
Buttercoin – US-based Bitcoin exchange - Irishsteve
https://buttercoin.com/
======
jyu
I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but this is my recollection of Buttercoin's
history. Please reply with corrections, and I'll edit.

Mtgox crash about 1 year ago, when their trade engine could not keep up with
the large number of transactions. Later we found out that Mtgox could not
handle more than something like 50 transactions / second. Buttercoin was a
developer's response to Mtgox's crash. To build a better mouse trap that could
handle 100x more trade volume than Mtgox.

[https://buttercoin.hackpad.com/FAQ-
QTRSMzlkLD6](https://buttercoin.hackpad.com/FAQ-QTRSMzlkLD6)

It was originally supposed to be open source, to improve the underlying
machinery for all bitcoin exchanges. There were some really bright and
ambitious people involved in the beginning too. Somewhere a couple months in,
the core developers took VC money, and decided to launch their own exchange
instead. I haven't kept up with the project enough to know if they are holding
to the initial open source exchange source code promises, but I'm not
surprised at all that they want to cash in on becoming a big centralized
exchange.

It'd probably be hard to be VC funded, while also giving away their
competitive advantage (highly scalable trade engine source code) for free.

[https://buttercoin.hackpad.com/FAQ-
QTRSMzlkLD6](https://buttercoin.hackpad.com/FAQ-QTRSMzlkLD6)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/buttercoin](http://www.reddit.com/r/buttercoin)

~~~
gamblor956
Signs that Buttercoin is probably a scam:

1) Buttercoin does not appear to be a registered money transmitter. They've
known about this requirement for months, they've had the financial
capabilities to do this for months...and yet they haven't bothered so far. See
[http://www.fincen.gov/financial_institutions/msb/msbstatesel...](http://www.fincen.gov/financial_institutions/msb/msbstateselector.html).

2) They started off as open source, took a bunch of free code, and then ended
the open source aspects of the project.

3) They took a substantial amount of BTC donations (even more substantial now
with the higher F/X rate) and never returned those donations when the project
pivoted from an open source software project to a V/C funded business.

One of these red flags is bad enough, but 3 together is a big, red, flashing
"STAY AWAY".

They clearly don't have the professionalism or the wherewithal to handle the
basic foundational aspects of their professed industry. I recommend staying
away from them before they become the next MtGox.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
On the other hand, they are a YC company:
[http://www.crunchbase.com/company/buttercoin](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/buttercoin)

~~~
joering2
So is AirBnb with one of the coowners listed on top 100 FBI cyberscammers
list.

Im sorry but having a rubberstamp of PG is not the same as having blessing of
Elon Musk, for example. PG seems to be drifting into the dark side. What
worked for Airbnb (scamming people on craiglist to solicit airbnb) worked as
charm on SocialCam when the idea was to scam as many of your Facebook friends
as possible.

~~~
judk
Considering the age of AirBnB, "drifting" isn't really the right word.

YC likes hustlers, it says so in the application, and has for years.

~~~
joering2
Its a matter of how much "hustling" you like. Someone that hacks a traffic
lights and show you how cool they drive and remotely change their lights to
green, or someone that hacked a traffic lights and show you how cool sixty
cars, twenty dead drivers pileup looks like....

------
ck2
There are a few US based now right?

Can the market support so many US exchanges? (do any have working USD ?)

    
    
       buttercoin (no selling yet? ACH? wire? CC?)
       coinbase   (technically not an exchange but USD works)
       campbx     (bank halted ACH/wire transfers on January 31, 2014)
       kraken     (located in SF, USD back soon: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7321703 )
       coinsetter (in beta, bank approved USD)
       cryptsy    (located in FL, USD soon, registered Money Services Business/BSA/FinCEN)
       coinlab    (never opened exchange)
       coinmx     (may not actually be in US, overseas CC charges, be careful)
    
      

~~~
waterlesscloud
I'll be surprised if Cryptsy ever makes it to USD.

Also, while they have a very wide range of alts to gamble with (and let's face
it, the smaller alts are pure gambles), the experience of using the site does
not inspire faith in their technological abilities. I would not be at all
shocked to learn they have significant security holes.

~~~
ck2
They seem very serious about obeying all regulations/filings so it is just a
matter of them finding a bank to play along.

~~~
waterlesscloud
They don't even make an effort at KYC compliance.

~~~
ck2
I assume that would come when fiat (USD) transfers come online.

Why set that barrier for coin to coin exchanges?

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tinbad
Ok guys explain this: I've signed up for early access and was placed 6817, my
friend sitting next to me signed up right after and was 6827, my gf signed up
30 secs later and is 6837. See a pattern? If they have to lie about their
number of sign ups I wonder how trustworthy the rest of the service will be. I
know it's just a detail but why would you do something like this? Fake it
until you make it?

~~~
nestlequ1k
Well, the former Reddit founder is on the team. And I seem to recall reading
something about how that did that with early Reddit posts too (marking the
voting counts much higher to make it seem like they have more users than they
did).

They just didn't quite do it good enough. Would have made it more believable
if they did a random 5 to 10 addition on each signup. Probably had to rush out
the landing page to capitalize on the opportune MtGox disaster.

------
powera
So they say "The security of your funds is our #1 priority. Our team goes
above and beyond all banking security best practices to create the world's
most secure Bitcoin trading platform" but no other details are provided?

Is there any reason to believe any part of that statement without further
details?

~~~
ixmatus
Not until I see a security audit will I believe any exchange is secure. I
believed Mt. Gox had "resolved" the basic issue of password hashing back when
they were compromised until I found out they were using a home-grown "run
sha512 1000x" solution.

That, plus I know as a programmer I like to think I'm disciplined enough to be
a secure programmer until my software is audited or pentested. Then I realize
how naive I really am.

Like I said, I'm not trusting any exchanges until I start seeing rigorous
security measures (more than "security is our #1 priority" bullshit) in the
form of audits, pentesting, and etc...

That said I also know very few people that actually use their personal BTC
wallets and encrypt it with GPG + a two factor challenge (to avoid the
possibility of key loggers).

~~~
homakov
Not until I see a security audit will I believe any exchange is secure

definitely! Everyone saying "im secure" must also say "the X will prove it"

------
starfishjenga
Why don't these guys list their bios on the website in a prominent location? I
find it difficult to trust any exchange that doesn't do this personally.

~~~
callmevlad
I don't think they're trying to hide anything, maybe just haven't gotten
around to creating an About page. Both founders used to work for Microsoft:
[https://angel.co/buttercoin](https://angel.co/buttercoin)

------
kenrikm
I saw the tagline "Safe, Easy, Fast" and what sprang to mind was "Pick Two".
Maybe it's all the Bitcoin failures that make my cynical but I've never really
seen these executed well. I guess time will tell.

------
Vvector
Will they take any of my GoxCoins?

~~~
lucb1e
I'm afraid those all got Goxed.

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mkaziz
Is a US-based exchange trustworthy? I have a feeling it'll exist at the mercy
of the Feds.

~~~
chrisBob
"The Fed" says they are outside their jurisdiction.
[http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/27/janet-
yellen...](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/27/janet-yellen-
federal-reserve-no-authority-regulate-bitcoin)

~~~
berberous
"The Fed" =/= "The Feds"

While it may be outside the Federal Reserve's jurisdiction, there are many
other federal agencies.

~~~
contingencies
The Federal Reserve is not part of the US government. It is a private
organization.

~~~
zecho
It's partly private. To say it is not part of government is also inaccurate.
It is independent of several branches in many respects, but relies in the
government in others, by design. For example, the chair and vice chair are
appointed and confirmed. Congress has oversight of the system but does not
appropriate funds to the system.

~~~
contingencies
My understanding is that legally, it's not part of the government. That makes
it private, with any voluntary government relationships being just that. This
doesn't make what you are saying untrue, but what you are saying isn't exactly
clear either.

(Thought experiment: Obviously, if one did wield influence on a central bank
after winning the rights to run it from a nation, one would try to keep public
perceptions as wishy-washy as possible in order to keep pockets safely lined
and one's fiscal hegemony in place.)

~~~
legalbeagle
This isn't correct. The Federal Reserve System is composed of the various
Federal Reserve Banks (FRBs) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System (BOG). The FRBs are hybrid entities considered to be federal
instrumentalities for some purposes but not for others. The BOG is a federal
agency. The Chairman of the BOG (Janet Yellen at present) is a presidential
appointee confirmed by the Senate.

~~~
contingencies
One wonders what kind of appointee the president is.

------
pbreit
Is the "lovingly crafted" bisque just a joke at this point?

~~~
Tossrock
I'm confused by the usage of bisque here. Are you saying "lovingly crafted" as
a phrase is... soup-like?

~~~
pbreit
Sorry, a colloquialism I use with some friends and was kind of wondering how
it works without knowing. "BS" is maybe a bit strong in this instance but you
get the idea?

------
whisk3rs
Finally, CSS that I can really trust!

~~~
chrisBob
Seriously! Why is everyone going with iOS 7 style instead of having a web page
with some information on it. I am about to start writing my first CSS page,
but before I do I want to know:

Is it still possible to use hyperlinks on a fancy CSS page?

As far as I can tell all they do is look cool and scroll. I miss being able to
click and get more info

~~~
gone35
This. Doesn't even work on Safari on my iPad: it only shows a blank page.

I seriously think this Web 3.0 fashion has gone way out of hand, like in the
early days of the web with amimated GIFs, auto-play, and other awfully
unusable gimmicks. Every web designer should open this website every day, and
ponder:

[http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/)

P.D.: On a bitter, petty unrelated note: this footnote strikes me as trying
too hard to be cute: "Buttercoin is lovingly crafted in Palo Alto,
California". I don't think a Bitcoin exchange should be equated to, I don't
know, some organic high-end coffee brew, or the latest Jony Ive creation... It
just leaves a weird taste in my mouth.

~~~
ScottBurson
> [http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/)

That is a hoot!

When people ask why my site looks so plain I am definitely going to point them
here :-)

------
GamblersFallacy
Looks like buttercoin is going to use MongoDB 0_o

[https://github.com/buttercoin/ReactiveMongo](https://github.com/buttercoin/ReactiveMongo)

------
Aqueous
ButterCoin- you can just feel it slipping from your fingers.

------
artursapek
You got a public API? I'd love to add this exchange to Cryptowatch[1] right
away ;)

The landing page is pretty bare, but this looks like it's made by
professionals. I'm excited to see another player enter the field and looking
forward to getting access and learning more.

[1] [http://cryptowat.ch](http://cryptowat.ch)

~~~
cedricdahl
Hi artursapek, yes, our API will be available shortly after launch.

------
druska
Buttercoin dropped the original JavaScript repository and rewrote the entire
thing in Scala/Java. They are not releasing the new software, but planning on
white-labeling their new product (very similar to bex.io).

------
yeukhon
I honestly think the most trusthworthy exchange so far has been dogecoin. I
haven't really heard anyone scamming anybody. Is dogecoin going to last for
another 2-3 years? Anyone know?

------
shomyo
US-based. The most dangerous for bitcoin-based business.

------
wehadfun
is the title real or is it some random number generator

------
bitcoinlive
Crypto currency news :
[http://cryptocurrencylive.com/newest](http://cryptocurrencylive.com/newest)

------
moeedm
"Easy, safe, fast" \- Because we say so.

------
samweinberg
The form should limit the number of digits allowed in the "I want to spend"
field. Right now, it says I'll receive more bitcoins than the total possible
mined coins cap (21 million).
[http://i.imgur.com/pCUTqOz.png](http://i.imgur.com/pCUTqOz.png)

Obviously it's a mock form, but shouldn't it at least be accurate?

------
fat0wl
now that mt gox is all effed up a US exchange's name counts as a news
headline?

~~~
ck2
a US exchange with actual US bank transfers for USD is actually a big thing
because it is hard to get done

------
kolev
The last thing Bitcoin needs is a bunch of exchanges without liquidity!

------
jermaink
I like that you put the ticker query into the browser tab :)

~~~
cedricdahl
Thanks jermaink, having the ticker in the browser tab came from user testing.
Please let us know if you have additional ideas on how we can make things more
convenient / nicer.

------
kirk21
If you are in the EU: check www.coinnext.com

------
lukejduncan
Why not just buy/sell on Coinbase?

~~~
scott_karana
Not really an exchange, is it? More of a payment processor? Could be wrong.

~~~
samweinberg
No you're right. Coinbase does payment processing and hosted wallets. Users
can buy or sell bitcoins to Coinbase, but it's not an exchange in the sense
that any two users can trade USD/BTC with each other.

------
cheshire137
Dat AngularJS.

