Intersango exchange (formerly Britcoin)

[realnowhereman]

I see Britcoin has pulled a "superman III".

Before the migration I made sure I had emptied it out (I'm afraid I didn't trust that there would be no problems; fortunately the Intersango chaps seem more competent than Mt Gox).

Now; it was always the case (annoyingly) that you couldn't withdraw to more than two decimal places of accuracy of bitcoins; and of course you couldn't for fiat.  That meant I had tiny decimal balances left on my account.

After the migration, those tiny decimals seem to have been chucked away.

My question then is: if there are a few thousand users, and it's not hard to get odd fractions when you're bitcoin trading, where has all that money gone?  Maybe it adds up to a hundred quids worth, maybe not, it doesn't matter though; where's it gone?  Want it as a migration charge?  Fine, tell us that, just taking it is a bit cheeky though.

(As a side note: the only thing I really cared about for migration, given that I'd moved all the funds, was the account history, but I see that's vanished too.  Was it really that hard to write a converter?  Anything would have been better than nothing.  In particular its a shame to lose bitcoin transfer history, since there is no bank statement to reconstruct those operations, and they are being done outside our private wallets so all recordings of what we moved where are just gone?)

[1713483683]

1713483683

[1713483683]

1713483683

[Caesium]

Migration ran smoothly if a little slowly, had to retry the form submit a couple of times, but my balances have shown up now. Thanks guys.

[spruce]

Now; it was always the case (annoyingly) that you couldn't withdraw to more than two decimal places of accuracy of bitcoins; and of course you couldn't for fiat.  That meant I had tiny decimal balances left on my account.

After the migration, those tiny decimals seem to have been chucked away.

My funds, both BTC and GBP, got credited to 5 decimal places after the migration.

[Sultan]

Britcoin should be removed from the bitcoin charts. I moved all my money out of britcoin before the migration. Would've liked the history, too, but oh well!

[phantomcircuit]

I see Britcoin has pulled a "superman III".

Before the migration I made sure I had emptied it out (I'm afraid I didn't trust that there would be no problems; fortunately the Intersango chaps seem more competent than Mt Gox).

Now; it was always the case (annoyingly) that you couldn't withdraw to more than two decimal places of accuracy of bitcoins; and of course you couldn't for fiat.  That meant I had tiny decimal balances left on my account.

After the migration, those tiny decimals seem to have been chucked away.

My question then is: if there are a few thousand users, and it's not hard to get odd fractions when you're bitcoin trading, where has all that money gone?  Maybe it adds up to a hundred quids worth, maybe not, it doesn't matter though; where's it gone?  Want it as a migration charge?  Fine, tell us that, just taking it is a bit cheeky though.

(As a side note: the only thing I really cared about for migration, given that I'd moved all the funds, was the account history, but I see that's vanished too.  Was it really that hard to write a converter?  Anything would have been better than nothing.  In particular its a shame to lose bitcoin transfer history, since there is no bank statement to reconstruct those operations, and they are being done outside our private wallets so all recordings of what we moved where are just gone?)

All of the funds on the old britcoin site are still available to users.

There are instructions on claiming the old sites balance here https://britcoin.co.uk/migration/

[phantomcircuit]

Now; it was always the case (annoyingly) that you couldn't withdraw to more than two decimal places of accuracy of bitcoins; and of course you couldn't for fiat.  That meant I had tiny decimal balances left on my account.

After the migration, those tiny decimals seem to have been chucked away.

My funds, both BTC and GBP, got credited to 5 decimal places after the migration.

The transfer is actually accurate to 8 decimal places, the amount displayed is limited to 5 for display purposes, although that can be changed

[phantomcircuit]

Britcoin should be removed from the bitcoin charts. I moved all my money out of britcoin before the migration. Would've liked the history, too, but oh well!

If you send an email to support@britcoin.co.uk I can send you a csv file containing your previous accounts history.

[dooglus]

In the bottom right corner in the 'additional links' box, "its" is spelled wrongly:

  "and it's possible implications"

[runeks]

I have a question regarding Intersango. I can see on the "BUY/SELL" page that there is a bid on BTC for 4.9 USD/BTC:

Rate (USD PER BTC)	Quantity (BTC available)
4.90000	105.24168

I have made an ask order that I can see on my account page for:

34.74040 BTC at 4.90000 USD/BTC

Must the bid be met exactly, ie. don't you execute partial trades like Mt.Gox so that the person who wants to buy 105.24168 BTC buys my 34.74040 BTC that I have for sale, and hopefully he'll find another person to sell him the rest of the BTCs (70.50128) he's looking for?

[phantomcircuit]

There was a partial outage last night.

One of the many sanity checks I have built into the market daemon was tripped.

This caused all trading to halt and orders that were placed from then on to remain in the queued state.

Turns out my checks were just overly paranoid and nothing was wrong.

Trading resumed approximately 30 minutes ago.

[phantomcircuit]

I just wanted to add that when the market daemon starts requests to cancel an order are processed before the orders are processed.

So if the market daemon goes down you will still be able to cancel your orders.

[bitcola]

I recently used this site for the first time yesterday. A pleasant experience.

My deposit was registered within the hour though I bank with the same UK bank so I don't know if others would experience this too.

Filling orders was problematic. I only got partial fills because the recommended price was lower than any existing asks. I would suggest an order type of "best price", I forget what the market terminology for this is. Right now, seems they operate fixed price good till cancelled.

Also swift withdrawal to my wallet.

I like the account interface very much. Very easy to understand.

Spreads are very, very low.

I wonder why the operator runs this service for free? Is he crazy?? 

[dooglus]

I wonder why the operator runs this service for free? Is he crazy?? 

Britcoin's help page used to say:

Britcoin.co.uk is my decision to provide those living in the UK with a free exchange in order to promote awareness in the UK and allow UK residents to not miss out on the benefits of using bitcoins and being part of this great social change!

https://intersango.com/fees.php says:

Right now as an introduction to the community, we are running a completely free service. We take no commission.

and:

Our fees are subject to change and may change without notice. The fees which we have control over will be properly displayed and with adequate forewarning (at least 1 week).

[jonathan]

I used Britcoin ages ago and found it an agreeable experience. But on looking at the Terms and Conditions at the new Intersango, I notice at term 12:

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Intersango Ltd, and its parent, affiliates, directors, officers and employees from and against any claim, liability, cost, damage or loss we may incur (including, without limitation, legal fees) as a result of the use of this website as well as but not limited to any violation by you of your obligations under these terms and conditions.

(https://britcoin.co.uk/terms.php)

That seems a bit scary! So much so, I just didn't go any further with the new registration. I hope some intersango punter isn't going to get screwed over by the lawyers there.

[Donald_Norman]

Actions speak louder then words. The biggest budget financial services have problems and we recently had a multi withdrawal. We paid out of our pockets (despite running a free service). The reason we could afford to do so is because we planned ahead and knew how exposed we were if such a problem were to occur.

The ToC is not a guarantee that we will not guarantee funds. As in that instance we did. While other services may not have these ToC. Both MtGox and Tradehill didn't pay clients of theirs on occasions while we have not a single instance of that. Bitomat and B7 have had troubles that there is no need to mention.

Our site is designed and run by programmers. Our lead programmer and operator of the site is an expert at security. The security of the site and how it is designed maximize not just the immediate safety but the chance that a problem if it does occur will be manageable. I would say we are magnitudes more secure than any other site but you can just look at the long track record instead of taking my word for it.

[jonathan]

It isn't the coders I'm worrying about at all. It's the lawyers. To paraphrase:

'You agree to defend Intersango['s] affiliates from any cost we may incur [blah blah]'

I agree to "defend" some random affiliate? What's that all about? I'm not trying to be awkward here, or stir any ill will. And I definitely would recommend Intersango if user experience and interaction with Intersango coders were the be all and end all. But either I'm paranoid, or stupid, or else that term 12 ought to be reworded. IANAL, otherwise I would make a suggestion as to exactly what that wording should look like.

EDIT: forgot to say Thank You for your earlier reply Donald_Norman :-)

[Donald_Norman]

When it comes to legalize. I trust the lawyer way more than myself. The same goes for Amir and Patrick. I will ask and find out if I can get clarification as to the extent and definition of this exact condition.

Perhaps we can reword it because now I see your concern. I will ask about number 12 and update it to be less ambiguous to laymen if possible.

Is there any other point you find problematic. If so, say so so that I can ask everything at once.

[jonathan]

Term 12 was the only thing that stopped me signing up. Allow me to have another go at that paraphrasing:

'You agree to defend Intersango['s] parent, affiliates and employees from any cost we may incur as a result of (x) as well as but not limited to (y).'

It's really that "as well as but not limited to" that seems a bit dangerous. It looks like a punter at Intersango gets landed with the responsibility to defend anything anyone connected with Intersango does that could land Intersango in the shit. Including the parent company! That seems a bit of a weird catch-all.

Again, Thanks Donald_Norman for bearing with me on this. And max respect for the coders at Intersango. I've never had any problem with them.

[Donald_Norman]

looking into this and seeing if I can get it worded in a way that is more specific. Give me a couple days. In the mean time note that the site is only owned and operated by 3 people. Myself, Amir (genjix) and Patrick (phantomcircuit). I do not have access to the funds, and would not want to. We have measures set up if something were to happen to patrick (god forbid) but he is the one securing the funds and processing the transfers.

[saadtariq30]

Id like to report a problem...i filled out a withdraw request,and now when i click on the request id # it says : Requested withdrawal of  GBP to
thats it..nothing after to..its not reporting the name of the beneficiary account details etc like it used to on britcoin