comparing bitcoin stock exchanges: mpex / btct / cryptostocks / bitfunder

[RangerK]

I did a quick comparison of bitcoin stock exchanges today and thought I'd share my initial impressions.  Please let me know if I missed any major exchanges, or if I got the wrong impression anywhere:

MPEX
website: primitive
30 day volume: 22,000 btc
listing fee: 30 btc!!!
other comments: They operator seems insufferably rude.  You can see it in his FAQ.  These guys are best known for handling the recent SatoshiDice deal.  Between the high fee and rude operator, it's not clear to me why people use this service.

BTCT
website: so-so
30 day volume: 108,000 btc
listing fee: 5 btc
other comments: Based in Bolivia.  You can really sense the legal uncertainty of bitcoin securities on this websites.  There are huge, very verbose disclaimers all over the place.

Cryptostocks
website: nice!
30 day volume: 300 btc
listing fee: 2btc!
other comments: looks great.  I'm not sure how long they've been around.  Maybe they're new and that's why the volume is so low.  I dig the low listing fee.

BitFunder
website: nice!
30 day volume: not sure, but I think it's very high
listing fee: 5btc
other comments: another great-looking site.  Everything seems professional

That's it.

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy, I thought it'd be more fun and effective to sell shares of the proposed book.  Is anyone aware of this having been done before?  I'm not.  Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Deprived]

Cryptostocks
website: nice!
30 day volume: 300 btc
listing fee: 2btc!
other comments: looks great.  I'm not sure how long they've been around.  Maybe they're new and that's why the volume is so low.  I dig the low listing fee.

Website may look nice but it's horrid to use (or was when I used to trade there).  It's been runing longer than BTC-TC and Bitfunder.  It has low volume for a few reasons:

• It allows blatant scams to list.
• It (and/or the currency exchange same guy runs) have been hacked a few times.
• Operator of it changed contract for his own shares mid-IPO so noone can have any faith in his integrity (he had a minimum number that needed to be sold or the IPO would be aborted.  When that target wasn't reached he just edited the target).
• Operator is in breach of his contract with investors in his currency exchange - withholding profits that should be theirs to repay funds allegedly stolen from the site which wouldn't be their responsibility anyway even if the hacking actually happened.

Noone with any sense uses it - hence the low volume.

Havelock may be a 4th one for you to have a look at.

[Peter Lambert]

I did a quick comparison of bitcoin stock exchanges today and thought I'd share my initial impressions.  Please let me know if I missed any major exchanges, or if I got the wrong impression anywhere:

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy, I thought it'd be more fun and effective to sell shares of the proposed book.  Is anyone aware of this having been done before?  I'm not.  Any thoughts are appreciated.

Don't judge a book by the cover. Looking at the total volume of the exchange does not tell you much. For example, a huge amount of the volume on BTCT is just from one stock (actually several pass-throughs to the same stock, AsicMiner).

for MPEX the 30 btc fee is not for listing, but to register a key to use the exchange. They have the best security model. Cryptostocks is older than BTCT or BitFunder, but not many people use it because the operator is rather shady. (and what Deprived said while I was typing)

For doing a crowdfunding project, you definitely won't get it on MPEx (that is just not the sort of thing listed there), you will probably have trouble getting it on BTCT. You might be able to get it onto BitFunder. You could look into BitStarter, I think they do that sort of thing.

[burnside]

BTCT
website: so-so
30 day volume: 108,000 btc
listing fee: 5 btc
other comments: Based in Bolivia.  You can really sense the legal uncertainty of bitcoin securities on this websites.  There are huge, very verbose disclaimers all over the place.

Belize.

And yup, dealing with people's bitcoins means lots of responsibility and thus lots of warnings to be careful.

[Deprived]

I did a quick comparison of bitcoin stock exchanges today and thought I'd share my initial impressions.  Please let me know if I missed any major exchanges, or if I got the wrong impression anywhere:

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy, I thought it'd be more fun and effective to sell shares of the proposed book.  Is anyone aware of this having been done before?  I'm not.  Any thoughts are appreciated.

Don't judge a book by the cover. Looking at the total volume of the exchange does not tell you much. For example, a huge amount of the volume on BTCT is just from one stock (actually several pass-throughs to the same stock, AsicMiner).

Strange thing to say.  MPEx only has a few stocks at all - if you took away THEIR top stock then there wouldn't be a lot left at all in securities trade.  And Bitfunder has its trade concentrated tighter than BTC-TC.  So why was BTC-TC singled out for that comment?   And why should a security be excluded from measures of quantity just because it's doing well?

My DMS securities aren't one of the most active ones on BTC-TC, but even they combined turned over around 4K BTC in the last 30 days.  So it's not like ALL the volume is ASICMINER.  Even without the ASICMINER securities it still does significantly more volume than MPEx.

Not that volume is a measure of anything - other than volume.  But it's undeniable that Bitfunder/BTC-TC have been expanding whilst MPEx has been contracting (it now only has MP's own securities on it).  A lot of that expansion has, unfortunately, been crap.

[TheSwede75]

You might want to add picostocks.com to the list. Just saying.

[superduh]

havelock?

[Deprived]

You might want to add picostocks.com to the list. Just saying.

Don't they only have 1 stock - a mining security that keeps pushing its deadlines back?  It's just a website selling shares in his own company(s) not an actual exchange.

[Peter Lambert]

I did a quick comparison of bitcoin stock exchanges today and thought I'd share my initial impressions.  Please let me know if I missed any major exchanges, or if I got the wrong impression anywhere:

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy, I thought it'd be more fun and effective to sell shares of the proposed book.  Is anyone aware of this having been done before?  I'm not.  Any thoughts are appreciated.

Don't judge a book by the cover. Looking at the total volume of the exchange does not tell you much. For example, a huge amount of the volume on BTCT is just from one stock (actually several pass-throughs to the same stock, AsicMiner).

Strange thing to say.  MPEx only has a few stocks at all - if you took away THEIR top stock then there wouldn't be a lot left at all in securities trade.  And Bitfunder has its trade concentrated tighter than BTC-TC.  So why was BTC-TC singled out for that comment?   And why should a security be excluded from measures of quantity just because it's doing well?

My DMS securities aren't one of the most active ones on BTC-TC, but even they combined turned over around 4K BTC in the last 30 days.  So it's not like ALL the volume is ASICMINER.  Even without the ASICMINER securities it still does significantly more volume than MPEx.

Not that volume is a measure of anything - other than volume.  But it's undeniable that Bitfunder/BTC-TC have been expanding whilst MPEx has been contracting (it now only has MP's own securities on it).  A lot of that expansion has, unfortunately, been crap.

I was not trying to single out BTCT, I was using them as an example. I am just saying that getting an asset listed on btct does not mean you will have a huge volume, since the traders evaluate each security individually.

[timewaster]

havelock?

Havelock Investments - https://www.havelockinvestments.com/

[igba]

you guys gotta have more faith in BTCT, burnside takes criticism constructively and is a nice guy overall (you know how many issues he deals with on a daily basis?) and has been active in seeking legal advice.

PLUS it's a legally registered offshore biz with an offshore domain and constant cold storage backups. pretty much the sign of preparing to be taken down...I think it deserves more than the "so-so" you gave it.

and cryptostocks needs to put the smackdown on scams for sure.

just my 2 satoshi, good idea for a thread

[freedomno1]

Havelock its a major exchange

On other notes

Theres also 796 (Still observing not risking capital there yet but since you listed crytostocks ) and litecoinglobal if you don't mind a lite exchange

[greatscott]

BTC-TC's UX is generally pretty rockin compared to everything else I've seen. That said, the general design aesthetic doesn't look super good or professional (sorry, Burn!)... sort of like Reddit. Hurts the eyes, but it's nicely functional, and that's really what matters at the end of the day. It's what keeps people coming back. Burn being an active, fairly transparent, and generally responsive participant also does wonders and helps maintain confidence in the service.

[RangerK]

BTCT
website: so-so
30 day volume: 108,000 btc
listing fee: 5 btc
other comments: Based in Bolivia.  You can really sense the legal uncertainty of bitcoin securities on this websites.  There are huge, very verbose disclaimers all over the place.

Belize.

Thanks for the correction. 

[ThickAsThieves]

BTCT
website: so-so
30 day volume: 108,000 btc
listing fee: 5 btc
other comments: Based in Bolivia.  You can really sense the legal uncertainty of bitcoin securities on this websites.  There are huge, very verbose disclaimers all over the place.

Belize.

Thanks for the correction. 

One of many errors and omissions in your assessment of the exchanges.

[RangerK]

BTCT
website: so-so
30 day volume: 108,000 btc
listing fee: 5 btc
other comments: Based in Bolivia.  You can really sense the legal uncertainty of bitcoin securities on this websites.  There are huge, very verbose disclaimers all over the place.

Belize.

Thanks for the correction. 

One of many errors and omissions in your assessment of the exchanges.

Are you going to elaborate on that?

[MPOE-PR]

Between the high fee and rude operator, it's not clear to me why people use this service.

See here.

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy

As others have pointed out, you certainly don't have any business on MPEx.

A lot of that expansion has, unfortunately, been crap.

The last time this happened it didn't end so well.

[RangerK]

You might want to add picostocks.com to the list. Just saying.

https://picostocks.com/docs/index/page:2

Looks like a one-man band.

[Peter Lambert]

The reason I'm looking into this is that I'm thinking of doing crowdfunding for a literary project, and rather than appealing to straight philanthropy

As others have pointed out, you certainly don't have any business on MPEx.

Another place you should look for funding is btcjam. (I think there might be one or two other crowd lending btc platforms, you could do some forum and/or google searching for that, I don't remember them off the top of my head).

[RangerK]

havelock?

Havelock Investments - https://www.havelockinvestments.com/

Havelock seems like one of the major ones-
https://www.havelockinvestments.com/index.php

Also,

796-
https://796.com/stockpd?op=market

Pico Stocks-
https://picostocks.com/