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San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

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Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#11

Post by azianmike »

appenin wrote: post #9
Avalaxy wrote: post #3

Who is this aimed at? Reqular people buying some Bitcoin don't care about a price difference of $1. Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that.

>Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that. I doubt this actually happens, at least in any significant scale, in real life. Algorithmic traders already make enough money in less dangerous environments than Bitcoin.

I don't know, APIs are becoming extremely easy to use nowadays. I've managed to create my own simple arbitrage script in about an afternoon using APIs from btc-e and coinbase. I don't have it live and probably never will (written in Python, can only imagine how badly I'll get burned) but it was a fun project!

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#13

Post by kasey_junk »

appenin wrote: post #9
Avalaxy wrote: post #3

Who is this aimed at? Reqular people buying some Bitcoin don't care about a price difference of $1. Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that.

>Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that. I doubt this actually happens, at least in any significant scale, in real life. Algorithmic traders already make enough money in less dangerous environments than Bitcoin.

There after any number of algo trading opportunities in bitcoin. In fact, Algo prop shops may be uniquely positioned to trade bitcoin as more established entities can't or won't.

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#14

Post by kasey_junk »

dublinben wrote: post #4

Treating Bitcoin like an investment commodity just harms its utility as a currency. I wish they were focusing on how to make spending Bitcoin easier, rather than making tools for speculators.

How are currencies not commodities?

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#15

Post by colanderman »

dublinben wrote: post #4

Treating Bitcoin like an investment commodity just harms its utility as a currency. I wish they were focusing on how to make spending Bitcoin easier, rather than making tools for speculators.

There'd be much more incentive to spend Bitcoin if it were not deflationary by design.

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#16

Post by waterlesscloud »

appenin wrote: post #9
Avalaxy wrote: post #3

Who is this aimed at? Reqular people buying some Bitcoin don't care about a price difference of $1. Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that.

>Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that. I doubt this actually happens, at least in any significant scale, in real life. Algorithmic traders already make enough money in less dangerous environments than Bitcoin.

There are any number of bots trading and arbitraging on the bitcoin exchanges. I've helped someone write one myself.

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#17

Post by itodd »

appenin wrote: post #9
Avalaxy wrote: post #3

Who is this aimed at? Reqular people buying some Bitcoin don't care about a price difference of $1. Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that.

>Traders looking to do arbitrage probably already have their own bots and scripts to do that. I doubt this actually happens, at least in any significant scale, in real life. Algorithmic traders already make enough money in less dangerous environments than Bitcoin.

It happens. I wrote an arbitrage script that makes a little bit of money every day (only requires me to rebalance the wallets every so often). Only risk is holding whatever is presenting the most lucrative arbitrage opportunity.

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#18

Post by jc123 »

TheOsiris wrote: post #2

Hi guys, I'm one of the founders of SFOX.com. It's been great working on the product with the great team at YCombinator. It was incredibly helpful to us. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback on SFOX. Thanks!

When there were cheap coins at gox, would sfox have been able to buy them on behalf of the user?

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#19

Post by pstrateman »

TheOsiris wrote: post #2

Hi guys, I'm one of the founders of SFOX.com. It's been great working on the product with the great team at YCombinator. It was incredibly helpful to us. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback on SFOX. Thanks!

So... you're operating what is effective a commodities brokerage?

I assume you've got enough insurance to cover fighting with the CFTC and the SEC?

Re: San Francisco Open Exchange (YC S14) Aims to Be the E-Trade of Bitcoin

#20

Post by dublinben »

kasey_junk wrote: post #14
dublinben wrote: post #4

Treating Bitcoin like an investment commodity just harms its utility as a currency. I wish they were focusing on how to make spending Bitcoin easier, rather than making tools for speculators.

How are currencies not commodities?

Currencies don't have any inherent useful value, while commodities do.
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