Intersango HOWTO - Build your own Bitcoin Exchange Web Site!

[Grouver (BtcBalance)]

Great stuff.

Learned one thing though.
If you want to start something up that has to do with money biz you need 4 more things then just the front-end and back-end.

1) A 24/7 lawyer
2) Alot of money
3) A couple of skilled programmers
4) A additional security expert.

THIS--^   

You have to start somewhere. I had none of those in the beginning, slowly accumulated them and now we have that and more.

Thanks for your reply.
I get that part.
But what I maybe should have added to my statement is the fact that if you want to play safe you should arrange those four things before you start sommering up like an Bitcoin exchange.
You can do this along the way when it grows, like you did. But thats a little bit more risky on the side of getting hacked and losing all of your money.
On the other side its not risky since you don't invest as much as you would do if you want to play it safe, wich creates the possibility to stop the whole thing easier if you don't feel like running the exchange anymore.

[ThiagoCMC]

Guys!

 Please, read the new 8.5 step!!!

  8.5- Get the Bitcoin Address of your "default account" of your Intersango Exchange House:

 Genjix, please, upgrade the INSTALL.ubuntu file...

Best,
Thiago

[genjix]

done!

[ripper234]

I missed this thread back then (got pointed to it via a question on Stack Exchange).

How do deposits work? If I setup an instance, is it my own instance, or is it linked to your main exchange?
How can I get dollars in/out of the exchange?

Something is obviously missing in my understanding here.

BTW, do you plan to support any alternative crypto-currencies?

[Raoul Duke]

Hey, can any of you take one doubt I have, please?

Why do we need to use that patched bitcoind?
Doesn't the bitcoind at the ubuntu repos work? It's 0.3.24 the same as this one.

What are the differences?

[crazy_rabbit]

I see this has been dormant for awhile, but I stumbled across it. Has Intersango kept up with this project? And has anyone gone on to build their own exchange website? I'd be curious to hear user experiences regarding this project.

[Evolvex]

I've just stumbled across it to. I'd also be interested to hear about this more.

Its something I've considered, maybe setting up something for just the local area, like a local bitcoin exchange. I'd have to hire dev's and security folk tho as that ends a little to past my skills.

[dooglus]

I see this has been dormant for awhile, but I stumbled across it. Has Intersango kept up with this project? And has anyone gone on to build their own exchange website? I'd be curious to hear user experiences regarding this project.

Intersango currently uses a different set of code for their own exchange.  It's not open sourced (yet?) as far as I understand.

I made a whole bunch of changes to the open source Intersango code.  You can see my changes here:

  https://github.com/dooglus/intersango/

I've not been keeping up with it recently, but am able to assist with getting the code installed and running, and can implement custom features should you require them.

[dooglus]

I've just stumbled across it to. I'd also be interested to hear about this more.

Its something I've considered, maybe setting up something for just the local area, like a local bitcoin exchange. I'd have to hire dev's and security folk tho as that ends a little to past my skills.

Most of my experience with the Intersango code came from setting up the software for the "World Bitcoin Exchange", which allowed users to trade Australian dollars for BTC.  The exchange worked pretty well, but in the end the exchange closed down and claimed that all the users dollars had gone missing.  Whenever you set up an exchange bank fraud seems to be a real problem.  The owner of WBX claims that deposits to his bank account were somehow reversed after users had exchanged them for BTC and withdrawn, resulting in him losing a lot of money.  The exchange software itself however appears to have stood up very well.

[Evolvex]

Thanks for your input dooglus, I wasnt aware that there could be such problems with direct deposits into an account, assumed they were 99% safe (at least safer than paypal) - that kind of puts me off doing something like this.

It would be nice to see a number of "local" exchanges openning - ie bricks and mortar where people can exchange there cash for bitcoins etc, long way off though until someone does something like that I expect - at least would cut out all the fraud.

[dooglus]

Thanks for your input dooglus, I wasnt aware that there could be such problems with direct deposits into an account, assumed they were 99% safe (at least safer than paypal) - that kind of puts me off doing something like this.

Don't take my word for it.  I don't have any experience of it directly.  It may be that the issue is worse for Australian banks, and it's even possible that the owner of the exchange didn't really have any problems with the banks at all, and simply claimed that he did, and kept the money for himself.  I have no way of knowing what really happened.

[markm]

Fiat banks are for sure scary.

Probably it would be best to go with a secure fiat storage of your own, not deposited in any bank accounts but, rather, as physical currency in a safe or safe-deposit-box, and only trade "tokens" representing that securely stored fiat on the exchange.

That way all the risk involving fiat banks can be delegated away from the actual exchange-per-se onto third party (or nominally third party; you could run one of thse yourself in addition to running an exchange if you wished) "market makers" who sell people the tokens in return for fiat and buy the tokens back from people in return for fiat.

At first glance this might seem silly, as the first question to pop into your head might be "what for do I need the exchange if these third parties exist, surely the third party could sell me actual fiat instead of tokens representing securely stored fiat???"

However, the big important difference between actual fiat you give to or get from these third parties and the tokens representing securely stored fiat (which you also get from these same third parties) is the "securely stored" part. Bank accounts are not secure in this sense, because what you think is in them can later turn out not to be in them due to transaction reversal by the bank. The "securely stored" fiat the tokens represent, by contrast, cannot be reversed thus are eminently suitable for exchanging with other irreversible currencies.

Another difference is all the fees these third parties would tend to need to charge due to the risks they take on in dealing with banks.

The actual exchange per se being separated from that risk and thus its associated costs can be nice and economical, letting you trade currencies without having to charge a percentage on each trade. (For example it could be implemented using-or-like Open Transactions, charging flat fee per action performed regardless of how much value that action exchanges or transfers.)

Thus once you have gotten away from the fiat banks into the secure tokens you can trade back and forth between umpteen currencies over and over and over again wheeler-dealing daytrading or whatever at far far lower cost (at least as long as your trades are not as tiny as the tiny nominal per action fees per action) than you could on exchanges that incorporate the bailing in and bailing out (to/from fiat banking sytem) risk costs into the actual trading system where the wheeling and dealing is done.

-MarkM-

[dscotese]

Hey, can any of you take one doubt I have, please?

Why do we need to use that patched bitcoind?
Doesn't the bitcoind at the ubuntu repos work? It's 0.3.24 the same as this one.

What are the differences?

Yeah!  What Psy asked...

Is this why bitcoinconsultancy is no longer online?

[dooglus]

Hey, can any of you take one doubt I have, please?

Why do we need to use that patched bitcoind?
Doesn't the bitcoind at the ubuntu repos work? It's 0.3.24 the same as this one.

What are the differences?

Yeah!  What Psy asked...

Is this why bitcoinconsultancy is no longer online?

I think the patch just makes bitcoind give integer (satoshi) outputs instead of decimal (bitcoin) amounts.

So instead of 0.12345678 BTC you'll get 12345678 satoshis.  And the PHP script won't treat it as a floating point value, and so it will be more accurate.

[crazy_rabbit]

I've just stumbled across it to. I'd also be interested to hear about this more.

Its something I've considered, maybe setting up something for just the local area, like a local bitcoin exchange. I'd have to hire dev's and security folk tho as that ends a little to past my skills.

I like that idea of running it as a local area exchange. Would be interesting if cities for example ran their own bitcoin exchange.

EDIT: And that would be an interesting way of eliminating Banks- you could potentially have a physical location where locals can come to pickup or deposit fiat in person.

[dooglus]

EDIT: And that would be an interesting way of eliminating Banks- you could potentially have a physical location where locals can come to pickup or deposit fiat in person.

If you think it's difficult securing a website, think about how hard it is to secure a physical location.  You're going to publish your address and have it known that you have large amounts of cash on the premises?

[bajanboost]

I see this has been dormant for awhile, but I stumbled across it. Has Intersango kept up with this project? And has anyone gone on to build their own exchange website? I'd be curious to hear user experiences regarding this project.

I am interested in those services with regards to getting help! Check your email!

Intersango currently uses a different set of code for their own exchange.  It's not open sourced (yet?) as far as I understand.

I made a whole bunch of changes to the open source Intersango code.  You can see my changes here:

  https://github.com/dooglus/intersango/

I've not been keeping up with it recently, but am able to assist with getting the code installed and running, and can implement custom features should you require them.

[Min€r]

Cool project - my devs have to look at the code as soon as possible. THANKS!

[hotice]

Hi

Is there any running exchange using intersango's open source technology ?

regards
hotice

[BTC Turkiye]

Is this still being used? Can we see a demo somewhere?