

Ask HN: I want to create a new bitcoin Exchange. - captaincrunch

I know security and trust would all be EXTREMELY important factors, but if I could get past those hurdles...<p>Is there room for another bitcoin exchange?
======
redegg
There are dozens of exchanges. None of them have the liquidity to make my time
there worthwhile.

Doing your best at security is not good enough. Bitcoinica is a good example
of this. You'll need to make sure everything is locked down, or the day when
you announce to your users their funds are gone awaits.

Ability for users to easily get funds in/out of your exchange is a must. If
you choose to obey AML laws, your users will curse at you for making their
lives miserable. You're going to be stuck with bank wires/LR because accepting
ACH is a ton of risk.

I either go on Mt. Gox for day-trading or Coinbase for buying/selling.

------
gus_massa
I don't know your background, but remember to be very very very careful with
the security. At lest, first read the Bitcoinica threads:

Show HN: Bitcoinica - Advanced Bitcoin Trading Platform (515 days ago) :
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2973301>

Bitcoinica lost customer database, has no up to date record of trading
balances (254 days ago) : <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4026255>

And if you still need more (yes, there is more):
[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=bit...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=bitcoinica&sortby=points+desc&start=0)

~~~
captaincrunch
I appreciate your advice, and links. I'm going to read up on them tonight.

------
speeder
Room? Yes, there are, of course, specially if you do it better than the
current ones.

Granted, what you need, first, Security.

Do it wrong, and you are screwed, even legally.

Second, a way to handle fiat money, Bitcoinica famously sidestepped that
because they were not a true exchange, and were more of a sort of "betting"
platform.

Some exchanges negotiate with banks, to do their thing.

Third, making a software that is not buggy enough to be exploited.

I know of a exchange where it was possible to withdraw USD twice (you deposit
say, 1000 USD, then withdraw 1000 USD, and 1000 USD again).

Another one, calculated your fees only after you requested a withdraw (so,
suppose you wanted to transfer 1000 BTC, and the fee for withdraw was 1%, it
would allow you to transfer 1000 BTC, keep the BTC, and then would set your
account to -10 BTC)

Or Bitcoinica once that had negative spreads, thus just buying and selling
like crazy had outrageous profits (and outrageous losses to bitcoinica).

