[BETA] Coinffeine. Distributed Bitcoin exchange.

[flix]

I have been trying Coinffeine since they launched their open beta. I am quite surprised by how few nodes are running and how few orders there are on the order book. I have been thinking why... so here's my take. I wish the Coinffeine guys the best, please take this as constructive criticism!


Why are potential users not trying out Coinffeine?


1. Must install a desktop program.
This is a massive turnoff for casual users and bitcoin newbies (but these potential users don't care much about decentralised exchanges anyway).

2. Only OKPay available as payment processor.
This excludes (in theory) US users which are still a very large part of the Bitcoin world.
It also excludes users who do not like OKPay's KYC and lack of user privacy (which is one big reason to go P2P in the first place)

3. It takes an average of 20 minutes to execute an order (Must wait for 1 block confirmation to open payment channel)
This excludes any high frequency traders or anyone who needs an immediate one-click execution.

4. Low liquidity. It is hard to buy/sell more than a few bitcents right now.
Excludes everyone. (but should be easy to fix)


The good news is that 2. and 4. should be easy to fix for the Coinffeine team. They just need to get a few market makers in there and add other payment processors... which they have promised are coming soon.

[flix]

1. Must install a desktop program.
This is a massive turnoff for casual users and bitcoin newbies (but these potential users don't care much about decentralised exchanges anyway).

2. Only OKPay available as payment processor.
This excludes (in theory) US users which are still a very large part of the Bitcoin world.
It also excludes users who do not like OKPay's KYC and lack of user privacy (which is one big reason to go P2P in the first place)

3. It takes an average of 20 minutes to execute an order (Must wait for 1 block confirmation to open payment channel)
This excludes any high frequency traders or anyone who needs an immediate one-click execution.

4. Low liquidity. It is hard to buy/sell more than a few bitcents right now.
Excludes everyone. (but should be easy to fix)

So if Coinffeine manages to solve 4. they should be able to compete with Localbitcoins.com at least for those users that already use OKPay... and actually offer better value since Coinffeine's execution time is faster than LBC and there are no escrow or account blocking issues that are often the case with LBC, as well as no scammers.

Eventually, as they fix 2. by adding other payment methods they will be able to reach a much larger market.

They might even be able to fix 3.... although that would take a lot more work and increasing their use of multisig escrow....

[statdude]

this is pretty cool!

[HostFat]

They really need to add a table of the order book instead of the graph.

[HeroCat]

Nice and very good news  Hope new BTC exchange will start to work soon 

[flix]

They really need to add a table of the order book instead of the graph.

Most exchanges have both depth chart and order table. See:
https://www.kraken.com/charts

Also, a history of executed trades is very useful (for charts and adding to http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ )

[flix]

Right now, all that Coinffeine would need to start getting traction is to beat the localbitcoins EUR Bid-Ask:

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/localbtcEUR.html

https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/eur/okpay/
https://localbitcoins.com/sell-bitcoins-online/eur/okpay


If we believe the numbers on bitcoincharts, LocalbtcEUR does an average volume of BTC 300 a day. That is a juicy market for a startup in beta....


(Of course localbtcUSd does BTC 3000+ a day, so adding $ should be a no-brainer next step if they manage to get € working...http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/localbtcUSD.html).

[flix]

Wow!

This:
https://twitter.com/coinffeine/status/638284866455490560

New release of #coinffeine: 0.12. Now 20+ currencies are supported: US$, ruble, yuan, yen...
coinffeine.com/download.html pic.twitter.com/odNHm60F4J

[statdude]

Wow!

This:
https://twitter.com/coinffeine/status/638284866455490560

New release of #coinffeine: 0.12. Now 20+ currencies are supported: US$, ruble, yuan, yen...
coinffeine.com/download.html pic.twitter.com/odNHm60F4J

So i need an OKpay account to collect my API token? registration process is not clear.

[flix]

Apparently Coinffeine is already working on integrating Paypal. There is Paypal irreversible transaction system called  "Send money to friends or family" which would make it possible to use Coinffeine's market in incremental, api-driven, low-risk payments in the same way that they already do with OKPay.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2398

[HostFat]

Apparently Coinffeine is already working on integrating Paypal. There is Paypal irreversible transaction system called  "Send money to friends or family" which would make it possible to use Coinffeine's market in incremental, api-driven, low-risk payments in the same way that they already do with OKPay.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2398

No, it will not work. Even "Send money to friends or family" is revertible, I assure you.

[flix]

Apparently Coinffeine is already working on integrating Paypal. There is Paypal irreversible transaction system called  "Send money to friends or family" which would make it possible to use Coinffeine's market in incremental, api-driven, low-risk payments in the same way that they already do with OKPay.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2398

No, it will not work. Even "Send money to friends or family" is revertible, I assure you.

Then I don't understand what they intend to use. I guess we'll have to wait from somebody from Coinffeine to come out with an official announcement...

[flix]

Apparently Coinffeine is closing shop.


Hopefully somebody will pick up where they left off and make some use of their open source software to build a fully functional, liquid decentralised exchange.

The good thing about open source projects is that they can survive the company that started them. Let's hope that this is what happens here:

https://github.com/Coinffeine/coinffeine

[flix]

We still very much need a decentralised p2p exchange which does not touch user BTC or $. We still need an exchange that is global, distributed and uncensorable.

It is easy to forget that most of the early Bitcoin exchanges were hacked, went broke or ran off with user funds.

[coinpr0n]

I have been trying Coinffeine since they launched their open beta. I am quite surprised by how few nodes are running and how few orders there are on the order book. I have been thinking why... so here's my take. I wish the Coinffeine guys the best, please take this as constructive criticism!


Why are potential users not trying out Coinffeine?


1. Must install a desktop program.
This is a massive turnoff for casual users and bitcoin newbies (but these potential users don't care much about decentralised exchanges anyway).

2. Only OKPay available as payment processor.
This excludes (in theory) US users which are still a very large part of the Bitcoin world.
It also excludes users who do not like OKPay's KYC and lack of user privacy (which is one big reason to go P2P in the first place)

3. It takes an average of 20 minutes to execute an order (Must wait for 1 block confirmation to open payment channel)
This excludes any high frequency traders or anyone who needs an immediate one-click execution.

4. Low liquidity. It is hard to buy/sell more than a few bitcents right now.
Excludes everyone. (but should be easy to fix)


The good news is that 2. and 4. should be easy to fix for the Coinffeine team. They just need to get a few market makers in there and add other payment processors... which they have promised are coming soon.

I think you addressed all the major reasons for Coinffeine not getting too much traction. If 2 and 4 are being worked on that's great news. The time it takes (3) is the other issue I've heard but 20 minutes is not that bad. I heard it was hours or days. Installing a desktop app is not a problem at all.

[chennan]

I have been trying Coinffeine since they launched their open beta. I am quite surprised by how few nodes are running and how few orders there are on the order book. I have been thinking why... so here's my take. I wish the Coinffeine guys the best, please take this as constructive criticism!


Why are potential users not trying out Coinffeine?


1. Must install a desktop program.
This is a massive turnoff for casual users and bitcoin newbies (but these potential users don't care much about decentralised exchanges anyway).

2. Only OKPay available as payment processor.
This excludes (in theory) US users which are still a very large part of the Bitcoin world.
It also excludes users who do not like OKPay's KYC and lack of user privacy (which is one big reason to go P2P in the first place)

3. It takes an average of 20 minutes to execute an order (Must wait for 1 block confirmation to open payment channel)
This excludes any high frequency traders or anyone who needs an immediate one-click execution.

4. Low liquidity. It is hard to buy/sell more than a few bitcents right now.
Excludes everyone. (but should be easy to fix)


The good news is that 2. and 4. should be easy to fix for the Coinffeine team. They just need to get a few market makers in there and add other payment processors... which they have promised are coming soon.

I think you addressed all the major reasons for Coinffeine not getting too much traction. If 2 and 4 are being worked on that's great news. The time it takes (3) is the other issue I've heard but 20 minutes is not that bad. I heard it was hours or days. Installing a desktop app is not a problem at all.

Yeah in theory, 3 is not that bad at all... With circle it takes usually 3-4 days to get coins in and that's business days too.  20 minutes is not bad at all compared to other exchanges.  I've just heard about this though, where would one go to download the app? Is the program still in beta?

[flix]

Yeah in theory, 3 is not that bad at all... With circle it takes usually 3-4 days to get coins in and that's business days too.  20 minutes is not bad at all compared to other exchanges.  I've just heard about this though, where would one go to download the app? Is the program still in beta?

Coinffeine (the company) is shutting down, as often happens with startups. However the software is open source and distributed, so it can work even if its creators disappear as long as there are a couple of peers running it.

They have taken down the download links on the website:   http://coinffeine.com/download.html

...but the last version 0.12.0 is on github:
https://github.com/Coinffeine/coinffeine

[Uptrenda]

Yeah in theory, 3 is not that bad at all... With circle it takes usually 3-4 days to get coins in and that's business days too.  20 minutes is not bad at all compared to other exchanges.  I've just heard about this though, where would one go to download the app? Is the program still in beta?

Coinffeine (the company) is shutting down, as often happens with startups. However the software is open source and distributed, so it can work even if its creators disappear as long as there are a couple of peers running it.

They have taken down the download links on the website:   http://coinffeine.com/download.html

...but the last version 0.12.0 is on github:
https://github.com/Coinffeine/coinffeine

How do you know this? It doesn't mention it any where on their blog.

[coinpr0n]

Yeah in theory, 3 is not that bad at all... With circle it takes usually 3-4 days to get coins in and that's business days too.  20 minutes is not bad at all compared to other exchanges.  I've just heard about this though, where would one go to download the app? Is the program still in beta?

Coinffeine (the company) is shutting down, as often happens with startups. However the software is open source and distributed, so it can work even if its creators disappear as long as there are a couple of peers running it.

They have taken down the download links on the website:   http://coinffeine.com/download.html

...but the last version 0.12.0 is on github:
https://github.com/Coinffeine/coinffeine

Wow. This is sad. I didn't know anything about them shutting down, it's a pity because they put in so much good work.

[VCLChief]

Yeah in theory, 3 is not that bad at all... With circle it takes usually 3-4 days to get coins in and that's business days too.  20 minutes is not bad at all compared to other exchanges.  I've just heard about this though, where would one go to download the app? Is the program still in beta?

Coinffeine (the company) is shutting down, as often happens with startups. However the software is open source and distributed, so it can work even if its creators disappear as long as there are a couple of peers running it.

They have taken down the download links on the website:   http://coinffeine.com/download.html

...but the last version 0.12.0 is on github:
https://github.com/Coinffeine/coinffeine

Wow. This is sad. I didn't know anything about them shutting down, it's a pity because they put in so much good work.

Can anyone confirm this or not??