Original author: Pete Rizzo
Coin News
Original author: Joon Ian Wong
Yesterday, at midnight (CEST), Ethereum launched the presale of its much-anticipated, platform-specific altcoin, ether.
The surprise announcement caused something of a stir in the community and the response has been extremely positive, with over 7 million ether (ETH) sold after approximately 12 hours.
Switzerland-based Ethereum and The Ethereum Project have made headlines this past year as potentially exciting examples of ‘Cryptocurrency 2.0′, a term that refers to new applications built upon block chain technology. Ethereum is both a platform and a programming language that is aimed to make it possible for developers to build and publish applications that do not require trust in third parties to run. Ether is commonly referred to as the ‘cryptofuel’ that runs the applications on Ethereum’s decentralized network. In practice, ether will be required by anyone wishing to build upon or use the Ethereum platform, and are, at this time, mostly suitable for people looking to develop or distribute decentralized applications People have been waiting since Ethereum’s announcement in January at Miami’s North American Bitcoin Conference to purchase the tokens. Funding development According to Ethereum, those purchasing ether now will lock in their supply at a known price, even though the actual coins will not be available until the genesis block is mined, sometime in the winter of 2014-2015. While this makes this sale look like a crowdfunding operation, the company maintains it is a pre-sale event for a product, with funds going towards financing the continued development of the software platform. “You are trusting us to take the bitcoin and use it to develop Ethereum,” said Buterin. “But we hope that after watching our development for six months you have been convinced that we are technically capable of pulling this off.” Ether can currently be purchased at a set rate of 2,000 ETH per 1 bitcoin. The price will stay at this rate for two weeks and then linearly decrease in value down to 1,337 ETH per BTC. The sale will last 42 days in total. Ethereum has made it clear that ether is not to be viewed as an investment like bitcoin and offered the following disclaimer on its blog: ˝Ether is a product, NOT a security or investment offering. Ether is simply a token useful for paying transaction fees or building or purchasing decentralized application services on the Ethereum platform; it does not give you voting rights over anything, and we make no guarantees of its future value.˝ Block chain vision Ethereum is the brainchild of Vitalik Buterin, a former college student who, fascinated with bitcoin, spent a year traveling around the world and learning about the possibilities of the technology. Buterin saw that all the various block chain projects were focused on developing altcoins with varying features, but that this was a limitation of the block chain’s potential. So he eventually came up with Ethereum, which offers a way for people to connect through trustless distributed applications on its own block chain. Besides Ethereum, Buterin has been involved in several notable projects including Bitcoin Magazine, Dark Wallet and KryptoKit. He was also recently awarded a Thiel Fellowship, with an accompanying $100,00 to put towards his current and future projects. The company’s primary base is in Zug, Switzerland, but it has additional bases in Toronto and London, with more to come. The organization spans the globe, however, with communities and meetups in Canada, the US, Asia and even Africa. “We are a geographically distributed organization,” Buterin explained. The choice to base Ethereum in Switzerland was an easy one: the country is known for its cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory environment and accessibility to government officials. Image via Ethereum etherEthereumVitalik Buterin
Switzerland-based Ethereum and The Ethereum Project have made headlines this past year as potentially exciting examples of ‘Cryptocurrency 2.0′, a term that refers to new applications built upon block chain technology. Ethereum is both a platform and a programming language that is aimed to make it possible for developers to build and publish applications that do not require trust in third parties to run. Ether is commonly referred to as the ‘cryptofuel’ that runs the applications on Ethereum’s decentralized network. In practice, ether will be required by anyone wishing to build upon or use the Ethereum platform, and are, at this time, mostly suitable for people looking to develop or distribute decentralized applications People have been waiting since Ethereum’s announcement in January at Miami’s North American Bitcoin Conference to purchase the tokens. Funding development According to Ethereum, those purchasing ether now will lock in their supply at a known price, even though the actual coins will not be available until the genesis block is mined, sometime in the winter of 2014-2015. While this makes this sale look like a crowdfunding operation, the company maintains it is a pre-sale event for a product, with funds going towards financing the continued development of the software platform. “You are trusting us to take the bitcoin and use it to develop Ethereum,” said Buterin. “But we hope that after watching our development for six months you have been convinced that we are technically capable of pulling this off.” Ether can currently be purchased at a set rate of 2,000 ETH per 1 bitcoin. The price will stay at this rate for two weeks and then linearly decrease in value down to 1,337 ETH per BTC. The sale will last 42 days in total. Ethereum has made it clear that ether is not to be viewed as an investment like bitcoin and offered the following disclaimer on its blog: ˝Ether is a product, NOT a security or investment offering. Ether is simply a token useful for paying transaction fees or building or purchasing decentralized application services on the Ethereum platform; it does not give you voting rights over anything, and we make no guarantees of its future value.˝ Block chain vision Ethereum is the brainchild of Vitalik Buterin, a former college student who, fascinated with bitcoin, spent a year traveling around the world and learning about the possibilities of the technology. Buterin saw that all the various block chain projects were focused on developing altcoins with varying features, but that this was a limitation of the block chain’s potential. So he eventually came up with Ethereum, which offers a way for people to connect through trustless distributed applications on its own block chain. Besides Ethereum, Buterin has been involved in several notable projects including Bitcoin Magazine, Dark Wallet and KryptoKit. He was also recently awarded a Thiel Fellowship, with an accompanying $100,00 to put towards his current and future projects. The company’s primary base is in Zug, Switzerland, but it has additional bases in Toronto and London, with more to come. The organization spans the globe, however, with communities and meetups in Canada, the US, Asia and even Africa. “We are a geographically distributed organization,” Buterin explained. The choice to base Ethereum in Switzerland was an easy one: the country is known for its cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory environment and accessibility to government officials. Image via Ethereum etherEthereumVitalik Buterin
Original author: Victoria van Eyk
Original author: Pete Rizzo
UPDATE (22nd July 20:15 BST): The article has been updated with comment from Cameron Winklevoss.
WinkDex, the bitcoin price index created by bitcoin investors and entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has launched a new API for developers.
As first reported by Fortune, the WinkDex API was made available today. The API page on the index’s website outlines key information, as well as suggestions for application development.
Cameron Winklevoss told Fortune that the benefit of the API release would help both the index itself as well as the broader bitcoin community, saying:
“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to build a really cool tool. Obviously the index will be big for us because it will be used to price any future ETF. But, we also wanted to build on this for the betterment of the bitcoin community.”
The WinkDex, known formally as the Winklevoss Index, launched in February of this year and compiles price data from a number of key bitcoin exchanges throughout the space. The index will act in conjunction with Winklevoss Capital Management’s plan to offer a bitcoin ETF by providing price information to that investment vehicle.
Building trader tools
The WinkDex aims to provide up-to-date price data that will serve as the foundation for both the proposed bitcoin ETF and other applications of the index.
Winklevoss remarked to Fortune that the API launch opens the doors to unexpected use cases. While suggesting that the primary focus will be the facilitation of price data, it’s very possible that other utilizations may come into focus, he said.
Winklevoss added:
“That’s the fun part a little bit, is not knowing what the hell people are going to do on it. It’ll be really interesting to see what people do. And even though ostensibly an API of a pricing product is not super sexy, this matters to the bitcoin community.”
With the bitcoin ETF – which is expected to trade under the ticker symbol ‘COIN’ – still awaiting regulatory approval, the WinkDex API launch suggests that the Winklevosses intend to push the platform beyond price indexing.
Looking ahead, the initiative will see the launch of Android and iOS mobile apps, as well as the expected influx of developer-created apps.
Winklevoss told CoinDesk:
“Over the next year, we’re going to continue to refine WinkDex for its use as a leading data tool for the bitcoin ecosystem.”
Budding bitcoin magnates
The API launch is one step in a broader move by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Winklevoss Capital Management to stake a serious claim in the digital currency world.
As it stands, Cameron, as well as his brother Tyler, are visible members of the bitcoin community, having made significant early investments in the currency. The two plan to speak at the Money2020 2014 conference in November, and appeared in May at a startup trade show in Seoul.
No indications have been made as to when the ETF may launch.
Image Credit: Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com
Cameron WinklevossTyler WinklevossWinkdex
WinkDex, the bitcoin price index created by bitcoin investors and entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has launched a new API for developers.
As first reported by Fortune, the WinkDex API was made available today. The API page on the index’s website outlines key information, as well as suggestions for application development.
Cameron Winklevoss told Fortune that the benefit of the API release would help both the index itself as well as the broader bitcoin community, saying:
“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to build a really cool tool. Obviously the index will be big for us because it will be used to price any future ETF. But, we also wanted to build on this for the betterment of the bitcoin community.”
The WinkDex, known formally as the Winklevoss Index, launched in February of this year and compiles price data from a number of key bitcoin exchanges throughout the space. The index will act in conjunction with Winklevoss Capital Management’s plan to offer a bitcoin ETF by providing price information to that investment vehicle.
Building trader tools
The WinkDex aims to provide up-to-date price data that will serve as the foundation for both the proposed bitcoin ETF and other applications of the index.
Winklevoss remarked to Fortune that the API launch opens the doors to unexpected use cases. While suggesting that the primary focus will be the facilitation of price data, it’s very possible that other utilizations may come into focus, he said.
Winklevoss added:
“That’s the fun part a little bit, is not knowing what the hell people are going to do on it. It’ll be really interesting to see what people do. And even though ostensibly an API of a pricing product is not super sexy, this matters to the bitcoin community.”
With the bitcoin ETF – which is expected to trade under the ticker symbol ‘COIN’ – still awaiting regulatory approval, the WinkDex API launch suggests that the Winklevosses intend to push the platform beyond price indexing.
Looking ahead, the initiative will see the launch of Android and iOS mobile apps, as well as the expected influx of developer-created apps.
Winklevoss told CoinDesk:
“Over the next year, we’re going to continue to refine WinkDex for its use as a leading data tool for the bitcoin ecosystem.”
Budding bitcoin magnates
The API launch is one step in a broader move by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Winklevoss Capital Management to stake a serious claim in the digital currency world.
As it stands, Cameron, as well as his brother Tyler, are visible members of the bitcoin community, having made significant early investments in the currency. The two plan to speak at the Money2020 2014 conference in November, and appeared in May at a startup trade show in Seoul.
No indications have been made as to when the ETF may launch.
Image Credit: Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com
Cameron WinklevossTyler WinklevossWinkdex
Original author: Stan Higgins
Roger Ver speaks to the Japanese media outside courtToday’s long-anticipated meeting between Mt. Gox bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi and creditors from the defunct exchange provided several revelations, but left many more questions unanswered.
At the Tokyo meeting Kobayashi disclosed he would consider distributing the exchange’s remaining funds as bitcoin, not Japan’s native yen. He also revealed plans to meet with potential purchasers of Mt. Gox’s remaining assets.
Over 100 creditors, the large majority of whom were Japanese, filed into the meeting room of Tokyo’s District Court to hear Kobayashi speak live on the matter for the first time.
Kobayashi spent 25 minutes running through the details of the case, followed by a question-and-answer session that continued for another 90 minutes. All proceedings were in Japanese, with non-Japanese attendees told to provide their own interpreters.
The court did, however, provide a written English summary of Kobayashi’s update.
The apology
CEO Mark Karpeles was also present, sitting front and center. Occasionally glancing up from his desk, he remained silent other than to deliver a brief apology at the request of a creditor.
As well as his impromptu courtroom mea culpa, Karpeles also made a longer apology to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. Karpeles told the newspaper he wanted to use any future profits from Mt. Gox’s parent company Tibanne to pay the exchange’s creditors.
This was actually a suggestion made by creditors present in the meeting, who were also presented with an itemized list of unpaid loans from Mt. Gox to Tibanne and its other affiliate entities including the Bitcoin Cafe, which totalled ¥1.17bn ($11.54m).
Some rays of hope
Regarding the remaining 200,000 bitcoins, Kobayashi said several people had approached him to ask if they could be distributed to creditors as bitcoins. While he couldn’t give any guarantees, he said he would attempt to do this if it were legally possible.
He asked attendees who preferred bitcoin to raise their hands. About 70-80% of the crowd did so, prompting applause – the only outbreak of emotion in the courtroom during the session.
Kobayashi also stated he would be meeting with parties interested in purchasing Mt. Gox’s remaining assets in the hope of continuing the business somehow. He would meet each group individually and assess each bid on its merits, including whether they had previous involvement with bitcoin or not.
He did not, however, present any deadline or formal timeframe in which this could happen.
TV crews gather outside the Mt. Gox creditors’ meetingWhat happened to the bitcoins?
Of particular interest to the creditors was the investigation, or lack thereof, into the disappearance of roughly 850,000 BTC from Mt. Gox’s reserves that drove the company into bankruptcy.
Throughout the procedings Kobayashi and the court gave little impression of understanding bitcoin, nor its workings and related issues. The answers “that’s still under investigation” or “that’s confidential” were frequent responses to bitcoin-related questions.
Another recurrent answer was that the court could not reveal any information capable of jeopardizing the investigation or increasing risk for parties involved – which seemed to include any information regarding Mt. Gox’s missing or present bitcoins.
One attendee asked why, given bitcoin’s public ledger, a forensic analysis could not reveal more about February’s supposed heist.
Another asked why Kobayashi had retained two accounting firms, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and ReEx Accounting, to investigate the disappearance rather than deploying the kind of computer security resources available to the FBI or Interpol.
Both questions were met with the response “it’s still under investigation”. Both accounting firms had been chosen for their reputable statuses in the field, Kobayashi said.
Upon exiting, creditors were approached by TV news crewsReactions from creditors
After the meeting, most creditors expressed a general dissatisfaction with the way the court was investigating the disappearance of Mt. Gox’s funds and disseminating information to those who lost money – particularly the large majority of customers who reside outside Japan.
Kolin Burges, a creditor who famously stood in the snow outside Gox’s office to protest the company’s closure in February, said he was “very very disappointed” with the investigation’s slow progress and remained suspicious of amounts loaned and invoiced to other companies under the control of Mark Karpeles.
He said:
“What about the fiat money that disappeared in March? It seems like they haven’t done anything. With the bitcoins, they won’t even give us the address.”
Some were relieved that the court would not be liquidating the company and selling its remaining funds on the open market.
Daniel Kelman, a lawyer involved with the new BitOcean bid to buy Gox’s assets and continue the business in the interests of creditors, told CoinDesk:
“We want the bitcoins distributed as bitcoins. Also he (Kobayashi) wants to talk to creditors, and that’s good. If not, we should be forming a creditors’ committee.”
All participants were hastily escorted out of court and off the propertyReactions from international visitors
Ben Kraus, a bitcoin miner who traveled from New Jersey to attend the meeting, said he was disappointed by the lack of a translator, and that he’d “naively expected they’d cater a bit more to the English speakers”.
He remained positive however, adding:
“I think we share everyone’s happiness that they’re not just selling the bitcoins [...] it could be a good sign, if we get some of them back five years down the road.”
Sylvain, a creditor who had traveled from France but spoke Japanese, demanded a more open investigation into the missing bitcoins.
He asked:
“Who will represent us? Will the police continue to investigate? If something is found later, or if there’s a leak, can we still find out? Should the Bitcoin Foundation volunteer to represent us? At the very least, we should know the bitcoin addresses. What are the police even doing?”
“If we’d had the information in time, maybe we could have looked at other exchanges, maybe identified the flow of money before it was all lost.”
Georg, a creditor who came from Germany for the meeting, told CoinDesk he had the misfortune of being sick the week Mt Gox closed, preventing him from withdrawing his funds as planned.
Having predicted bitcoin’s bubbles and traded skillfully to build his nest egg, like many others Georg is now cut off from his funds. Describing the amount he lost on Mt. Gox, he revealed it was: “A lot. Not something you can just earn back.”
Documents distributed at the Mt. Gox creditors meeting（Translation）
AsiaJapanMark KarpelesMt. Gox
Original author: Jon Southurst
Original author: Stan Higgins
Changpeng Zhao is chief technology officer at OKCoin, a China-based bitcoin and litecoin exchange that is now seeking to extend its services to the international market.
OKCoin is one of the largest exchanges in the world by exchange volume, according to data from Bitcoinity, and boasts more than 90 employees. The company raised $10m in Series A funding in March as part of a round led by Ceyuan Ventures, Mandra Capital and VenturesLab.
Zhao attended The North American Bitcoin Conference in July, where he introduced his exchange to the international bitcoin audience and announced the launch of the firm’s USD and HKD deposits and withdrawals. At the conference, CoinDesk sat down with Zhao for a conversation that aimed to assess why OKCoin believes it will succeed in the international market.
CoinDesk: Earlier this year, you joined OKCoin following a stint at Blockchain and after what had really been a long period of uncertainty in China relating to bitcoin regulation. What made you decide that you wanted to leave what is maybe a more stable market for China?
Changpeng Zhao: Blockchain is a great company, and I think it is a privilege for anyone in the bitcoin ecosystem to be working for that company. But, Blockchain’s core product is not my core strength. I have worked there as a technologist. They have a very simple, very good wallet product, and they have a lot of traction. But, I thought I could leverage my experience more on the financial trading side, this is where most of my experiences are.
OKCoin is the best exchange in the world so I joined them. They also happen to be Chinese, which is coincidental [laughs]. If I felt another company was the best company, I would have come there.
That seems like a strong statement. What is about OKCoin that gives you the confidence to make that claim?
There are more bitcoin exchanges in China than anywhere else in the world. There are about 30 bitcoin exchanges in China and, because there are so many, competition is very fierce. Given that competition, the best rise out. Not only OKCoin, but all the China exchanges have the best customer service.
OKCoin has a 24/7 customer support line you’ll call and find somebody real. You don’t find that on any exchange right now. You don’t find that anywhere else. OKCoin’s technology platform is very, very stable. Some other platforms in China have issues, even as of yesterday, pricing issues.
So, I just really love the team, I met a couple of clients and I was excited.
One of the reasons OKCoin brought you on was to appeal to Wall Street investors by using your experience at Bloomberg – something a lot of exchanges are looking at right now. How do you plan to attack this market?
We are going to make a huge international push, which is going live within the next 24 hours, and we’re going to start accepting USD deposits and USD withdrawals.
The international play is a huge play for OKCoin, but the international site is going to be separate from the Chinese site. They are going to be managed by the same team, but the international site will be geared very heavily to international users. The customer credibility, we need to establish that over time, but I think that’s going to come when you have a superior product.
How will the sites be different? Or, in other words, what’s an example of a concept that appeals to western bitcoin users versus Asian bitcoin users?
Western people like clean interfaces, they like the Google-type search bar. Chinese people like a lot of things on one page. How do you combine those two things together? [laughs]
I’m not kidding, the western mentality, when I saw a page like that, I hated it. But, it’s those little things that matter, so we are actually still trying to figure out how to best satisfy both worlds, while not having two separate products.
We may later have different things for different reasons. Chinese people like to buy and sell. Futures is very active in China, whereas options might be very active outside of China. That’s also another reason I joined OKCoin is the complementary skills, we have very different skills. Having a diverse management team on the senior level works quite well.
How much of the market do you anticipate OKCoin will be able to capture? Do you see the current international market as being weak?
We want to take all of it if we can [laughs]. We feel like our product is superior to any other exchange in the world right now, in terms of time for deposits and withdrawals, being able to talk to a real person with customer service. From a product perspective, we think we are far ahead of any competitor. Nobody has a mobile app where you can trade and view candlesticks. We launched the Android version maybe two to three weeks ago, the iOS version went live two days ago. Nobody has that. We have a PC client that supports multiple screens, so you get a Bloomberg-type experience, nobody has that. We have algorithmic trading, some people have some of that. Nobody has icebergs. We never have price jumps, random bugs, all that never happens on the exchange. Our product is very stable and its very fast. We’re confident our product is superior. Of course, even if you have a better product, you have to ensure it gets to consumers. Are you looking to move past the PR slip-ups you guys have had in the past? You’re talking about ‘The China King of Bitcoin‘ [laughs]. That release is going to be the last of its kind, it had grammar errors, we laughed at it. Internally, we rationalized it by saying it’s publicity, you’re creating a buzz. But, the image that we want to build, and we will build, is that of a professional financial services company. It’s not just an Internet company, it’s not just a bitcoin company. We are an exchange. By every measure, bitcoins are very valuable. They’re worth a lot more than the US dollar right now. So, we are in most respects a financial services company. We’re going to be very serious about that and follow that image. I brought in the PR firm that will help us with that, and we’re going to change. That was fun, but that stage is over. Now, that you’re moving internationally, do you plan to engage with US regulators to enter the market? Sooner or later, we’ll have to go through that. We have not started [the process] yet. Even though we’re going to accept US dollars, we’re going to accept it internationally in other countries, mainly Hong Kong, which is easy from a financial transaction point of view. We’re probably going to attack some of the other markets which are easier than the US first. The US is a big market, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of energy to crack that nut. We’re OK to be the second exchange to crack that nut. When we feel we can navigate that process quickly and without too much trial and error. Even if it’s costly, we will go through it. We have money, we can raise more money if we want to. We’re OK with someone trying first and us coming later. Historically, Asian brands have had some issues gaining a foothold in America, but there are some big success stories. Are there any in particular you look to as ones you’d like to emulate? That’s precisely why we picked the OKCoin name. In China, we don’t have a Chinese name. Compared to Huobi and BTC China, they are very China specific. We picked OKCoin to be very neutral. Historically, there hasn’t been too many. Well, Samsung and Sony did that really well. A lot of Japanese companies did it really well, but those companies are not doing well at the moment. Sony, Panasonic, all of them did really well in the US. With bitcoin it helps a lot, since bitcoin is cross border anyway, and the industry is new. A lot of companies in the US – Coinbase and Circle, for example – are trying to be more than exchanges. Is OKCoin looking to make a similar shift, especially as it enters new markets? For the moment, we’re very focused on the exchange product, and that itself can go really deep. Algorithmic trading is really deep. All these other things, futures, options … we’re really just on the tip of the iceberg. So at the moment, we don’t have any time to do things like wallets or payment processors. We have partners who want to work with us, and we may leverage some of that, but our core focus is on exchange, we’re not doing anything. Huobi wants to be the Coinbase of China now. We just want to do exchange products. Main image via Shutterstock / Changpeng Zhao image courtesy of OKCoin Changpeng ZhaoexchangesNorth American Bitcoin ConferenceOKCointrading
CoinDesk: Earlier this year, you joined OKCoin following a stint at Blockchain and after what had really been a long period of uncertainty in China relating to bitcoin regulation. What made you decide that you wanted to leave what is maybe a more stable market for China?
Changpeng Zhao: Blockchain is a great company, and I think it is a privilege for anyone in the bitcoin ecosystem to be working for that company. But, Blockchain’s core product is not my core strength. I have worked there as a technologist. They have a very simple, very good wallet product, and they have a lot of traction. But, I thought I could leverage my experience more on the financial trading side, this is where most of my experiences are.
OKCoin is the best exchange in the world so I joined them. They also happen to be Chinese, which is coincidental [laughs]. If I felt another company was the best company, I would have come there.
That seems like a strong statement. What is about OKCoin that gives you the confidence to make that claim?
There are more bitcoin exchanges in China than anywhere else in the world. There are about 30 bitcoin exchanges in China and, because there are so many, competition is very fierce. Given that competition, the best rise out. Not only OKCoin, but all the China exchanges have the best customer service.
OKCoin has a 24/7 customer support line you’ll call and find somebody real. You don’t find that on any exchange right now. You don’t find that anywhere else. OKCoin’s technology platform is very, very stable. Some other platforms in China have issues, even as of yesterday, pricing issues.
So, I just really love the team, I met a couple of clients and I was excited.
One of the reasons OKCoin brought you on was to appeal to Wall Street investors by using your experience at Bloomberg – something a lot of exchanges are looking at right now. How do you plan to attack this market?
We are going to make a huge international push, which is going live within the next 24 hours, and we’re going to start accepting USD deposits and USD withdrawals.
The international play is a huge play for OKCoin, but the international site is going to be separate from the Chinese site. They are going to be managed by the same team, but the international site will be geared very heavily to international users. The customer credibility, we need to establish that over time, but I think that’s going to come when you have a superior product.
How will the sites be different? Or, in other words, what’s an example of a concept that appeals to western bitcoin users versus Asian bitcoin users?
Western people like clean interfaces, they like the Google-type search bar. Chinese people like a lot of things on one page. How do you combine those two things together? [laughs]
I’m not kidding, the western mentality, when I saw a page like that, I hated it. But, it’s those little things that matter, so we are actually still trying to figure out how to best satisfy both worlds, while not having two separate products.
We may later have different things for different reasons. Chinese people like to buy and sell. Futures is very active in China, whereas options might be very active outside of China. That’s also another reason I joined OKCoin is the complementary skills, we have very different skills. Having a diverse management team on the senior level works quite well.
How much of the market do you anticipate OKCoin will be able to capture? Do you see the current international market as being weak?We want to take all of it if we can [laughs]. We feel like our product is superior to any other exchange in the world right now, in terms of time for deposits and withdrawals, being able to talk to a real person with customer service. From a product perspective, we think we are far ahead of any competitor. Nobody has a mobile app where you can trade and view candlesticks. We launched the Android version maybe two to three weeks ago, the iOS version went live two days ago. Nobody has that. We have a PC client that supports multiple screens, so you get a Bloomberg-type experience, nobody has that. We have algorithmic trading, some people have some of that. Nobody has icebergs. We never have price jumps, random bugs, all that never happens on the exchange. Our product is very stable and its very fast. We’re confident our product is superior. Of course, even if you have a better product, you have to ensure it gets to consumers. Are you looking to move past the PR slip-ups you guys have had in the past? You’re talking about ‘The China King of Bitcoin‘ [laughs]. That release is going to be the last of its kind, it had grammar errors, we laughed at it. Internally, we rationalized it by saying it’s publicity, you’re creating a buzz. But, the image that we want to build, and we will build, is that of a professional financial services company. It’s not just an Internet company, it’s not just a bitcoin company. We are an exchange. By every measure, bitcoins are very valuable. They’re worth a lot more than the US dollar right now. So, we are in most respects a financial services company. We’re going to be very serious about that and follow that image. I brought in the PR firm that will help us with that, and we’re going to change. That was fun, but that stage is over. Now, that you’re moving internationally, do you plan to engage with US regulators to enter the market? Sooner or later, we’ll have to go through that. We have not started [the process] yet. Even though we’re going to accept US dollars, we’re going to accept it internationally in other countries, mainly Hong Kong, which is easy from a financial transaction point of view. We’re probably going to attack some of the other markets which are easier than the US first. The US is a big market, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of energy to crack that nut. We’re OK to be the second exchange to crack that nut. When we feel we can navigate that process quickly and without too much trial and error. Even if it’s costly, we will go through it. We have money, we can raise more money if we want to. We’re OK with someone trying first and us coming later. Historically, Asian brands have had some issues gaining a foothold in America, but there are some big success stories. Are there any in particular you look to as ones you’d like to emulate? That’s precisely why we picked the OKCoin name. In China, we don’t have a Chinese name. Compared to Huobi and BTC China, they are very China specific. We picked OKCoin to be very neutral. Historically, there hasn’t been too many. Well, Samsung and Sony did that really well. A lot of Japanese companies did it really well, but those companies are not doing well at the moment. Sony, Panasonic, all of them did really well in the US. With bitcoin it helps a lot, since bitcoin is cross border anyway, and the industry is new. A lot of companies in the US – Coinbase and Circle, for example – are trying to be more than exchanges. Is OKCoin looking to make a similar shift, especially as it enters new markets? For the moment, we’re very focused on the exchange product, and that itself can go really deep. Algorithmic trading is really deep. All these other things, futures, options … we’re really just on the tip of the iceberg. So at the moment, we don’t have any time to do things like wallets or payment processors. We have partners who want to work with us, and we may leverage some of that, but our core focus is on exchange, we’re not doing anything. Huobi wants to be the Coinbase of China now. We just want to do exchange products. Main image via Shutterstock / Changpeng Zhao image courtesy of OKCoin Changpeng ZhaoexchangesNorth American Bitcoin ConferenceOKCointrading
Original author: Pete Rizzo