It's now been 7 days (Wednesday evening -> Wednesday evening) since I withdrew 22 GBP from Britcoin and it still hasn't shown up in my account (online banking, Barclays).  I've checked the bank details many times and I cannot see that I have made any errors there.  Are you sure there hasn't been some error in Britcoin?  I will go to the bank tomorrow and ask for as much information as they have on this transaction.

I know, I'm being impatient again.  Impatience is not a good trait for a Bitcoin seller.  I have to try harder.

Excellent.  I've downloaded a copy and unpacked it, read the INSTALL and DATABASE files, and explored the source a little bit.  Unfortunately, with my lack of experience with websites and databases I estimate it would take me several hours just to get this working so I'm not a good candidate for testing.  I would much rather spend  that time testing the live site so I'll wait until you and droidbird are confident enough to modify the main site.  It is good to have the source though, I may take a look at the source for the main site at some point to understand just how these orders are filled; I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

I've had this happen to me but not with such whole numbers before.  For amounts with lots of figures after the decimal place I have to divide the BTC by the GBP to calculate the rate and then place an order ever so slightly better than that rate (and than the quoted 'Cost / BTC').


Disclaimer: The following is my current understanding of the system and is probably completely wrong.

It is possible for one order to partially fill another.  For example, if someone places an order to buy 10 BTC for 40 GBP the system will calculate a 'Cost / BTC' of 4 and add this entry to the book.  If someone else comes along and places an order to buy 4 GBP for 1 BTC the system will again calculate the 'Cost / BTC' and place the order in the orderbook.  However, it will not be long before the system realises that there is a bid and ask offer at the same rate and a transaction will take place.  The 4 GBP for 1 BTC order will be filled and the existing 10 BTC for 40 GBP order will be changed to an order for 9 BTC for 36 GBP.

This is all well and good for simple examples like this but things get a bit hairy when the best bid and best sell rates overlap.

If instead, the second order is to buy 3.50 GBP for 1 BTC then I believe that this order will also be filled automatically and that the original order of 10 BTC for 40 GBP will be modified to 9 BTC for 36.50 GBP (rather than to 9 BTC for 36 GBP as I'd expect).  Also, I don't think the 'Cost / BTC' is recalculated and so will remain at 4.00.  This is also problematic because a third person sees this offer and places an order to buy the 36.50 GBP for 9 BTC and the system calculates a 'Cost / BTC' for this third order of 36.50 GBP / 9 BTC = 4.06 (2.d.p).  Being larger than 4.00, no trade takes place.


By the way: How do you guys stop your e-mail address from appearing on your posts?  I've tried selecting 'hide my e-mail address' in my profile (no change) and I've tried deleting my e-mail address from my profile (not allowed).

I think that the site sees that your order giving 1 BTC for 4 GBP matches with existing orders to buy bitcoins at the rate of 4:1.  That's why the offer is practically instant.

I wish there was a way of accepting an offer / the best offer, or better yet, a way of making a request for an amount of BTC or GBP at the home page and have the system calculate the cheapest way of doing this with the orders on the book.  It seems that currently the home page only calculates the value in the wanted field using the current best rate.  It does not take into account whether or not your request can be filled at that rate.  It seems rounding errors sometimes cause you to enter an amount, click buy, and have an order added to the orderbook which just misses the best rate and simply sits there.  Indeed, whenever I want to 'accept' an existing offer I find myself reaching for my calculator just to try and work out what order I should put in to accept the offer.

I'm happy to pledge 10 BTC for some improvement.

I've been using the site for a few days but I've had no better luck than you.  I believe the only way to accept an order is to place an order which matches up with it on the home page.

Also, there are times when the quoted 'Cost / BTC' for an order does not match up with the ratio of the 'Giving' and 'Wanted' values.  This can happen when an order is partially filled by another order with a different rate but I'm afraid despite genjix's efforts I still don't understand why.

I'm painfully aware of this.  I decided to give them 3 working days too but they've not managed complete the transaction yet, *sigh*.  Can you imagine if the banks operated 24-7 and it was Bitcoin which closed down for evenings, weekends, and bank holidays?

Ok, I'll give it a few more days then.

Also, I received a reply for one of my e-mails shortly after posting here so nothing to worry about.

Any idea why the Britcoin rate is so far below the rate at mtgox at the moment?  Is this just a volume issue?

I tried to withdraw 22 GBP 5 days ago but still haven't received it.  Does it normally take this long to withdraw GBP?

I've sent a few e-mails to the address given on the help page but have yet to receive a reply.  Has something bad happened or am I just being too impatient?