Bitcoin Forum

Hello crypto devs and enthusiasts :),

I was thinking about creating a testnet only exchange. The exchange will allow only exchanges between worthless testnet coins at the same rates of their mainnet counterparts (only testnet to testnet trades).

Before I do this, I want to know if this would be legal in the United States without a license as testnet coins have no value and I will not be exchanging any real value coins on the exchange. Nor giving testnet coins any value at all as I will not have options to exchange to real coins.

Note to Bitcoin devs: I am not adding any real value to testnet coins. I'm only thinking about creating an exchange to simulate trading other testnet coins like how they would on the mainnet and before I do that, I wanted to ask some questions.

then why use "real" coins? you can use virtual or fake coins that only reside on the platform you create without the ability to deposit or withdraw these coins. kind of like what some exchanges offer as testing ground but with fake balance.

You should retain a lawyer who can provide legal advice specific to your situation.

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I don’t see any major benefit to what you are proposing. Trading on an exchange is a matter of updating database values. Displaying BTC or tBTC is a matter of updating the UI.

Testnet coins are intended to allow you to test your program’s ability to do things such as sign/broadcast transactions, detect incoming transactions, use coin control, and other wallet functions that occur on chain.

True, now that I think of it, I'm going to put this idea on the back burner for a bit as I don't want to "play roulette with the law" and like BrewMaster said how there are exchanges already doing this (with fake balances).