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Comment by pmorici | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this is the "first" unless there is something I'm missing here that makes this different than the 4+ exchanges that already exist in the US.

Coinsetter, CampBX, Coinbase, Coinmkt, Kraken, SecondMarket / Bitcoin Trust

fyi discussion on reddit...

http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/2c1oo5/first...

View on HN

Good question. All very different.

You can't see order book on coinbase and quickly trade in and out.

None of the other sites allow you to buy / sell with ACH.

Second Market is open to members only; not everyone. You have to be a member that is well funded to trade with them.

CampBX and Coinmkt are exchanges. We are not. Think NYSE and E-Trade. We are the E-Trade.

Aren't Coinbase trades ACH?

On a related note, I hear horror stories on /r/bitcoin all the time about bank accounts being shut down over supposed BTC activity. Does your service have a solution or guidance for this?

Our main feature is our execution; we are good at optimizing trade execution so you get the best price possible.

There are many banks in the US with very different rules so it is difficult to give a general answer. Have you heard of these stories from customers when buying and selling from coinbase?

This isn't just related to user accounts; business accounts are frequently shut down (and not approved) because of Bitcoin activity. Coinapult closed operations in the US entirely because of this.

Our banks have reviewed our model. Banks can always change their mind which is why we work with multiple banks.

Well Coinbase is essentially a broker and they support ACH transactions. Brokers don't typically show their order books and it doesn't look like you guys do either.

CoinSetter is kind of a hybrid broker / exchange and they offer fee rebates on coins purchased via ACH through coinbase.

I guess my point is why would I want to trade with you, a new and unproven company, that out of the gate is making a dubious claim of being the "first" of something of which there are already many. This is Bitcoin if you are making dubious claims on the small stuff how can we make the leap of faith that this isn't just scam company n+1

Hi, I'm the co-founder of SFOX. You can see the orderbook on our website. you need to be logged in to see it, but it is there.

We are more like E-Trade in that your order will execute on an exchange and the price is whatever is available at the moment. We don't frontrun your order. We plan to make money on trading fees.

I don't think Coinbase considers themselves a broker.

This is directly from coinbase's terms of service :

"3.1. Transactions with Coinbase. When buying or selling bitcoin through the Exchange Service, you are buying from, or selling to, Coinbase directly. Coinbase does not act as an intermediary or marketplace between other buyers and sellers of bitcoin. The Exchange Service is subject to the Coinbase "Conversion Rate." "Conversion Rate" means the liquidity adjusted price of a given bitcoin amount in terms of local currency as quoted on the Coinbase Site."

The inaccuracies in your claims about your competitors do not bode well for honesty or professionalism, and moreover indicate a poor understanding of your market and your competitors.

In another industry, this probably wouldn't be a red flag; it would just be standard marketing practice or startup posturing. But when you're dealing with money services, you don't get to be dishonest, unprofessional, or unprepared.

You've tripped quite a few red flags with your comments on HN today. I definitely won't be doing business with your website.

I'm curious about what inaccuracies are you referring to? Coinbase is not a trading platform (no serious trader would pay 1% fees), Kraken does not accept ACH deposits and so on. Can you be more specific? BTW, I love both Coinbase and Kraken (they serve very different needs and do it well).

I just want to add to the answer that we like other services and use more than one in the list. We just don't see any of them meeting our needs to quickly trade and provide mechanism for large order sizes. Plus, wiring money becomes expensive very fast.

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