filters narrow the list by category, Bitcoin label, feature (Lightning, No-KYC, Open Source and the rest) and place. The order rules still apply to what's left. A category page starts with its category selected; clear it to see everything.

How do I change the order?

Use Sort by: name, dates, features, place and more. Your choice works inside the label groups.

Can I change how it looks?

Yes. There are three themes: dark, light and colour. Use the theme button, or press t. Your choice is remembered in your own browser. You can also switch between table, directory and card views.

What do the stars mean?

They mark the listings you've saved. Tap the star, or press s, to save one. Saved shows them all and stays in this browser until you clear it. Stars are never a rating.

Compare is a separate, short pick for this visit. Tap ⧉ Compare on any listing, or press x, then open Compare to see your pick side by side. It empties when you close the tab. In Saved, Compare these puts everything you've saved into Compare in one tap.

What does the shuffle button do?

It opens a random listing from your current results. Press 🔀 on a listing card, or r, as often as you like; it never lands on the listing you already have open.

The pick is purely random. Your browser draws it on your own device, with the same built-in random generator it uses for security. Nothing is sent to us, nothing is stored, and nobody, not even us, chooses or can predict what comes up.

Is there a list of keyboard shortcuts?

Press ? to open help with every shortcut and search word.

Does it work without JavaScript?

Yes, in a simpler form. Each category page has a plain list at the bottom with every active listing in that category: name, website, tagline, label and category. The main page lists the categories with links. None of it needs JavaScript.

What we never do

No ads.
No paid placements. No “featured” or “sponsored” slots.
No paywall, ever. No accounts.
No charge to be listed, and nothing asked in return.
No changing the order, a label or a notice for money.
No star ratings or scores. Stars mark what you saved.
No selling of data. No cookies, no IP logging by us.
No asking for anything in return for a PROMO.
No erasing history. Closed, changed and acquired listings aren't deleted; they move to Once upon a time.

If you ever see us break one of these, tell us: [email protected].

Last updated 2 October 2026.

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