Shapeshift.io is an exchange that introduced a new exchange solution for Cryptocurrencies. The exchange allows you to instantly exchange cryptocurrencies directly between them. ShapeShift introduced the easiest way to buy or sell Altcoins offering instant conversion between coins. By offering the most private and most convenient way to swap digital currencies, ShapeShift’s aims to be the leading exchange services provider within the crypto exchange ecosystem.
The exchange introduced an innovative and useful service that doesn’t require users to have an account. This enables trading between coins to be faster and with lesser fee expenses. The exchange only charges a pre-established fee according to the miner’s fee for each coin while service fees remain totally free. Although larger orders may require at least one block confirmation before processing, most of the orders are processed instantly. This along the reduced risk of not holding customers funds allows Shapeshift to offer a fast, easy, secure and reliable exchange service that greatly reduces trading costs and exposure.
The exchange already counts a big number of coins on their exchange list and recently announced it would be integrating a few more pretty soon.
To further understand Shapeshift business model and what new launching should be expecting, Bitcoinist met with Shapeshift CEO Beorn Gonthier for an Interview:
Can you tell us about Shapeshift.io history and how the project took off?
ShapeShift was launched in August of 2014 and initially only allowed trades between Bitcoins and Litecoins and has steadily grown to offer exchanges with 17 altcoins. We are coin agnostic and simply keep building the platform to encompass all popular digital assets. It was born of a need to buy coins more easily. We realized there was a way to do a crypto-exchange that was much faster and safer, with an added security since ShapeShift doesn’t hold customer funds.
We would like to hear a little and bit about the team.
We have a really wonderful, dedicated team, lead by me, one of the CEO’s, our COO, Jon, has a great team of developers that work around the clock to keep our website working as seamlessly as possible. They are also dedicated to constantly making updates to things that our users suggest as well as needs we find paramount to continued product excellence. Our marketing team consists of Emily and Dana. Dana is at the helm of our Asian markets and Emily handles all non-Asian markets. We also have a team of creative’s that do a great job of helping to execute our brand. All of the departments work seamlessly together to get the job done.
Your exchange is specially designed to offer instant conversion methods to its users. Can you tell us more about this feature?
The history of crytocurrency exchange has historically been known for taking quite a bit of time and required the user to reveal personal information via account creation or sign-up processes, as well as trusting platforms with their funds. We offer a service that allows user to do their exchanges quickly, without any sign-up process, and no trust needed since ShapeShift does not hold the users funds. All we need to do your exchange is your altcoin address information so we have the proper inputs and outputs. ShapeShift holds a reserve for each coin we support, which allows for us to quickly process an exchange. We also support a 0 confirmation for Bitcoin transactions.
We know that the exchange already counts with a big list of currencies. And from what we hear you are planning to add some more. Can you uncover some of the coins you are going to integrate?
We are consistently working to add new coins. We have a few in the pipeline for release over the next few weeks as well as new general features for our service that we will be launching. We are not able to release these new coins until we have them live. The timeline for release is fairly flexible so it is easier for us to wait until we are ready to release to reveal. But, yes, we have quite a few we will be launching over the next few months so stay tuned! We release all of our new coins first on social media so we try to direct our users to Facebook and Twitter so they know the second we release new coins.
Although the exchange has completely it’s own manner of operating, would it be possible for Shapeshift.io to integrate Fiat currencies in a near future?
From its inception, ShapeShift has decided to function under a strict no-fiat policy. We maintain that we will only allow for altcurrency exchanges, indefinitely.
Where do you see Shapeshift.io a year from now?
ShapeShift’s ambition is to become one of the most well-known and respected brands in this industry. We’ve built a service that is very simple and very useful for our customers, we work very hard to ensure excellent customer services is provided on orders, and generally we try to make exchanging coins as easy as buying a drink at a vending machine. Our long-term vision is to unify the various digital currencies, such that anyone can move from one to another without effort.
Shapeshift has come to be probably the fastest, less corky and most reliable exchange for altcoins currently in the ecosystem. Its approach has offered superior privacy and greater security for altcoin traders who don’t have to rely on exchanges to hold their funds anymore. Shapeshift is already a highly regarded Altcoin exchange, and perhaps might become a leader in the industry.
What do you think about Shapeshift.io business model? Let us know in the comments Bellow!
Photo Source: Images provided by the ShapeShift Team