[BETA]Bitfinex.com first Bitcoin P2P lending platform for leverage trading

[urwhatuknow]

So for how long are you preventing sale of BTC on Gox and for how long will Bitstamp asks be missing?

We have transfered additional funds on Bitstamp today and they should hit our account tomorrow or by monday at the latest.
For MtGox we wait for the situation to normalize, one week without bad news hitting them would be already a world record!

:-)

Giancarlo
Customers Relations
Bitfinex Team

[Ultraviolet]

We have transfered additional funds on Bitstamp today and they should hit our account tomorrow or by monday at the latest.
For MtGox we wait for the situation to normalize, one week without bad news hitting them would be already a world record!

:-)

Giancarlo
Customers Relations
Bitfinex Team

Sweet. Thanks for the headsup.

[Audriux9]

For MtGox we wait for the situation to normalize, one week without bad news hitting them would be already a world record!

:-)

Giancarlo
Customers Relations
Bitfinex Team

How does the bad news affect your decision to include or exclude MtGox to your trading platform?

I thought markets are heading to the direction where MtGox is heading. And if bad news hits MtGox, it affects all the other exchanges accordingly. Excluding MtGox from your trading platform decreases liquidity and volume. If you mean different kind of news or situation, please explain that.

[Ichthyo]

For MtGox we wait for the situation to normalize, one week without bad news hitting them would be already a world record!

How does the bad news affect your decision to include or exclude MtGox to your trading platform?

I thought markets are heading to the direction where MtGox is heading. And if bad news hits MtGox, it affects all the other exchanges accordingly. Excluding MtGox from your trading platform decreases liquidity and volume. If you mean different kind of news or situation, please explain that.

As far as I have understood the announcement, Bitfinex people try to expose only a fraction of our (user's) USD to the risk of being locked into Mt.Gox. Please recall: even if some USD show up within your Bitfinex trading account, in reality the corresponding sum might be in the Mt.Gox account, or in the Bitstamp account, or at the Bitfinex banking account.

Thus if everyone rushes to exploit the arbitrage possibility, a lot of BTC will be sold on Mt.Gox, causing a huge fraction of user's overall USD to end up within the Mt.Gox account. Now consider what happens when tomorrow Someone^(TM) just decides to freeze the banking account of Mt.Gox.

Compared to even the mere risk of such a happening, any considerations regarding rates and liquidity and volume seem secondary concerns. Thus, personally I think Bitfinex people acted in a quite responsible manner.

[Audriux9]

As far as I have understood the announcement, Bitfinex people try to expose only a fraction of our (user's) USD to the risk of being locked into Mt.Gox. Please recall: even if some USD show up within your Bitfinex trading account, in reality the corresponding sum might be in the Mt.Gox account, or in the Bitstamp account, or at the Bitfinex banking account.

Thus if everyone rushes to exploit the arbitrage possibility, a lot of BTC will be sold on Mt.Gox, causing a huge fraction of user's overall USD to end up within the Mt.Gox account. Now consider what happens when tomorrow Someone^(TM) just decides to freeze the banking account of Mt.Gox.

Compared to even the mere risk of such a happening, any considerations regarding rates and liquidity and volume seem secondary concerns. Thus, personally I think Bitfinex people acted in a quite responsible manner.

Ok, absence of MtGox bids is explained by trying to lower risk there and to withdraw fund by converting everything to Bitcoins. But I am also curious about frequent absence of Bitstamp ask side. Why is it difficult to maintain Bitcoin balance at Bitstamp?

Edit: While I was writing the response Bitstamps asks came back again

[capoeira]

Edit: While I was writing the response Bitstamps asks came back again

They come always back at the wrong time. lol
I guess it's because Bitfinexer sold BTCs

[ninjaboon]

So that means the funds (USD) in my Lending wallet are actually in your MtGox account?

[urwhatuknow]

So that means the funds (USD) in my Lending wallet are actually in your MtGox account?

Ninjaboon

I'm not sure I get the meaning of your question.
Would you ask the same question to your bank?
Where is the money I put on my bank account?
Lent money are borrowed by your counterpart and used to buy Bitcoins.
It's called leverage.
Judging from the type of question you are asking you might be on the wrong website.
Please try to understand the dynamic of things before putting your money into something.
I believe you need to go back and read some on how Bitfinex works.

Thanks a lot and have a nice day

Giancarlo
Customers Relations
Bitfinex Team

[unclescrooge]

So that means the funds (USD) in my Lending wallet are actually in your MtGox account?

Ninjaboon,

To complete Giancarlo answer, this is not the case here. The problem is not that all of your dollars are on MtGox. The problem is that we do have dollars with MtGox, mostly our capital and part of users funds, and we want to reduce this exposure as a risk management process, and to start segregating customers funds ahead of our regulation compliance process (to ensure the safety of USD funds as required by Hong-Kong financial regulations).

I hope this answers the question
Best regards
Raphael

[capoeira]

now that MtGox and Bitstamp are out of the game we need a real time graph @bitcoinity.org and/or @bitcoincharts.com

[myself]

now that MtGox and Bitstamp are out of the game we need a real time graph @bitcoinity.org and/or @bitcoincharts.com

The only problem with Bitstamp should be that the frontend server cant connect to their API
https://community.bitfinex.com/showthread.php/387-Platform-migration

[capoeira]

now that MtGox and Bitstamp are out of the game we need a real time graph @bitcoinity.org and/or @bitcoincharts.com

The only problem with Bitstamp should be that the frontend server cant connect to their API
https://community.bitfinex.com/showthread.php/387-Platform-migration

damn, they could have add this info to the page, couldn't they?

on the other hand, now we don't even know when asks are available from Bitstamp, as they where only available from time to time

[ninjaboon]

So that means the funds (USD) in my Lending wallet are actually in your MtGox account?

Ninjaboon,

To complete Giancarlo answer, this is not the case here. The problem is not that all of your dollars are on MtGox. The problem is that we do have dollars with MtGox, mostly our capital and part of users funds, and we want to reduce this exposure as a risk management process, and to start segregating customers funds ahead of our regulation compliance process (to ensure the safety of USD funds as required by Hong-Kong financial regulations).

I hope this answers the question
Best regards
Raphael

Raphael - great. I am clear on how things work now.

[urwhatuknow]

A N N O U N C E M E N T   -   L I T E C O I N   T R A D I N G   I N T R O D U C T I O N

Dear Customers

In the last days we have seen a proliferation of new cryptocurrencies ( Feathercoin, Chinacoin, Royalcoin, Yacoin ect..) that are being brought in the market, pumped up and then forgotten quickly by the community.
On the other hand we think Litecoin is a case on its own, with several characteristics and features that make it pretty innovative (faster confirmation, no Asic mining etc.).
Due to its long existence ( a couple of year is a pretty long period of time in the cryptocurrency world ) and an ever-growing merchant adoption, we believe Litecoin is here to stay.
I'm therefore glad to announce that starting from next friday the 24th of May Bitfinex will allow Litecoin trading on its platform.
It will be possible to buy Litecoins for both Bitcoins or US dollars and of course viceversa.
On the first stage we will only allow typical exchange operations, that is not short them or take a leveraged position.
Once the order book will build up a little (hoping this will take little time),  we plan to implement also the above mentioned functions.

It is our belief that offering our customers a diversified choice will allow them to increase their profit capabilities.

Have a good trading day.

Giancarlo
Customers Relations
Bitfinex Team

[2586]

On the other hand we think Litecoin is a case on its own, with several characteristics and features that make it pretty innovative (faster confirmation, no Asic mining etc.).

Really? This is just silly. If you guys think you can gain a worthwhile amount of profit from offering litecoin trading, go for it I guess. Please don't delude yourselves with the "Litecoin is innovative" myth though.

The utility of faster confirmations is questionable at best, and comes at the expense of future scalability. Faster confirmations means more orphan blocks, longer chain splits, and less resilience to adverse network conditions.

ASIC resistance (remember when it was "GPU resistance"?) is a weakness, not an advantage. It ensures that Litecoin will remain vulnerable to botnets. Now that Bitfinex will be offering the ability to short litecoins, operators of large botnets will have further incentive to attack the Litecoin network (in addition to ripping off BTCe with double-spend attacks).

Well, at least we'll be able to short them.

[unclescrooge]

Well, at least we'll be able to short them.

That's the idea (but not immediately)

The following is a personal point of view and does not involve Bitfinex: I used to disregard litecoin and thinking it was only "dividing" crypto-currency community away from Bitcoin. My personal investment in Bitcoin helped that too.

However, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a good thing to have at least one other crypto-currency that can help diversified risks and hedge a bit bitcoin price movement.
Plus, in the last few weeks we have had several requests of people wanting to get involved in litecoin as well as bitcoin (people that was not active in the bitcoin community but comes more from the "outside world" so to speak), and as a business we have to listen to these requests.

We'll see what happens, but I think there is a place for litecoin.

Raphael

[Sukrim]

Ah well, let them have it I guess...

I would love to see you act as Ripple gateway by the way as well, offering USD, BTC and LTC IOUs for withdrawal/deposit. In case you need some XRP to set this up, I can give you some from my giveaway for free.

Anyways, looking forward to the API, first things first - once Bitfinex is on bitcoincharts I guess trading momentum will build up again as well - and my loan offers are taken again at rates that reflect current price increases better than "1 hamburger/day for 4 digit sums lent out"...

[unclescrooge]

Ah well, let them have it I guess...

I would love to see you act as Ripple gateway by the way as well, offering USD, BTC and LTC IOUs for withdrawal/deposit. In case you need some XRP to set this up, I can give you some from my giveaway for free.

Anyways, looking forward to the API, first things first - once Bitfinex is on bitcoincharts I guess trading momentum will build up again as well - and my loan offers are taken again at rates that reflect current price increases better than "1 hamburger/day for 4 digit sums lent out"...

Hi Sukrim,

We have already contacted OpenCoin to set up a Ripple server. I have a lot of plan with Ripple. Ripple is to banking what Bitcoin is to money, a very innovative and disruptive idea, and Bitfinex will be a part of it. (and I have already some XRPs, thanks for the offer))

Our situation of being incorporated in Hong-Kong, with bank account in this very safe jurisdiction, will make us a gateway of choice for users.

Anyway, more about that later.

The API is almost here, we have posted preliminary documentation here: https://community.bitfinex.com/showthread.php/384-API-Documentation It is right now in testing.

Best regards
Raphael

[Sukrim]

Is there a way to get for example only the internal order book? If I want to calculate how much I can exactly (!) get if I trade my 10 USD interest for btc, I currently can't do that. For that I'd need the current fee model and a way to show which order is from where.

Also for my use case (trading interest received) I would need a way to move funds between wallets.
And last but not least I'd need a way to get a ledger (similar to the history page) to see how high the interest actually was.

[oakpacific]

Well, now you bring up litecoin, which you did not support partially because Armory didn't support it. Perhaps I should ask what change has been made to the Bitcoin reserve management? It doesn't sound like you can allow immediate withdrawal for any two-factor authenticated user while keeping 90% of your bitcoins in cold storage, can you?