Blocktrades.us beta test has begun: easy exchange of BTS/BitUSD/BitCNY/BTC/LTC

[dannotestein]

The conversion rate in that picture is very, very off. 

This looks awesome provided we can get the conversion rate correct / spread down to a reasonable amount.

The site quotes conversions as a function of the pricing and volume of the markets involved. The price the site offers is basically a function of whatever price you could get by placing a series of market orders to fulfill the quantity you wish to purchase. So in a low liquidity market, the conversion price can go up rapidly for larger quantity orders as orders close to the market feed price get consumed.  In the case in question above, there's apparently not any offers to sell BitBTC close to the market feed price (I checked with my wallet's exchange display to confirm this was the case).

To avoid this, we just need more people willing to act as market makers. There's a number operating now for some assets, and I suspect we'll see more in the near future (if necessary, we'll setup some of our own). We're already planning to run market makers for the UIA IOUs we sell (e.g. TRADE.BTC which we back with BTC), so if we see any other assets like BitBTC that we offer that no one else is market making, it may make sense for us to step in and fill the gap.

[Ander]

The conversion rate in that picture is very, very off. 

This looks awesome provided we can get the conversion rate correct / spread down to a reasonable amount.

[dannotestein]

In markets with low volume maybe a warning should be displayed.

Yes, it's not a bad idea. We show the conversion, but of course it might not be that obvious to someone when they're exchanging between two distinctly different coin types. I'll try to think of a good metric to identify this condition.

[chryspano]

In markets with low volume maybe a warning should be displayed.

[cass]

 +5%

[dannotestein]

How about bitUSD => BTC ?

It's coming relatively soon. It's possible we may have BTC output in another week, depending on what other tasks pop up.

[cube]

How about bitUSD => BTC ?

[dannotestein]

We've completed the alpha testing phase of the "unregistered user" interface for blocktrades.us, so we're inviting BitShares community members to try it out now. The site currently only allows you to buy cryptocurrencies with cryptocurrencies; no fiat purchases are allowed at this time, although we are exploring our options for this.

Hopefully the web site's usage is mostly intuitive, but please post any questions you have about the site's operation in this thread.

https://blocktrades.us