Having launched just back on March 29 of this year, Bitbay is not a well-known Bitcoin and Litecoin exchange but it is already considered the most developing and promising exchange in its region, gradually attracting more and more traders from all over the world.
Bitbay operates as a registered, limited-liability company headquartered in Katowice, Poland with a dedicated customer service office. Security-oriented, Bitbay offers best solutions to safety issues, with cold wallet asset storage and two-factor authentication (provided by Rublon) among them.
The company is self-funded and one of its co-founders is Sylwester Suszek, a widely-recognized member of Polish Bitcoin community. I got a chance to speak with Sylwester and get his thoughts on Bitcoin’s chances in Poland and on the latest developments at the fledgling exchange.
Cointelegraph: How was BitBay started in Poland and what has the demand been like so far?
Sylwester Suszek: It all began with Mateusz, my childhood friend who started mining cryptocurrency and later would interest me in the concept. We got immersed in it together, but fascination put aside, the real reason our exchange was ever created we realized was that there was no such place in Poland back then where we could spend the mined coins.
In order to do it, we had to use foreign platforms, which generated additional costs and was time-consuming - thus guided by our own needs and expectations, we would eventually create a place for the increasing number of people with a similar mindset and needs.
We are pleased with that our exchange is very popular among people who already know what cryptocurrencies are all about. However, there are still millions of people in Poland who have never heard of it.
The third largest group that could be distinguished would be people that have heard a little bit about it but the idea and its powerful implications still remain vague to them. This is why we keep organizing conferences, workshops in order to reach and educate as many individuals as we can – being inside this business we know how profitable it can be so why not let others benefit from it as well?
CT: Your trading fees aren’t fixed, meaning the commission depends on monthly volume. Are you the first exchange in the world to implement this? What was the reason for following this model?
SS: No, certainly we are not the first to operate under such a policy – we are aware there are other exchanges sharing our approach in this regard. We want both to encourage our users to be active traders as well as to reward them for displaying this attitude.
In other words, it is a win-win situation: increasing number of active users benefits us and we benefit them in return. Another means of doing so is our Afilliate Program, that we launched recently.
CT: You currently work with Bitcoin, Litecoin, PLN, Euro and U.S. dollars. Are there any other currencies in the works?
SS: In this regard, for the time being we are more focused on developing what we already have, meaning we are more into building solid core (Bitcoin- and Litecoin-related services) and ensuring the highest standards possible, instead of getting too much diversified too soon.
Even though we’re enthusiastic about these brilliant emerging possibilities, we prefer to remain cautious as introducing some of them to soon might impair the quality of our service. At the same time, we are open for suggestions and would always seek to answer our users’ needs to the best of our abilities.
CT: You mentioned back in June that you are planning to introduce Forex platform tools. Could you update us on these developments?
SS: Yes, we have introduced PRO exchange that allows extremely detailed tracking of cryptocurrency price movements over a period of time.
CT: We recently spoke with Michal Wendrowski from Rublon – an internet security firm that is creating a security layer for BitBay. How will this work exactly? Will this protection layer go beyond 2-factor authentication to improve security of your exchange and when will it be implemented?
SS: Security-wise, currently our users can choose between SMS token and Two-Factor Authentication provided either by Rublon or Google. Speaking of cooperation with Rublon, it will definitely go beyond that soon.
For obvious reasons, we won't disclose the details yet – however, what we can reveal is that together, we are about to bring forth a huge innovation into the security field. I dare say, we will be the first exchange worldwide to pride itself on having such a solution.
CT: One Chinese-based exchange in particular, Huobi, operates under a no trading fee policy and instead focusing on value-added services. Do you agree with their CEO Leon Li that the no-fees model will be the norm in the future? And do you also plan to look into value-added services as well?
SS: We have our own policy we strongly believe in and we don't seek to judge someone else's actions – we reserve it for our own. We have no opinion on the subject, so we can't be considered partners for this dialogue yet.
At the moment, we have no such plans as our current policy works great for us and its development is where we direct our efforts. Also, we are about to update our Table of Commissions – it will be even more beneficial for our Users than the previous one.
CT: You mentioned, you have launched an Affilliate Program, could you tell us more about it?
SS: Certainly – it is really attractive, for our Affiliates are getting 50% of commission we charge to users they have referred to us. Again, it is a win-win situation, as referred users will be granted 50% lower trading fees for three consecutive months.
CT: What is your main focus at the moment?
SS: Invariably, security remains a key concern for us. We have always been extremely security-oriented to ensure seamless trading experience to our users. Our cooperation with Rublon is an expression of it.
We are also in the course of rearanging our site and the whole system to adjust it to international users’ needs – we will soon open to the international scene as we see a huge potential in USD market and we aspire to be known and acknowledged worldwide one day.
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