Bitcoin Forum

http://www.coindesk.com/safello-600k-investment-round/

After this debacle with Gox it's obvious that we need more solid players running the exchanges.  And here they come....

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Swedish bitcoin exchange Safello has secured a $600,000 investment that it hopes will push it into the wider European market. The exchange, which launched its service last August, can now count bitcoin luminaries Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver among its investors.

Safello, which also saw Blockchain.info CEO Nicolas Cary invest, is currently revamping its website, and promises a range of new services in the coming months.

The startup has worked hard to establish credibility in the fledgling bitcoin exchange market, signing deals with at least two major banks, and also negotiating with the Swedish regulator – the Financial Supervisory Authority.

The company, which set up the first bitcoin ATM in Sweden, shares the bitcoin market in that country with three other exchanges: btcx.se, Kapiton, and FYB-SE. It said in a statement, however, that it wants to focus on the broader European market “as a first step to globalisation”.

The firm did not provide details of what its new services might be, but it’s worth noting that one of the new investors is Henrik von Schoultz, founder of Mosync – a platform enabling developers to produce mobile applications for a variety of platforms.

Bitcoin angels

Other investors in this latest around include Ira Miller, the CTO of Coinapult, and Jan Rees, an expert in retail banking and card payments.

Also investing were Anders Bruzelius, the former head of equity research at Swedbank – Sweden’s largest bank in terms of customer numbers – and Victor & Victor, angel investors in casino Vera&John, which recently became the first licenced online casino to begin accepting bitcoins.

This investment round also sees a recommitment by Ludvig Öberg, an early angel investor in Safello, who, like Roger Ver, is listed as an advisor on the firm’s site.

Aside from the amount invested, this investment round is also notable for the number of investors involved. The firm lists 15 in its statement announcing the deal, which would mean an average of $40,000 each (although the investment is likely to be unevenly spread).

The large number of contributors may be down to the way in which Safello engineered the round via DealCircle, a Danish startup that offers to make it easier for angel investors and startup founders to make deals.

Finding investors in this way offers the advantage of reducing the legal fees involved in organising angel investments, and DealCircle itself secured $750,000 in funding just last week.

Very good.

With that sort of money they can truely develop great things I hope.

Very good.

Like a good news for bitcoin :)

I guess Mark K. cry that it is not him who could get that donation ... :)

yes, it is what bitcoin needs in terms of exchanges.  The exchanges need to be bullet-proof and liquid so their customer's trading risk does not include the risk that the exchange itself will shoot them in the ass.

There is an American group forming also. 

See Chamath's tweets on Feb 10 and 11 discussing it, although without any real details:
https://twitter.com/chamath

Happy to hear.

I visited them -- they're good guys and very innovative.

They are connecting Safello to all sorts of European payment systems, credit cards, SEPA, IBAN etc.

No.

What we need is a decentralized exchange.

That is the problem.

Not more "solid players".  I know you meant well by saying that.  But truly:  Bitcoin needs no central points of weakness.

This is the entire reason it was created.  And are we shocked that the failures have been in the centralized elements? 

They are *always* the weak links in a decentralized network.

I don't know if Mastercoin Foundation's decentralized network invention is what I am referring to, but the days of "companies" owning "exchanges" and creating a "trust" situation needs to end.

More companies is not the solution.

-B-

This is great news.  Hopefully this year will see Europe coming out in stronger support of BTC.  The problem of being able to withdraw local currency is being solved by companies like Safell.  2014 should be a great year for BTC!

FOr all the talk that BTC is dead or dying, then you see there are plenty of entities investing in BTC still.  I think it's still going strong.

Every new exchange is a great thing.

Just to put things in perspective though, MtGox does $18 million in transactions every day currently and collects about $75,000 in fees EVERY DAY. In other words, in just 10 days they collect as much money as this new company's entire bankroll and they already have all their computers and software set up, which this company has yet to do. Also, these are the numbers MtGox is collecting under the current malleability depression. If they start allowing withdrawals again, the numbers could easily double.

The new company is great, but it would be premature to assume it will be replacing Mt Gox any time soon.

How does one accomplish a truly decentralized exchange?  That's the problem.

Oh such a great news for Bitcoin :) I am so excited :)
When all of those project will be completed and launched world of Bitcoin will change!

yep.  I love the idea of decentralized exchanges, and realize that this is one of the more powerful possibilities of bitcoin, but don't have any idea how that would work.

All true.  What I think may prove to be the difference is the caliber of management. 

In the case of these exchanges, with these investment groups, my expectation is that they will realize that the game has changed and stepping up the quality of the key players is the one of the big keys to the whole thing.

If Gox was smart it would reorganize under a new team.  Probably won't happen, but they could turn it around by doing so.  Happens in the corporate world every day when the ship ends up in the rocks.  Heads roll and new talent is brought in.

Does anyone know which two banks they have signed on with?
Once a BTC company in Europe has a solid bank (in a country with no troubles) I really think they will explode. Bitcoin.de and their coming venture with Fidora come to mind.
The idea of having a Swedish bank (or two) sounds better than a Slovanian one (like Bitstamp - and nothing against them, but people are a bit leery with small financially troubled countries.)

It really seems BTC is on the cusp of just exploding with investments, exchanges, services, etc. THIS year.

IAS

Europe already has a very good exchange, bitcoin.de
my favorite exchange actually, never had problems with them and very secure.

I've seen most of the attempts but the problem is and always will be you need to start at some point with the conversion from traditional fiat.  I think the best we can hope for is a diversified system, which while isn't as optimal as a decentralized system, but certainly an improvement over the monopoly Gox had in the early days.  We're clearly seeing this occurring now and it should continue.

true true 


much respect

never heard about.

I can truely  say that bitcurex.com is very good as well in the europe.

Never had problems with them too.

Kraken's bank is in Germany, and all of the (few) EUR SEPA deposits I have done there have been credited within the same business day, which is encouraging.

Obviously Kraken needs much higher volume though. I hope it gets it.

Americans can't trade there and unless they are now trading through Fidor bank, they are more like an escrow site as it takes 2-3 days for bank transfers to go through.

I did like them however... And then they banned Americans...

Most people claiming it's dead are either newbs/trolls
who don't know what they're talking about.
Bitcoin will be fine, the interest is rising, not decreasing.

Glad to hear these news, keep em coming.

btcQuick got $500K from Panama fund, saw it on their about us page.

Each time a new exchange is mentioned, part of me wants to cringe, and another part of me wants to be excited. There have been so many debacles with exchanges.

Fortunately this time around, I'm cringing less and allaying my skepticism for actual excitement. From what I gather, this sounds pretty solid.

I was trying out safello yesterday and it was a bit buggy, but according to the support the press release was released by media too early. So with that info, don't be upset if the site is not working properly right now. Very interesting with new players on the market!

Safello is shit.
Boys trying to play wall street.

What BTC needs is decentralized exchanges, not "solid" players.

Good news!
A new solid trustworthy exchange can only be seen as positive to the entire bitcoin community.

I think it's easier for "common" people to trust an exchange like Safello. Maybe Bitcoin needs both.

really good news

Maybe they are.  At some point men will come along.  This may be them and it might not be.  Their performance will tell and the market will decide.

I'm fine with decentralized exchanges, as I think are most people here.  The problem is in the how.  We seem to be a long way off from those, both in terms of implementation and acceptance by the larger marketplace.

Until that time we need something better than what has been put forward in the past, which has not been up to the task.  Hopefully one of these other groups will get it right.

No more MTGOX , which price to follow ?

Localbitcoins is the way to go, if they can manage to make their system decentralized, it will be the best. If there are enough market makers on localbitcoins, then the spread and market depth will build up

yes, it is what bitcoin needs in terms of exchanges.  The exchanges need to be bullet-proof and liquid so their customer's trading risk does not include the risk that the exchange itself will shoot them in the ass.

 


Very similar to the way Pokerstars does business they kept players money in a separate account. Even when the DOJ shut down the major sites. PS was able to show all players monies in a separate account and every penny accounted for. Therefore the DOJ allowed stars to return all players $ while Full Tilt still hasn't paid their players.

Good point.  Transparency and a clear policy should be stated by these guys as to how funds are stored, and how liquidity is maintained.  

Robbing peter to pay paul ends up in collapse eventually, so the exchanges need to be clearer on these things.

That's good for the investers, also good to retain the first position for bitcoin

Decentralized exchange (systems) are not yet technically evolved enough. Though this might be the ultimate road to take, in the meantime it needs more and solid exchanges and clearing houses for BTC.

We need exchanges that are well funded and well managed, not like Gox, which essentially grew out of a gambling platform and is run by amateurs.

One step at the time. I would embrace a decentralized system but it needs to grow naturally. Also, localbitcoins already is some sort of decentralized exchange and available.

seems like Roger Ver is investing in nearly every start-up which has remotely to do with bitcin  ;D
smart guy imo!