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Topic: bitfinex.com: transparency to much ? to little ? where is the equilibrium? (Read 2685 times)

legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
Are there "watching only" API keys that would allow only to query balances of an MtGox account? On the other hand it would allow to query very often and get the trades that way... Maybe one can release/activate such a key only for a limited amount of time?
that is likely to result on a account locking if same account get accessed from other IP we asked for that and did not get much info i did access the bfx read only api but no very often i am afraid of mtgox locking the account
legendary
Activity: 2618
Merit: 1007
Are there "watching only" API keys that would allow only to query balances of an MtGox account? On the other hand it would allow to query very often and get the trades that way... Maybe one can release/activate such a key only for a limited amount of time?
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
i did asked one time mtgox(before BFX even existed) to add a option for signed pgp financial reports but nothing :/
legendary
Activity: 2618
Merit: 1007
Hm, a grand total over all accounts (including the internal one(s) where fees are credited to) in both currencies maybe daily and a scanned bank statement with the current amount + signed MtGox screnshot/history sheet that proves that the numbers add up maybe monthly should boost confidence that you are not secretly running fractional reserve operations.

The issue might be to make sure to actually catch the right moment with ongoing trades, as there might be deviations in the numbers through trading 24/7. It should be possible though with a ledger from MtGox and Bitfinex to find a point in time where these numbers balance out.

I'm not too sure if there's a need to show individual account balances or transactions, a grand total (200k USD + 400 BTC in, 180k USD and 450 BTC out) each day or hour should be possible though I guess. If you do it individually that might cause strategies to emerge on taking advantage of this (though it's not clear if a 100k USD deposit will be used for lending to bulls or directly buying, it will be used to buy coins sometime soon probably).
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
Quote
Link please?
https://community.bitfinex.com/showthread.php/26-Hello-world
he posted that before but that link is what i have at hand
Quote
Also what about you?
i am advisor for BFX i cant take your money, i got only read only wallet and api also no access to the server and stuff like, the deal is between Rahpael and me not between you(the user) and Raphael+me

Good, what I meant is"it would be nice if you could tell us a bit more", but anyway it's up to you. Wink

Back to the topic, I think if you want to give people some information about where the money goes, you could publish some statistics about the deposits and withdrawals, like what you have always been(and seemingly quite fond of) doing, rather than the detailed record.

And in addition, I second Qoheleth that a user needs to see where his money is, not everyone else's, also bitmarket.eu's problem is that they improperly store their users' money at somewhere else, and you are of course welcome to disclose this sort of information if you are willing to do that.
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
Quote
Link please?
https://community.bitfinex.com/showthread.php/26-Hello-world
he posted that before but that link is what i have at hand
Quote
Also what about you?
i am advisor for BFX i cant take your money, i got only read only wallet and api also no access to the server and stuff like, the deal is between Rahpael and me not between you(the user) and Raphael+me
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
What about some disclosure of the people behind the site, like, the two guys in this thread... Cool
you are late extremely late Tongue seams you dont know what you are requesting Tongue

Raphael already did it

Link please? I don't think that"about us" page counts. Also what about you?
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
What about some disclosure of the people behind the site, like, the two guys in this thread... Cool
you are late extremely late Tongue seams you dont know what you are requesting Tongue

Raphael already did it
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
What about some disclosure of the people behind the site, like, the two guys in this thread... Cool
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
listing the user's Transaction-ID in the deposit history (visible for the individual account only) is not even nice-to-have, but really helpful.
go to https://bitfinex.com/account/deposit you can see that TX are there
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
I must admit that I didn't really get what you want to achieve with this "transparency" page.

Do you want to disclose verifiable information about the funds currently held by the platform? Or is your intention to offer extended statistics about the site and its financial situation?

The problem with verifiable information is that someone else (TM) need to do the verification. And that other person or entity needs to be reliable and trusted.  Roll Eyes  What you could do is to publish the list of all addresses controlled by the platform, plus a daily balance (in/out) of bitcoin. (You probably can't do anything similar with USD). In that case someone else could write a tool and verify your balance by querying the blockchain. But, unless really someone else does that and e.g. publishes a piece of open source software everyone can easily run on his own, this whole disclosure would be well-intentioned, but rather worthless in practice. The only possible gain I can see is that you would be exposing yourself to the possible threat that anyone could discover a possible fraud any time, thus making a stunt similar to bitmarket.eu somewhat more unlikely -- but after all, doesn't the bitmarket story highlight again that outright "unlikely" things are done on a regular basis in Bitcoinland?  Wink

On the other hand, an extended statistics page is certainly a nice-to-have feature, assuming that we trust the platform anyway. And of course, listing the user's Transaction-ID in the deposit history (visible for the individual account only) is not even nice-to-have, but really helpful.
legendary
Activity: 947
Merit: 1042
Hamster ate my bitcoin
I think this is too much info. In some situations, where the owner of an address is known, it could be used to track the activities of that user. I'm all for Bitfinex being transparent, but it should not come at the expense of your users privacy.
legendary
Activity: 960
Merit: 1028
Spurn wild goose chases. Seek that which endures.
Let people see all the info for their own money - that's useful and helps ensure that your money is safe.

Letting everyone see everyone's info is dangerous. For example: a new deposit of $100,000 comes in. People with money already on the exchange could see that and front-run the coins that deposit was probably supposed to purchase.
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
time to bump this again
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
See what happened at bitmarket.eu: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1413156

This is where you may need to be reassured in where are your money. Come on, guys, you surely would like to be able to see, at any time, that your funds is here or there.

We need your input guys Smiley
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
Fjordbit  I took your question and posted on OP to make things crystal  clear
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
firstbits.com/1kznfw
I'm sorry, I don't get it. Are you asking if you should make public the addresses of people depositing and withdrawing bitcoins from bitfinex.com? I would say no. If you are asking should this be available a listing on your own account for your own transactions, then I would say "nice to have".
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
Thanks for answering these questions. We want to be as transparent as possible, but your privacy matters.

So tell us what you think Smiley
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
chaos is fun...…damental :)
1 The image below show the current stage for the deposits and withdraws, the small censored column on the left is the amount and on the right transaction details  
2 This is no made public yet

so the question is: how much details should be displayed public ?

Are you asking if you should make public the addresses of people depositing and withdrawing bitcoins from bitfinex.com?
yes, plus the mtgox code and wire deposits and withdraws
sorry if the image did not make things crystal clear
plz stay on topic

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