Guidelines for New Exchange Operators

Given the nightmares that have been occurring on crypto exchanges recently, I'd like to post some guidelines for anyone contemplating opening a crypto currency exchange:

1. Stress Test. Before you go live - way, way before, figure out a way to stress test your system. If you think you will be doing 1000 transactions a day, test for 10,000. If you think you will be doing 10,000, test for 100,000. Do stupid, human stuff that stupid humans do. Try to break the hell out your system, and don't go live until you have tested 10 X the number of transactions and sessions that you expect you will have.

2. Create a Support System. Even if you are one or two people, put in place before you go live a robust support system that can handle lots of complaints and that can efficiently respond. Automate the initial response. So that when someone opens a ticket, they get an email that the system has received the ticket and that someone is working on it and they will get a response. Then, no matter how many tickets you get, work on every one of them and respond as soon as you can. If you can't handle the volume, find some help. If you can't find some help, then do whatever you can to give yourself some time - and post a notice that makes sense on your site so that people don't have to decipher what you are talking about. If you have to, suspend new registrations. Whatever it takes.

3. Communicate. When things go wrong - and they will, trust me - create a disciplined cadence of communication through some very public and easy-to-find channel to make announcements. There are plenty of channels available - Facebook, Twitter, to name a few. And then, communicate EVERY DAY on all of your chosen channels. Maybe even more than every day, if you have many people who are affected by your technical issues. Send a progress report often. Explain the situation. If you don't know English very well (I'm sorry, but it really is the international language these days), don't let that prevent you from communicating. Find a friend who can translate for you, or even use Google Translate - whatever - and regularly post detailed explanations of what is going on. People get very emotional when their money is at stake, and if they don't have information to allow them some comfort they will call you a scammer at the drop of a hat. So prevent that - stay ahead of them - and communicate , communicate , communicate.

4. Start When Ready. Not Before. I know how exciting it can be to launch something new. But please please please resist the temptation to launch a crypto currency exchange before your interface is complete. For instance, if you have a profile page for someone to manage their profile, provide an ability to let them do something as mundane as change their email address. List all of the functions you expect people will need to do on your site, and then make more than one person go through every one of them to ensure that your site functions exactly as it is supposed to. If one of your testers can't do something - like, say, change their email address in their profile, because you forgot to provide that functionality, then DON'T GO LIVE.

That's about it - good luck with your brand new crypto exchange, and please don't become one of those places where we all line up outside your door, screaming with our torches and pitchforks. Thanks in advance.