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

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/23/san-francisco-open-exchange-aims-to-be-the-e-trade-of-bitcoin/

by katm • 12 years ago

55 20 12 years ago

TheOsiris2• 12 years ago

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!

jc123• 12 years ago

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

pstrateman• 12 years ago

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?

Avalaxy• 12 years ago

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.

appenin• 12 years ago

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.

azianmike• 12 years ago

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!

kasey_junk3• 12 years ago

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.

waterlesscloud• 12 years ago

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

itodd• 12 years ago

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.

dublinben2• 12 years ago

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.

tatalegma• 12 years ago

It's either going to become one or the other isn't it? (not sarcastic)

eric_bullington• 12 years ago

I agree. What are some ways you can think of to make spending Bitcoin easier?

rdl• 12 years ago

Generating efficient prices through a deep market actually would make it more useful as a currency. (FOREX markets are good examples)

scoofy• 12 years ago

Treating Bitcoin like an investment commodity just harms its utility as a currency.

Bitcoin is a commodity. If you treat it as an everyday currency you will soon get a visit from the IRS for capital gains tax non-payment. Pay your taxes people.

kasey_junk3• 12 years ago

How are currencies not commodities?

dublinben2• 12 years ago

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

colanderman• 12 years ago

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

scott00• 12 years ago

Does a user need an account at each individual exchange, or is an account with SFOX sufficient? In what states does SFOX hold a money transmitter license?

TheOsiris2• 12 years ago

no, you just need an account with sfox.com

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

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