Author Topic: What determines how much BTS I can buy at once on MetaExchange?  (Read 3024 times)

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Offline Riverhead

What this thread really highlights to me is that there are two businesses operating with very similar models competing for customers. Since blocktrade.us came onto the scene I've been much more careful about my spreads and how they track the market.

Increasing transaction size is on the docket for sure but it needs to be balanced with the risk of an arbitrage exploit cleaning out all the reserves.

IMHO there are at least three things that need to happen before we can start servicing whales:

1) The markets need to become more efficient. Asset shortages require me to short reserves into existence with pool funds. Effectively cutting the pool size to 1/3rd what it could be.

2) The volume of traffic both in and out of an asset needs to be more balanced. This is actually starting to happen but mostly there is a run on one asset or the other depending on which way people think the market is heading.

3) Pool sizes need to grow to a point where demand accounts for a fraction of reserves. Blocktrade.us has a leg up on Metaexchange on this point due to the personal risk Dan is willing to take with his funds.

Metaexchange is more of a franchise model. A bridged pair, like bitUSD/BTC, is run on an independent node that can set its own prices. I could be replaced at any time with a node operator with deeper pockets and tighter spreads or if I go offline for whatever reason.

I suspect that as blocktrade.us grows their fiat gateway offerings the two companies will diverge in the types of customers they service...but that's just my opinion. Truth is I've been so busy coding for my Metaexchange node I haven't been paying too much attention to the other goings on.

Offline kenCode

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BlockTrades isn't a BitShares-based DAC, it's just a company like Metaexchange, but  we were comfortable to risk a fair amount of money to provide good liquidity for large investors.

That's the best reply I've seen in weeks, thank you dannotestein :)
 
I don't feel safe bringing any large investors yet (whales) because of the accountability issues I've presented on the forum. I am not convinced that the BitShares DAC is going to survive. To bring the whales, I need to show them how the employees are accountable at any given moment, and, I will need to be able to move their money into BTS in much larger sums. One Bitcoin at a time is not an option if you know what I mean.
 
If you were to decentralize your company to a DAC model (I have two in the works myself, here in Munich) and prove your accountability I'm sure we could start using you more than any other. Your thoughts?
 
Thank you for your time and professionalism,
  -ken
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Offline dannotestein

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There's also https://blocktrades.us/
Suggested deposit limit: 6.61478521 BTC
(this limit represents a "safe fraction" of their reserves)

Whoa, why is blocktrades able to transfer so much more than MetaExchange?
Are they a BitShares based DAC?
Do they have huge fees or something?
Sorry for the barrage of questions :o
Hi Ken,

BlockTrades can handle large transfers primarily because we maintain large "pools" of each asset we supply. This is mainly a matter of our capitalization level, although some of the pricing and market-making algorithms we use are also a factor.

BlockTrades isn't a BitShares-based DAC, it's just a company like Metaexchange, but  we were comfortable to risk a fair amount of money to provide good liquidity for large investors. Our pools can run low, and just like metaexchange, we have to buy on external exchanges when there is too much of an imbalance in the flow of transactions (for example, if more people are buying BTS with BTC than vice versa for a sustained period of time).

As a practical matter, however, it's generally cheaper to buy a large quantity from BlockTrades than from an exchange, unless you have a lot of free time on your hands, because we're slowly buying over time, whereas if you tried to quickly buy up a large quantity on an exchange, you would end up buying most of the asset at a higher price than the "feed" price.

Metaexchange is better advertised, in large part because of their placement on bitsharesblocks, so our higher liquidity is our best counter to that. From what I can tell, we get fewer, larger orders and they get more smaller orders, so I suspect the business level is somewhat balanced between the two companies.

Rates between metaexchange and blocktrades are reasonably close I would say, although I suspect we've generally offered a slight edge in price.

We also allow direct Credit-Card to cryptocurrency conversions, which allows buyers to eliminated the fee associated with the intermediate fiat-to-bitcoin conversion. These purchases are currently processed manually, and only for larger quantity orders (i.e 2K USD or more).

best regards,

Dan

P.S. Just to dispel any rumours about "dev funds", "AGS funds" were not used to buy our initial pools. The pools were purchased with my personal BTC, some as AGS contributions that resulted in BTS in the genesis block and later via exchange purchases.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2015, 08:05:38 am by dannotestein »
http://blocktrades.us Fast/Safe/High-Liquidity Crypto Coin Converter

Offline Shentist

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How do I get the whales in when I am only allowed to purchase "Maximum 0.64678251 BTC per transaction"?
 
Is there an easier way to purchase $50K worth of BTS?
 
Thanx,
  -ken

The best liquidity is using CNY to buy on btc38. 
The second best liquidity is by using BTC to buy on poloniex or bter (or through blocktrades/metaexchange - which essentially do the same thing, they just make the trade for you and charge you a small fee.  But this does avoid needing to make a polo or bter account or risk ever having coins on them for any amount of time).

If you want to buy $50k worth youre gonna move the price.  Which is good because the price really needs some movement and buying pressure to restore confidence.

I believe blocktrades handles trades differently than metaexchange which allows them to offer a higher quantity for most trades.

me too, but you can think by yourself how they do it!

for metaexchange

every BTS we have to "restock" via external exchanges.

Offline lil_jay890

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How do I get the whales in when I am only allowed to purchase "Maximum 0.64678251 BTC per transaction"?
 
Is there an easier way to purchase $50K worth of BTS?
 
Thanx,
  -ken

The best liquidity is using CNY to buy on btc38. 
The second best liquidity is by using BTC to buy on poloniex or bter (or through blocktrades/metaexchange - which essentially do the same thing, they just make the trade for you and charge you a small fee.  But this does avoid needing to make a polo or bter account or risk ever having coins on them for any amount of time).

If you want to buy $50k worth youre gonna move the price.  Which is good because the price really needs some movement and buying pressure to restore confidence.

I believe blocktrades handles trades differently than metaexchange which allows them to offer a higher quantity for most trades.

Offline Ander

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How do I get the whales in when I am only allowed to purchase "Maximum 0.64678251 BTC per transaction"?
 
Is there an easier way to purchase $50K worth of BTS?
 
Thanx,
  -ken

The best liquidity is using CNY to buy on btc38. 
The second best liquidity is by using BTC to buy on poloniex or bter (or through blocktrades/metaexchange - which essentially do the same thing, they just make the trade for you and charge you a small fee.  But this does avoid needing to make a polo or bter account or risk ever having coins on them for any amount of time).

If you want to buy $50k worth youre gonna move the price.  Which is good because the price really needs some movement and buying pressure to restore confidence.
https://metaexchange.info | Bitcoin<->Altcoin exchange | Instant | Safe | Low spreads

Offline kenCode

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I'm thinking of dumping my kraken account just so that I won't have as many steps into BTS.
Right now I go Fidor Bank > Kraken > BTC wallet > MetaExchange > BTS. 
 
So, bter, btc38 and Poloniex are my centralized exchange choices other than kraken for simplified BTS entry, right?
 
I'd love it if I could slim it down to just:
Fidor > Centralized Exchange > BTS
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Offline lil_jay890

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There's also https://blocktrades.us/
Suggested deposit limit: 6.61478521 BTC
(this limit represents a "safe fraction" of their reserves)

Whoa, why is blocktrades able to transfer so much more than MetaExchange?
Are they a BitShares based DAC?
Do they have huge fees or something?
Sorry for the barrage of questions :o

I would strongly recommend using blocktrades for larger transfers.  I have used them myself for bigger blocks of bts.  Contact dannotestein for further information on larger trades (Greater than 10 btc). 

Offline Shentist

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There's also https://blocktrades.us/
Suggested deposit limit: 6.61478521 BTC
(this limit represents a "safe fraction" of their reserves)

Whoa, why is blocktrades able to transfer so much more than MetaExchange?
Are they a BitShares based DAC?
Do they have huge fees or something?
Sorry for the barrage of questions :o

ask them self, but they are backed with dev money, so i suppose their backing is bigger then ours.

at the moment we are still running in beta mode and monsterer aka paul is coding new possibilities. So send your whales through BTC38 and let the price rise, this will benefit all.

You can read in the last newsletter most people buy with metaexchange and we have to cover on external sources to get BTS back in our portfolio. So without liquidity we have to keep
the amounts at the moment low.


Offline kenCode

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There's also https://blocktrades.us/
Suggested deposit limit: 6.61478521 BTC
(this limit represents a "safe fraction" of their reserves)

Whoa, why is blocktrades able to transfer so much more than MetaExchange?
Are they a BitShares based DAC?
Do they have huge fees or something?
Sorry for the barrage of questions :o
kenCode - Decentraliser @ Agorise
Matrix/Keybase/Hive/Commun/Github: @Agorise
www.PalmPay.chat

Offline roadscape

There's also https://blocktrades.us/

Suggested deposit limit: 6.61478521 BTC
(this limit represents a "safe fraction" of their reserves)
http://cryptofresh.com  |  witness: roadscape

Offline xeroc

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How do I get the whales in when I am only allowed to purchase "Maximum 0.64678251 BTC per transaction"?
 
Is there an easier way to purchase $50K worth of BTS?
 
Thanx,
  -ken
currently you can only go via BTC and BTer/BTC38.
or you go OTC and ask whales .. not sure how to get in contact with them though and if they are willing to sell

Offline kenCode

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How do I get the whales in when I am only allowed to purchase "Maximum 0.64678251 BTC per transaction"?
 
Is there an easier way to purchase $50K worth of BTS?
 
Thanx,
  -ken
kenCode - Decentraliser @ Agorise
Matrix/Keybase/Hive/Commun/Github: @Agorise
www.PalmPay.chat