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

[nrd525]

What happens when you claim a short position?  I'm not sure if this option should even be available.  But I've got a link to it on my TH1 short.


"The claim feature allows you to use the funds you have in your trading wallet and/or the profit you already realized on a long position to buy the underlying assets of the position and credit them into your trading wallet.
So when this happen you can claim the position. Which means the following:

    You will be credited the sale size in USD, or charged the base price times the size of the position (sale size of the position) (with a fee based on the amount credited).
    You will be charged the pending swap returns.
    The position amount in BTC or LTC will be charged on your balance directly

There is no trading involved at any time.
If you don't have enough realized profit to claim the position, when you'll click on "Claim", the system will tell you "You need to sell approximately XX Bitcoins at the current price to claim the position", but it's up to you to sell those Bitcoins with the type of orders you want."
https://www.bitfinex.com/pages/support

The documentation should be revised to include the impact of claiming a short.

[mjr]

Hi all,

I am wrapping up a long trip (30 days) in which I got to see a good friend, Erik Voorhees, get married in Denver. It was a great event and I got to talk to some of the coolest people in the bitcoin space. I then went to NY, after a brief stop in LA, to work on some exciting features which are in the pipeline. NYC is still as much of a vibrant hub of bitcoin activity as ever. I spoke at the BitDev meetup group, which is one of the most interesting meetup groups in the whole space. I also visited the Bitcoin Center to check out my baby, Satoshi Square, which is still kicking and bringing bitcoins to the average joe on the street.

Sorry I haven't been around very much lately, I am headed home to Panama tomorrow morning, and I will be posting more regularly. It is pretty tough to keep up with this forum while on the road (especially given how terrible this forum software is for searching, etc).

I do want to add, however, that this is not the primary way to receive an answer to a question. I saw some examples of people asking questions, which are already answered on our site, and then having this pointed out to them by more knowledgeable posters. This is the way this forum works, and while we are happy to engage with the community, and are always listening to suggestions, complaints and compliments, if you need help, your best bet is always going to be support@bitfinex.com (after reading the FAQ and our Announcements, of course).

I see this forum as a place to address large scale issues, engage in conversation on the direction of Bitfinex, and where we can post announcements of new features or policies. It is not our support system, although I do love seeing our customers engage with each other to share tips on how to get the most out of our platform.

Happy Trading,

Josh Rossi

[DerekH]

Hi all,

I am wrapping up a long trip (30 days) in which I got to see a good friend, Erik Voorhees, get married in Denver. It was a great event and I got to talk to some of the coolest people in the bitcoin space. I then went to NY, after a brief stop in LA, to work on some exciting features which are in the pipeline. NYC is still as much of a vibrant hub of bitcoin activity as ever. I spoke at the BitDev meetup group, which is one of the most interesting meetup groups in the whole space. I also visited the Bitcoin Center to check out my baby, Satoshi Square, which is still kicking and bringing bitcoins to the average joe on the street.

Sorry I haven't been around very much lately, I am headed home to Panama tomorrow morning, and I will be posting more regularly. It is pretty tough to keep up with this forum while on the road (especially given how terrible this forum software is for searching, etc).

I do want to add, however, that this is not the primary way to receive an answer to a question. I saw some examples of people asking questions, which are already answered on our site, and then having this pointed out to them by more knowledgeable posters. This is the way this forum works, and while we are happy to engage with the community, and are always listening to suggestions, complaints and compliments, if you need help, your best bet is always going to be support@bitfinex.com (after reading the FAQ and our Announcements, of course).

I see this forum as a place to address large scale issues, engage in conversation on the direction of Bitfinex, and where we can post announcements of new features or policies. It is not our support system, although I do love seeing our customers engage with each other to share tips on how to get the most out of our platform.

Happy Trading,

Josh Rossi

I've sent support@bitfinex.com several emails in the past 3 weeks and gotten no reply.

[wenben]

The mining contract swap offered by bitfinex is a lot cheaper than cloud mining offered by some of the big boys (Knc, gawminers, and etc).

Maybe they should also offer contract for scrypt based and x11,13 based mining contract. Will certainly increase value for the exchange platform.

[noggin-scratcher]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

[bricky]

Minimum trade is still 0.1 BTC.... why so high...  Put it back to 0.01.

This happened about a week ago also, but it fixed shortly afterwards.
Seems to be happening again now.

Oddly, it appears that https://api.bitfinex.com/v1/symbols_details reports the minimum order size as 0.001 btc

[gog1]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

I second that, never a big fan of FRR.

Btw, USD swap dropped quite a bit ......

[Timetwister]

Btw, USD swap dropped quite a bit ......

And interest rates over 0.1% daily!

[traderman]

+1 that is how I feel too. I hope Bitfinnex changes this because those order walls are really screwing up price discovery!

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

I second that, never a big fan of FRR.

Btw, USD swap dropped quite a bit ......

[DoubleSwapper]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

Completely agree. I've wrote about that as well. The swap order book is so thin that these out of the blue 200 k to 500 k offers churn through the order book completely because nobody bothers to put in any offers above a +1 mio sometimes +3 mio wall that the FFR inevitably creates as soon as long demand decreases. When the rate is high then the lagging FFR comes up and puts offers far, far below the lost offer at that time which doesn't make sense at all.

[stevec]

Minimum trade is still 0.1 BTC.... why so high...  Put it back to 0.01.

This happened about a week ago also, but it fixed shortly afterwards.
Seems to be happening again now.

Oddly, it appears that https://api.bitfinex.com/v1/symbols_details reports the minimum order size as 0.001 btc

Yes - I had a response from Raphael a few days ago: "The minimum order is still 0.001 BTC, however we have implemented an antispam rule so that you can not place an order of less than 1/1000th of your avalable balance in a currency/wallet unless it is more than 0.1 unit. The reason was an increasing amount of orderbook spam with thousands of tiny orders".

They did set it back to 0.01 for a while, but now for whatever reason they've rolled the change back again.

/Steve

[stevec]

An update from Raphael today:

"Indeed we took some time to modify our antispam settings. However this is now all set.

All users have the same limits:
min. 0.1 LTC for LTC pairs, 0.01 for BTC pairs"

/Steve

[pgp]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

Completely agree. I've wrote about that as well. The swap order book is so thin that these out of the blue 200 k to 500 k offers churn through the order book completely because nobody bothers to put in any offers above a +1 mio sometimes +3 mio wall that the FFR inevitably creates as soon as long demand decreases. When the rate is high then the lagging FFR comes up and puts offers far, far below the lost offer at that time which doesn't make sense at all.

Hi, All,

My name is Phil and I am also associated with Bitfinex, and though I never post on btctalk, I wanted to address this issue and get more feedback.  FRR is calculated as the volume weighted rate of all the open fixed rate swaps, so naturally it will lag the inside market and this, of course creates problems for liquidity as it's the only real mechanism we have for auto renewing swaps.  We have spent some time thinking about how to improve this, but frankly haven't arrived at anything that we like better.  I will say, though, that we can certainly make it better by offering various embedded algos with user specified parameters, the problem is that we don't want to make it overly complicated, either.  So, the right solution has to be one that is simple and easy to understand.    So I will ask all of you.  Specifically, how would you improve it?  We recognize the need for improvement - so your suggestions are welcome! 

[Sukrim]

The big issue with dynamic interest rates is that they need to be predictable for both sides (so e.g. a "I set the interest rate manually every day as lender" won't be fair to the person borrowing).

While something like "FRR + n%" would be cool to have (similar to the idea of Humble Bundle's - "Pay more than the average..."), I am not too sure if that wouldn't just clutter the interface without offering some significant differences.

A more innovative approach might be to either have a (lower than usual - 0.01%?) flat percentage if the trader is at a loss or to get a (higher than usual - 10%? 15%?) share of the earnings, if a position is up. That way you could be bullish on crypto and lend USD to others, while at the moment you only should lend USD if you are bearish on all other markets (or to limit risk). This means you earn more if BTC are getting more expensive, but less if the market is going down.
With such a system it might be important to limit to traders in specific markets (e.g. you can only trade BTCUSD, not LTCUSD with my money), which might complicate things.

[lg1500]

since bitfinex not adding new assets to th1/btc, market prize will going up, and this is bitfinex fault, becouse witohut new assets we have too high prize and too high swap cost, and shorterst need pay this swap cost or they lost.

[QwertyCore]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

Completely agree. I've wrote about that as well. The swap order book is so thin that these out of the blue 200 k to 500 k offers churn through the order book completely because nobody bothers to put in any offers above a +1 mio sometimes +3 mio wall that the FFR inevitably creates as soon as long demand decreases. When the rate is high then the lagging FFR comes up and puts offers far, far below the lost offer at that time which doesn't make sense at all.

Hi, All,

My name is Phil and I am also associated with Bitfinex, and though I never post on btctalk, I wanted to address this issue and get more feedback.  FRR is calculated as the volume weighted rate of all the open fixed rate swaps, so naturally it will lag the inside market and this, of course creates problems for liquidity as it's the only real mechanism we have for auto renewing swaps.  We have spent some time thinking about how to improve this, but frankly haven't arrived at anything that we like better.  I will say, though, that we can certainly make it better by offering various embedded algos with user specified parameters, the problem is that we don't want to make it overly complicated, either.  So, the right solution has to be one that is simple and easy to understand.    So I will ask all of you.  Specifically, how would you improve it?  We recognize the need for improvement - so your suggestions are welcome! 

Just to confirm, you are not including the FRR swaps in the swaps that are averaged, correct?

[Sukrim]

Hi, All,

My name is Phil and I am also associated with Bitfinex, and though I never post on btctalk, I wanted to address this issue and get more feedback.  FRR is calculated as the volume weighted rate of all the open fixed rate swaps, so naturally it will lag the inside market and this, of course creates problems for liquidity as it's the only real mechanism we have for auto renewing swaps.  We have spent some time thinking about how to improve this, but frankly haven't arrived at anything that we like better.  I will say, though, that we can certainly make it better by offering various embedded algos with user specified parameters, the problem is that we don't want to make it overly complicated, either.  So, the right solution has to be one that is simple and easy to understand.    So I will ask all of you.  Specifically, how would you improve it?  We recognize the need for improvement - so your suggestions are welcome!  

Just to confirm, you are not including the FRR swaps in the swaps that are averaged, correct?

[QwertyCore]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

I think you are missing the true issue here and that is that the FRR exists at all.  If it did not, lenders would have to maintain their offers daily or set a minimum rate they are willing to accept and use auto-renew.  If they did, the FRR wall would not exist.  There might be just as much money in the pool but it would be spread out instead of lumped at one rate.  I think this would be more fair in that those who are willing to accept a lower rate will have the highest rate of swaps taken while those who want to gouge the borrowers will only do so when demand is very high. Lenders will not get the advantage of the swap going up during it's term like the FFR but will have to accept that since they had undercut other lenders to get the swap taken.

I think the FRR is a crutch and should be removed.  It exists for lazy lenders to get a "good enough" rate without have to maintain their swaps.  For those who would say that they don't have time to check their swaps daily, then don't, remove your swap offers or set them to a fixed value. Bitfinex expects the traders to maintain their positions on a day to day basis and I don't see why the same philosophy should not apply to lenders.

[QwertyCore]

Hi, All,

My name is Phil and I am also associated with Bitfinex, and though I never post on btctalk, I wanted to address this issue and get more feedback.  FRR is calculated as the volume weighted rate of all the open fixed rate swaps, so naturally it will lag the inside market and this, of course creates problems for liquidity as it's the only real mechanism we have for auto renewing swaps.  We have spent some time thinking about how to improve this, but frankly haven't arrived at anything that we like better.  I will say, though, that we can certainly make it better by offering various embedded algos with user specified parameters, the problem is that we don't want to make it overly complicated, either.  So, the right solution has to be one that is simple and easy to understand.    So I will ask all of you.  Specifically, how would you improve it?  We recognize the need for improvement - so your suggestions are welcome!  

Just to confirm, you are not including the FRR swaps in the swaps that are averaged, correct?

I noted that. I'm working the "trust but verify" angle.

[BitBits]

I've come to really dislike the Flash Return Rate. I'll try and be articulate about why...

The problem as I see it, is that it's currently the only option for offering swaps at a variable rate, and the only option to offer automatically at a rate that adjusts (somewhat) to market conditions. If you want to be fairly hands-off and automated about things, it's kind of the only game in town. It's normally nowhere near an optimal rate to be offering at - being either too high when rates are decreasing and everyone jumps in front of it, or far too low when rates have headed back up (see also: right now), but without any other auto-rate options it gets heavily used.

So we get, most of the time, an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR, making it very difficult for the rate to rise higher - the FRR keeps slipping down as the average diminishes, until there's enough pressure to chew through it all at once (or possibly by 30-day swaps being taken over the head of the FRR-wall) and the rate suddenly spikes upwards, dragging the FRR reluctantly upward with it.

So that's my thesis - FRR is a magnet for a giant heap of offers from those who don't have the free time required for manual management, or who want to avoid being stuck in a poorly placed fixed-rate swap, and its effect on the market is to produce that weird sawtooth pattern in swap rates, with sharp increases followed by slow deteriorations. I really wish there were better options for an automated rate. Or even just more options so as to spread the pile out a bit more. If we could set offers at a fixed offset away from the FRR, or have fixed-rate offers that are automatically placed at a certain 'depth' into the book of offers, or have a tracker rate that's slightly more responsive (a weighted moving average of recent fixed-rate swaps rather than a simple average rate?)... then I would be so happy.

Completely agree. I've wrote about that as well. The swap order book is so thin that these out of the blue 200 k to 500 k offers churn through the order book completely because nobody bothers to put in any offers above a +1 mio sometimes +3 mio wall that the FFR inevitably creates as soon as long demand decreases. When the rate is high then the lagging FFR comes up and puts offers far, far below the lost offer at that time which doesn't make sense at all.

Hi, All,

My name is Phil and I am also associated with Bitfinex, and though I never post on btctalk, I wanted to address this issue and get more feedback.  FRR is calculated as the volume weighted rate of all the open fixed rate swaps, so naturally it will lag the inside market and this, of course creates problems for liquidity as it's the only real mechanism we have for auto renewing swaps.  We have spent some time thinking about how to improve this, but frankly haven't arrived at anything that we like better.  I will say, though, that we can certainly make it better by offering various embedded algos with user specified parameters, the problem is that we don't want to make it overly complicated, either.  So, the right solution has to be one that is simple and easy to understand.    So I will ask all of you.  Specifically, how would you improve it?  We recognize the need for improvement - so your suggestions are welcome!  

Hello Phil,

I've personally seen good use of FRR feature in the past, but these days I would agree with noggin-scratcher regarding the issue of "an enormous wall of offers all placed at the single FRR" and the resulting huge spikes (like today, to 0.7%!!!) when this wall is gone. I do not think however that FRR feature needs to be eliminated entirely.

To your list of simpler solution suggestions, I would propose to limit the total volume of FRR offers to a certain percentage of total offers on the order book. I don't know what percentage allocated to FRR will be optimal, but I guess you could start from some high value and go down over time, to ensure smooth transition.

It basically comes to the (optional) requirement for users to specify the rate when they are placing FRR offer. We already have a box for this entry, but currently it gets ignored by the system, if user clicks on FRR option, so perhaps we should try to enable that.
Under simplest implementation of this feature, user's offer will be placed at FRR, or at specified by him/her rate if FRR quote is already taken.

Slight modification of the above will be the availability of additional options, when placing the swap offer, such as the following:
1. Place offer at FRR, or if not available - at user specified rate (this is the same as described above)
2. Place offer at FRR, or if not available - at equal to then current FRR rate (this can be useful, for those using auto-renewal option)
3. Place offer at FRR, or if not available - do NOT place any fixed rate offer, wait until FRR offer CAN be placed.

Note that the option 3 above is very similar to what we have right now (meaning that your offer will "stand in line" for placement at FRR). For this reason, option 3 can be made a default setting. Options 1 and 2 will create much thicker order book and prevent big spikes.

Other than the above, availability of some algos would be ideal and by the way, if you do not want to make the whole platform "overly complicated" (this is of course understandable), perhaps you can make algos available only to those who wants to use them, leaving simpler solution for the rest. I guess BFX will run into problem when people would just "enable" the algos and then annoy the hell out of support team asking basic question instead of reading some sort of a "how to" . To avoid this, a comprehensive "How to" section can be created and users wishing to use the "algo system" would have to pass a simple quiz, before it is enabled on their account for them.  

What do you (and all) think?