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oh well, the rules and regulations are too tight and sadly we cannot comply with them if we open this exchange.. and we don't want to get into a legal mess because of that, so sorry guys, but the exchange cannot happen.


But,
we will launch a store with which you can purchase physical goods with bitcoins and INR (cash on delivery / bank transfer)

Thanks for the support on the way and hopefully our store will be a success..





Original Topic :

This is a much awaited service for India.
I have stickied the topic.

check out https://www.spendbitcoins.com/convert/
very nice simple interface, also run by one man actually. Something like that would be great to have in India.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

but yes, do note there will be some limitations at the start which will be gone by the time we get some trading going on...

Some screenshots,
https://i.imgur.com/IiI3STQ.png

https://i.imgur.com/oeXYrY2.png

Very nice.

Let me guess: Clojure? :p

Clojure looks nice, we may use that for the next version to make it scale well or even maybe Node.js

Currently its mySQL + PHP based, with a lot of JSON to pull live exchange values (BTC -> USD -> INR etc)

It's themed with Bootstrap (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/)

We've got the major bit to finish / decide on,

1. We can store funds in a hot wallet (maybe 10 - 15% of them)
- or -
2. Make a small delay on transactions (15 - 20 mins), but store the wallet elsewhere - completely out of the system/service to ensure safety of funds.

EDIT :
Delay possible..
Western Union, now after reading around in this forum, we've found that Western Union does not like bitcoin (? Maybe if the info we read is true)

So we have to look at Xoom or anyother cash-in-hand method before we continue, as eCash like Libertyreserve etc wont help for long in maintaining INR funds.

UPDATE !
As the exchange will naturally take some time to come up, we have decided to add a service like spendbitcoins, but for limited things like Flipkart gift vouchers and maybe a few restaurant gift vouchers.

This will help us build volume and also trust when we open the exchange.

Update :
Exchange coding is done, a few restrictions are being planned to make the exchange stable and safe for everyone, i'll update this post later today or tomorrow morning once done.

Dashing,

Please explore Gharpay, PayTM, PayU. These may be the route forward.

Also, please explore IMPS in detail. I transferred 1 Rs in 1 min to my friend through IMPS.

Am dying to see something from India in this space.

Hey Benson,
Could you tell me more about Gharpay,
1. Do they allow cash withdraw to hand ?

2. I think PayU may not work out, as it has some setup fee https://www.payu.in/pricing

3. PayTM maybe tricky, as we may need to apply for partnership with them (https://www.paytm.com/alliances)

4. Can you also explain about IMPS too ?

As I'm open to adding payment methods which make this exchange more easy to use

http://gharpay.in/ - That should answer a few.

2 & 3 may not be free and do need a bit of work, but will be worth it. The cost can always be transferred back to your customers.

4. http://www.axisbank.com/personal/transfer-funds/interbank-mobile-payment-service/mobile/about-this-service.aspx - That should answer a bunch about IMPS. Not sure if they have API's, etc.

I'll try Gharpay for now, as I want to keep it as light and fee free as possible for now ;) Just want to get enough to pay up for the server and me and the coders basic costs, but yes, They both are widely accepted and adding them both will be really beneficial..

IPMS i'll have a look as well,

Update 2 : Basic API with buy/sell amount ticker is done

Okay, More screenshots before we launch in a day or 2,

Account page, to deposit / balance info,
https://i.imgur.com/QAzAMJq.png

Exchange history for your account,
https://i.imgur.com/0XfJbuo.png

Buy BTC with INR through WesternUnion,
https://i.imgur.com/GikxxSt.png

Dead simple API lol,
https://i.imgur.com/ziHgN2W.png

This is fucking awsome! keep up the good work!!

Keep up the good work.. Lets make bitcoin grow by leaps and bounds so that someday i may buy a pizza with my bitcoins in Delhi(atleast)..   :P

Congrats Mr.Dashing for ur New venture... I have launched SWISS BIT GOLD of 50 milligram costing Rs.195/-....one gram silver card costing Rs.70/- & half gram silver card costing Rs.40/- The postal department is interested in signing a MOU to sell these cards. The Federation of Karnataka chamber of commerce and industry has expressed its willings to popularise these cards.Canara Bank is very much interested in any of our proposals. Dashing...make ur exchange compatible with our Gold and silver cards

Congrats on the great work!

regarding API, you will need the following as well:

• quantity
• limit order or market order

you should also consider giving liquidity rebates atleast initially to make the exchange more liquid.
Like Bitfloor does.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51130.0

Appreciate the work you are doing and regular updates on progress. We need more and more business and contact points in India to make people aware about Bitcoins, making less painful for them to exchange coins.

One advise, It is much better to have 100% cold wallet. I think people will understand that it is better to have inconvenience  of waiting for 1 or 2 hour to receive their coins, than chance to lose all the coins. Process all the withdraws manually till you can process them without affecting 2-3 hour deadline. Once volume increases you can think about way to securely support instant limited amount withdraws.

Overall its good looking and promising work. Keep it up !!!

Cheers

I completely agree wit you. When it comes to bitcoins, safety of funds and trust is of utmost importance.
In any case, a 2 hour waiting period is not so long compared to online bank transfers or cheque payments.

If you intend on implementing litecoins on your site, the users will have the option of buying Litecoins and getting their transactions confirmed in 10 minutes or so, instead of 2 hours for bitcoin.

Thanks ;) We'll be ready for launch soon, hopefully by today or tomorrow, just need to get a few guidelines written down about the exchange


Thanks for the kind words ;) I'm sure you'll be able to buy a lot of stuff directly with Bitcoin now in India, as the INR you get once withdrawn will be via WesternUnion which is cash-to-hand ;)


Thanks for the kind words :) Gold/Silver is something that we'll have to look into as it's a bit risky etc and even handling gold/silver and transporting
it will be a security risk I feel ..


I'll work on the API later today, maybe add up more info about the market etc

Yes, a sort of liquidity rebates will be there, as if you see the 1st screenshot here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=166265.msg1751392#msg1751392)

You'll see "The esitimated INR amount will vary with live BTC/USD rate converted to INR until a trade to match it is made"

So yeah, usually the price you get will be more than whats displayed there :)




Thanks for the kind words :) Yep, bitcoin in India will be a major thing in the coming years, as its value goes up, i think it will attract more people towards it :)

Yes, I too feel the same about the cold wallet and I think we'll just keep everything in the cold wallet until a withdraw request is made or directly send from the cold wallet once a withdraw request is made..

Yep, I think cold wallets will be the best way to go :)

Okay the API has been updated,

• It shows the trade limit per account per day
• Shows the BTC balance of an address (any)
• Shows the estimated INR balance of an address (any)

Are you testing it online anywhere? Would love to take a look and feedback.

Yeah,
http://82.211.30.251/

http://82.211.30.251/login/   --> Login/Signup is there

Lots of work to be done on the home page though.


EDIT : forgot to mention this, but accounts take 1 - 3 hours for activation, only after that do they get a deposit address added to their account, but for now, i've disabled deposit

Was looking at the UI and just looking at INR all over the page reminds me of my joy when i saw buysellbitco.in for the first time as well.

Thanks ;) We hope to make it more automated once it's launched, but it'll have to be this way for a while, as security is always first.

Here's the API now, much better I guess  :P
https://i.imgur.com/246DzW0.png

esti_inr:152.82 is that a $10 markup?

Nah, $10 markup is too high heh,

esti_inr is the estimated INR value of the bitcoins in that address

aaah, missed that, sorry.

no probs ;)

We hope to get the domain done by tomorrow max and start public beta testing,

We've also put up some trade restrictions during the beta period and sometime after that too,
http://82.211.30.251/trade.html

that is a public forum!!  what you thinking ... putting half cooked site into public?

second web site within last 10 days with a lot of futures!! def we know how to make websites!!

Um, The sites ready, the "exchange code" is ready, you can signup, we've just not started the "exchanges" part yet.

Feel free to login and see in the live test account,

http://82.211.30.251/login/
User : test
Pass : test

Tips: Noisy person thinking out loud

1. I would get rid of the e-mail MTCN number option. Something more elegant should be allowed, such as a form that captures the MTCN number?
2. Would be good to see some disclaimers on time frames to complete buy and sell.
3. Any anonymous methods for purchasing?
4. Would be nice to know your physical security around the hosting.
5. Any possibility of Merchant tools and plugins or is it too early to ask?
6. Would be nice to know upcoming payment methods and features to allow for future options.
7. Is this only for India? you do have Location (City, Country) in your withdraw details.

Hope some of that helps.

Considering the recent and previous hacks, I have to ask: what language is this coded in?

Hope that answers Amitabh. As he is maintaining his funds offline, cannot see why this is going to be a problem.

Of course DDOS is another story, but may not effect user balances and transactions.

Am I correct with this Dashing?

So when can we expect a fully functional exchange.. also can you import the usd/btc graph from mtgox or bitcoin charts.. Would be better to have all the data on one page.. and how much time will it take to get the bitcoins from the moment i transfer via western union.. also is there an option via onlinesbi?? Thanks in advance..

1. That could be done

2. Yep, I'll add those in too, generally 1 - 3 days max at the start (due to low volume) and later on should be same day / hour.

3. anonymous methods could be added, but depending on a few things, we could add LibertyReserve etc but then again it depends on if other people would like payouts in Libertyreserve too.

4. Basically, no funds are stored on the server, no bitcoind runs on it. Just a webserver + php + mysql, mysql will be locked down to connections from incoming (localhost) only once the dev work is done.

5. Merchant tools may take a bit to come up as we'll need regular INR volume to manage that part.

6. We'll look at other funding methods like OkPay / LibertyReserve, but mostly OkPay as they are pretty okay towards Bitcoin ;)

7. Well, as long as WesternUnion allows us to send / receive the cash from anywhere around the world, we're okay with it :)



PHP + MySql, no funds stored on the server, 100% funds in the cold wallet.


Yep, thats correct, I'll store a hourly backup of the DB on my PC too and on another server too so that we can keep a ready-to-go backup incase of DDoS's so we can continue our local processing for orders already in the queue.


Hmm, I'd say around 9th evening if everything goes best, Graphs yes, I can import those, WesternUnion should take 1 - 2 days max for import of funds. Online Bank transfers will come in a few weeks depending on how things go at the start.

Would you be joining us at Bitfest?

Could try, It's in Bangalore right ? 13th ? Any address/location?

It is at the CIS campus in Domlur.

And yes, it is on the 13th in Bangalore.

Will try to make it, hopefully the exchange can get done before that and it'll be really neat to launch it at the BitFest :)

1 x Graph for now is done,

https://i.imgur.com/Nz2pBV8.png

Ouch, It's a pain generating these graphs with external data, hopefully it'll be easier once the data will be internally generated.

With hard work comes Bitcoins  ;D ;D

With great amount of bitcoins comes great responsibility..

Message especially for those people hosting online wallets ;)

haha thats true ;) anyways once the trading starts we can pull in data directly from the DB itself rather than pull in from out -> convert to INR -> DB -> Graph

Yep, that's true, that's why we will be keeping all the funds in a cold wallet away from the server.

@Dashing

Consider these payment gateways...

http://www.payhub.in/ <-- This is a payment HUB!!

http://juspay.in/ <-- Another mobile payment.

Domain is BITEX.IN  8)

Probably wont use those 2 as they seem to be very very new i think, anyways, we'll start off with,
WesternUnion, OkPay (maybe) and some others like Xoom.

Domain probably won't be bitex.in as it was registered up by someone else the very day we posted the screenshots (my mistake)

Okay, taken down site, next announcement will be once it's up with the domain and everything cleaned and setup again.



EDIT : Just before i took it down, I had updated the graphs, there was a small mistake earlier on.

https://i.imgur.com/hydOJyK.png

hmm... Very new might be interested in new tech.... BTC maybe in future...

PM'd some names do check :)

So can i start givin pre orders now[email]
How much time does western union take ??

Should be by tomorrow afternoon everything ready to go.

The thing now is,
We can accept deposits, but we will have to wait for people to deposit / sell BTC to match the INR order you make so there might be small delays at the start.

This is not really how an exchange works. exchanges have market makers who are always willing to both buy and sell from market participants. They quote both a buy price and a sell price at the same time. The difference is the spread, which is how they make money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_maker

laserwolf,

We have problem in India in terms of accepting customer deposits and storing in a bank account for over 7 days. This seems to be a step 1 workaround. I would believe that this will get more seamless as time passes.

Well, the thing is that, we will just be launching, because of which there wont be much volume hence we can't process transactions "live" time, the only reason other exchanges are able to do is because they have large volume and people buying/selling always.

The price is not fixed, it varies with the USD/BTC market price.

Yep, once we get some volume and "flowing" cash, this will become a much faster as then we would not have to wait for the cash at the bank.

Bump! Eagerly waiting for this to go live.

hmmm why Clojure? ;) ;)

Clojure is latest fashion in trend with geeks ( it just replaced Ruby :) )

Cheers

you know why I asked Clojure Amitabh :p

Hey doc! You can order pizza in Delhi for bitcoins!
How about you pay for a Dominoes pizza and I get you one + one free?!
How many btc will you be willing to pay?

Now this is what we need. Real trades involving bitcoins.

Cheers

I am an intern waiting for my salary due.. i wish i cud buy bitcoins rite now but cant.. annd yeah sure trade is always the right thing.. it helps the currency grow and expand.. i wish the moronic administration cud have sent my salary ssoner so thhat i could have bought coins while they were still near the 120$ mark.. bad luck hi kharab hai boss..   :-[

No hurry doc ;) Whenever you are ready :)

Hey Guys,
Sorry for the lack of updates from my end,

As you may know, someone had registered up the bitex.in domain, my mistake for posting the screenshots with the name in it and another mistake we made was we used the word "bitex" in many places in the site itself and even parts of the database, so it's taking a bit to change everything up and make it up for release.


Thanks.

Any update on this Dashing?

When can we expect this up and running.. mtgox has gone down..

Hmm, more delays just seem to add up one after another :/
first the domain now the trade engine,

We based the INR / BTC value like this,
Grab live USD/BTC value off MtGox, convert to INR using daily / live rate and then display.

But, now with MtGox down for 12 Hours (?), It does not make much sense in rewriting the whole Grab the value part as that's one of the main classes in the trade :/

I really wanted to launch this today and get things started.. :/

after a bit of thinking, I don't want to rely on mtgox now, i'll add 2 exchanges to the list and the system will autopick which has the highest sell rate and lowest buy rate.


time to get back to coding..

I think virtex, bitstamp and btc e  are fairly stable.. trading continued even after mtgox was down.. however mtgox is updating there servers so it should perform much better..

I think we'll also use Bitfloor (just to base values off)

Anyways, im almost done, so if the domain is decided by tomorrow we all can buy BTC at low rates ;)

Waiiitin..  ;D

We need direct Credit Card / Paypal / Debit Card deposits.

If you cant do that Localbitcoins and BTC-e are good enuf for us Indians - why wud we need ur site ?

where does BTC-e allow credit card/debit card deposits?
i have had an account for months, and can't find that option

where does BTC-e allow credit card/debit card deposits?
i have had an account for months, and can't find that option

CC, DC & PP are too risky for BTC unless clubbed with a physical product.

Avoid that route. Everyone who tried CC, etc has either failed or been blocked.

the direct deposit method seems to be the best way here atleast.. just like the guys at buysellbitco.in do it.. place order deposit cash get coins..

yup, buysellbitco.in seem to have got that model correct to receive payment.

I can help you find domain names. What kind are you looking for?

Selecting a domain name based on 'btc' or 'bitcoin' wouldn't be very future proof since you'll be dealing in all kinds of currencies. You could have a custom name like 'mtgox' which is a short for 'Magic:The Gathering Online Exchange'. Agin, there is no dearth of indian names like that but make sure you choose some name with (a) 2-3 syllables max and (b) should not confuse the user as to what the spelling could be ("..was it 'amir' or 'ameer'?..")

If you would like to go for oldstyle names follwing domain names are available to buy :
crytoindia.com, desicoin.com, coindesi.com, moneydesi.com, desivirtual.com, coincrypto.com, indiacrypto, cryptovirtual, indialet.org, coinly.org, coinlet.org

Anyways it has been seen that once a site gets famous even obscure difficult things dont matter. For example the hyphen in btc-e. But if you do use hyphen,dot etc either use a very small word or use a famous english word like del.icio.us.

Tell me more and I willtry to find you more domains.

Please launch quickly! I need to buy while the rates are down..  :P

Really appriciate u taking the effort.
Read u ran into troubles, but will it be Launched this week.

allowing CC/PP is not possible at all, and never will be, as it can be charged back.


Yep :/ Working as fast as i can to get it online, finishing off the "picking best rate from 3 exchanges part"

ANYONE in India is welcome to buy from me :)

When BTC on mtgox is less than 80 USD, it costs 160 USD to buy from a trustworthy seller on localbitcoins. I hope your website could have been up today. I like to buy BTC at around 60 USD a piece or 3,000 INR a piece.

The electricity cost of someone with an Avalon to produce BTC is 600 INR a piece.

+1

it seen good about Bitcoin exchange good work dashing  :)

Missed you at the event today Dashing.

hello guys

im divyan, i am also very keen on buying bitcoins and i would love buy some in india, i've been looking nearly everywhere for someone in india to buy at a reasonable price, i will keep following this thread as i am very serious about buying. when do you think you will be up and running?, im looking to buy some maybe this month or by the beginning of the next month. hopefully the prices drop by then. what do you say ??? oh and i am located at mumbai.

Hey guys, sorry for the delays and lack of updates .. we have got the domain - BitOcean.in
Anyways, we will be launching the website within 12 hours..  :o :o :o ;D  ::) 8)

tasty!

I was offering 85-ish a day or two ago, even sold some.
Now I m offering MINUS 10 from the high of Mt Gox.

Done, signups are open :)

Nice job!! Can you explain how to use western union? I tried witn www.westernunion.com and it does not allow me to send from India.
Also would appreciate some contact details etc about who is running the exchange. How many people, etc.

You have to go to a WU center.

Good work.
Hope LTC and other alts are on the way.
Sending & Receiving coins via Wallets for trading would be nice.

Thanks for the feedback guys, a few more changes will be rolled in tonight once i've finished with the local testing,

BTC deposit addresses will be added to your accounts in a few minutes, just generating a few addresses (cold wallet)

Alt-Coins are a possibility, but we'll have to see the demand before adding them as that'll again be a completely different thing to implement. So mostly will be limited to LTC if added.

Using a PIN is easier to remember than a withdraw hash.

Is there a way to send INR to western union without leaving the house? I don't have a bank account with the banks listed as Western Union agents.

I'd like to be able to fund the account after 6pm and even NEFT bank transfers aren't available after 6 pm.

It's nice to see the site up and running :)

Atleast LTC would be an awesome addition as it provides an entry point for people who can still mine them.
That aside.

Is it possible to add a trollbox? or is that asking to be DDOS'd?
How long is a trade request valid for? Ex. If I place a sell order for 1BTC at 20K INR, how long will that stay in the order books?

Okay, Now here's the important things,

None of the accounts have a withdraw hash :/ now I know the fix to it, but i'll have to flush the DB again for that :| which means everyone will have to signup again :/ my bad again, should have tested this out well :/

I'll change it to account pin as suggested above, closing signups agian :/

Deposits for INR will be open from Tomorrow Morning (10 AM) through WesternUnion and Bank account (NEFT) from Wednesday onwards (if all things go well)

+1 for PIN and NEFT

If things go really well, you could add billdesk support for 24/7 INR deposits. User chooses from a list of deposit amounts and pays for that via bill desk.

No one can send money from India using western union.
India can receive money through WU, not send.

dont think so we can transfer via western union.. can somebody give me a walkthrough ??   :-[

And sir dashing please add the buy sell ticker.. i cant find it on the site..

im buying right now, and i am fully aware of how the WU works im looking to buy 2.5 btc, ive signed up to bitocean but i am not 100% sure how everything works so if someone can guide me through the process, it would be lovely.  :P

thanks

So you can send and receive in India ? with WesternUnion ?

If so, and if you can confirm, I'll make up deposits ready now

Dashing, have you checked out Postal order and Moneygram?

postal order has to be looked into but it seems even Moneygram is receive only :/

We could make it such that,
1 person who lives in Bangalore itself can receive the money, through NEFT etc and transfers the money to us by hand / local meet up and then we credit the account of the people who deposited through that person.

Umm, please dont be starting a hawala!

Why not do a bank transfer to the owners of bitocean directly?

As long as the reference code (the system can provide a unique reference code and bank details after a deposit amount is entered) and transaction amount is there, a deposit in the bank can be identified (a date helps too.)

Cheque deposits may not have reference codes so it's best to enforce NEFT or similar channels that allow unique reference codes.

BTC to INR gets recognized as a currency trade. Not possible to perform due to regulations.

I assume that is why this request.

Is it listed somewhere?

Does not matter if it is listed.

It will account for sale of virtual currencies and that is a regulated act under prepaid governance.

The only way to be safe for now is to play with micro sales and smaller amounts which will not get picked up by any radar.

Yes, that is the exact reason behind this, we'll need to find a epayment method like OkPay or something which has INR on it

http://bitocean.in/help.php

^ Please read everyone, that's the only way to get your INR into OkPay for now.

OKpay fees are high.

Talk with your lawyer.
A good lawyer should be able to help you set things up so that you can setup an exchange legitimately.

One idea: Don't allow INR / BTC trades. Don't follow the exchange model, follow the game model. Create your own virtual credits. Like a gaming company would. When people send you money via bank transfer, you "sell" them credits that they can use on your website. They can spend these credits on your website to buy bitcoins.

A good lawyer should be able to figure out solutions for you.

You can either do this legitimately. Or you will do this temporarily. And go down as bitme and bitfloor have gone down in USA.

That makes sense. Similar to facebook credits, we could buy something akin to bitocean credits and then use them to trade bitcoins or other goods.

Similar to SLL on Virwox, the value of INR could go up or down in relation to available bitocean credits. Actually let 1 credit = 5,000 INR and be divisible up to 0.001 where 0.001 credits is worth 5 rupees.

I would actually keep the credits pegged to INR. Easier for people to trade.
Otherwise, people will have to do one more calculation before deciding to transact.

okay as you guys requested we will keep the credit system to a point based system.this will be changed as soon as possible and will ease out the transaction process.

If the credit is convertible to BTC and back, then what is the point?

The point is: talk with a good lawyer first.

They are the guys who find loop holes and help you cover your bases. I just threw out one idea out there - that gaming virtual credits is legal in India. It may be useable in dealing with buying and selling of BTC - it may not be. But talk with a good lawyer and he should be able to figure things out for you.

Buying and selling of BTC is not a technical problem. So don't try to solve it with technology alone.

As I said - try to do this legitimately. Or you will do this temporarily.

gaming virtual credits are not legal in India if it is a open loop system such as Bitcoin.

That aside, yes, it is good a good idea to seek some legal aid. More specifically, get disclaimers all over the place.

oh well, the rules and regulations are too tight and sadly we cannot comply with them if we open this exchange.. and we don't want to get into a legal mess because of that, so sorry guys, but the exchange cannot happen.


But,
we will launch a store with which you can purchase physical goods with bitcoins and INR (cash on delivery / bank transfer)

Thanks for the support on the way and hopefully our store will be a success..