OKCoin Raises $10 Million To Become China's Largest Bitcoin Exchange 48
edibobb writes "Despite recent cryptocurrency crackdowns by the Chinese government, OKCoin announced a round of $10 million funding by three prominent venture capital firms and other investors. OKCoin is supposed to be the largest bitcoin exchange in China. From the article: 'Back in November 2013, the focus of the bitcoin community was on China – the world’s hub for bitcoin trading. At that time, BTC China was the biggest exchange in the world, having managed to raise a $5m Series A funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners (Snapchat, Nest). There were even rumours that a bigger round was in the works for the young company. However, things change quickly. After the Chinese government began regulating bitcoin in December, trade volume plummeted and the world’s top exchange was no longer Chinese.'"
nu coin (Score:2)
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Will their surviving relatives be able to pay for the bullet with bitcoins?
Just reinforcing the stereotype of being (Score:2)
huge gamblers...
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The point of an exchange (Score:1)
What is the point of an exchange in the bitcoin world ?
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A fraction of every transaction goes to the exchange, which can add up to significant profit.
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It would be interesting, if somehow the exchange functionality were built into the protocol and entirely P2P. Getting rid of these centralized exchanges seems like it would really stabilize the currency. I don't know how remotely feasible that would be, it is far too early in the morning without coffee.
Effectively, what you describe is the protocol(which is p2p as well), except that the protocol does not address the issue of matching prospective buyers and prospective sellers (a protocol that does this, without a central market-operator, would be neat; but bodging one into a protocol for transferring virtual coins without double-spending would probably be unwieldy, though clients that implement both would be logical).
Perhaps the more fundamental issue (aside from any empirically hairy and/or provably i
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It would be interesting, if somehow the exchange functionality were built into the protocol and entirely P2P. Getting rid of these centralized exchanges seems like it would really stabilize the currency. I don't know how remotely feasible that would be, it is far too early in the morning without coffee.
Effectively, what you describe is the protocol(which is p2p as well), except that the protocol does not address the issue of matching prospective buyers and prospective sellers (a protocol that does this, without a central market-operator, would be neat; but bodging one into a protocol for transferring virtual coins without double-spending would probably be unwieldy, though clients that implement both would be logical).
Uhm... isn't Ripple [ripple.com] supposed to be that decentralized exchange?
not that simple... (Score:2)
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Well put. I'll keep repeating that bitcoin won't ever go mainstream without bitcoin-denominated credit cards and savings accounts. But of course, once you have those the money supply balloons, and that can be exploited by central banks, and really it stops being particularly different from what we already have.
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Someone always has to be the one holding the private keys,
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I thought about this for a second a while back but, it slams up against one really major...no...fundamental problem.
The exchange is a point where currencies/commodities/etc meet. No amount of messing with the details behind how you move money around in your accounts can actually cause food to move to your table or hand you dollar bills. At some point the rubber has to meet the road or else you are just spinning wheels.
The bitcoin protocol, or any such protocol can only deal with itself. In order to exchange
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A fraction of every transaction goes to the exchange, which can add up to significant profit.
And in the case of some exchanges the entire transaction goes to the exchange, which adds up to a even more significant profit.
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Re:The point of an exchange (Score:4, Informative)
1) If you want to use bitcoins, you have to buy some bitcoins. Originally you'd buy them either from a miner who was producing coins, or from someone else further down the food chain. That person takes your cash and transfers some coins into your crytographic wallet.
2) If you want to make or receive a payment with bitcoins - transfer them to someone else, in other words - you simply send a transaction out onto the bitcoin network, transferring the money between the wallets as approved by both parties.
Both of these processes are slowed down by the fact that the bitcoin network takes time to verify a transaction, passing the transaction around until it has been cryptographically set in stone. It's more convenient to have a completely ordinary bank, that pays in and out and transfers money between its customers' accounts rapidly, then balances its books with non-customers and other banks on the bitcoin network on its own time. That is a bitcoin exchange.
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What is the point of an exchange in the bitcoin world ?
It's a mechanism by which people with bitcoins will give them to you so you can run off with them later.
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Apparently it's to allow a third-party access to your private key, so that they can steal all of your bitcoins.
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Apparently it's to allow a third-party access to your private key, so that they can steal all of your bitcoins.
I think you mean public key and can't steal all of your bitcoins.
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What is the point of an exchange in the bitcoin world ?
Somebody has to have large reserves of real money for when people want to sell their bitcoins.
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Ok, probably a stupid question here ! What is the point of an exchange in the bitcoin world ?
It's just a bank that accepts bitcoin. Bitcoin banks (aka exchanges) are still unregulated and underinsured except in China. Since most banks won't take bitcoin, you can't trade bitcoins for other currencies at those banks either. An exchange is necessary to do much with bitcoin since there are precious few places to spend a bitcoin directly now that silk road is defunct.
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An exchange is a place where buyers and sellers can meet to do business and where the price of goods is determined. You place an order with the exchange and it tries to fulfill your order given the other orders in the system. Some exchanges allow you to trade on margin, where you're only required to post a portion of the money for your deals and the exchange covers the rest. Exchanges make their money by charging a small fee per transaction.
Say you want to buy 100 Bitcoins, you open an account with an
Here we go again. (Score:1)
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No, I think we're seeing an honest, untainted demonstration of true Laissez-faire capitalism at work.
It shows you that what's yours, aka what your wealth is, truly is only what you can lay your hands on right now if there's nothing to sup
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+1 Insightful. It also doesn't matter who can look at the blockchain to see that X has stolen Y's coins if no one can force a reversal of that transaction.
In American terms, regulation rests on three pillars: Legislative, to define the laws; Judicial, to determine when those laws have been violated; and Executive, to enforce the laws and to redress violations by taking corrective or punative action. Without those pillars you don't really have free-market capitalism: you have anarchy.
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The only reason that the banks "own" you is because you aren't willing to live the kind of life that one has to live without the goods and property that a bank helps you to purchase.
You could do without a car, or could pay cash for an expensive used car, or could save up your money to pay cash for a new car, but instead you choose to take out a loan.
You could move somewhere that you can afford to pay cash for, or could rent from a landlord that doesn't have a mortgage on the prop
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Unfortunately, the nerve-endings at your fingernails would prove otherwise if it came down to it.
And the next big scam... (Score:2)
To me this sounds like some guys thinking "Hey - that Mt. Gox Guy set up an exchange and almost got away with bajillions. I bet we can do the same thing without his mistakes..."
Or - they are dumb enough to want to become a Big Fish in a Small Pond with Poisoned Waters.
(I'm sure there's some Poison/Poisson joke in there somewhere)
It's just OK... (Score:2)
brilliant! (Score:2)
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This will NOT end well... (Score:1)