I'm thinking of starting a bitcoin/altcoin-only exchange with some advantages over most other exchanges (for example, lower rates). Now I'm no fool - I know that people have been scammed in the past from exchanges that run away with the wallets or get hacked and be unable to pay back customers.
How do I gain the trust of the bitcoin/altcoin community? Is the best way to get started to simply offer promotions like "no-trading-fees-for-the-first-week", and wait for word-of-mouth by customers who make small successful transactions?
Also, are there resources on how to avoid the failures of previous exchanges?
Will tip in BTC for the first best answer I see.
I don't think it's just about gaining the trust of interent formus sufferers. You will need a lot of money to do marketing and have your exchange promoted. The problem with relying solely on the already established community, is that as soon as one person has a bad experience, everyone else will shy away from it. This is why you will need to get the attention of folks who do not spend their time reading fud and batting off trollers. Not sure if this is helpful but start your efforts outside the community, gather some dedicated users, and then show off your exchange to those who are knee deep in BTC already. You will, of course, need to invest your own BTC into the exchange for initial transactions... so make sure you have a good bulk in your own wallet, to kick it all off.
