Topic: [Rant] Black Holes/ Absolute minimum information all exchanges should provide. (Read 1514 times)

Update: The new exchange bitme.com seems to be very well-designed. It also shows a running balance in your transactions. Added to OP edit.

 

That's much appreciated. And, yes, I understand the point you were "raging about." Understood your point that account history does technically make it complete the way you look at it. Understood that for you, the additional field I am asking for is a simple matter of redundant calculation, rather than any additional stored information. Glad you seem to operate in that consistent fashion where, as you said, everything follows from "strict minimum stored data."  (Several other exchanges, on the other hand, seem to have an actual balance that is different from the what-would-be-calculated balance.) Indeed, bitcoin-central seems to be very well implemented and I have never seen a money hole at bitcoin-central, black or white.

From the user's perspective though, that field would be very helpful in tracking things and having something to point to when things go wrong. As shtylman said: "There is a reason accounting systems provide the balance information with transactions."  

From your perspective, it's redundant. From your perspective, it "merely" serves as a checkpoint if at all. From my perspective, who's currently dealing with black holes at two separate exchanges as we speak, throw in a million transactions across various currencies, and that checkpoint/redundancy would be a lifesaver.  [Ever asked to mentally add a pile of 50 numbers and divided them into chunks of 10 each, to avoid mistakes and quickly isolate one when it happens? That's not a perfect analogy, but I hope that illustrates my point about the utility of checkpointing.]
 
Glad you are adding it. Much appreciated.







  

Not sure I agree, but I changed it.

Thanks for the feedback!

It certainly is a paradox.

Hey, someone had to! Right? Right?

Haha, you managed to leave the part I'm raging about. I shall not rage about it anymore.



Additionnally I'll add this information calculated field on Bitcoin Central's transactions display since it sounds like a good idea that can't really hurt.

I won't argue with you, the idea of having a final balance along each transaction is not a bad idea in itself. It just doesn't add anything when it's done the right way and calculated from the strict minimum stored data (namely the amount). It is (or should be) calculated data.

If an exchange does not provide you with your full transaction history, that is incomplete information. So, without arguing on the usefulness or desirability of a "final balance" displayed amount, I maintain that your title is misleading.

He is saying some exchanges do not even give you the ability to do this. They don't provide transaction histories in downloadable formats nor do they consolidate them so you can figure out what actually went into your current balance or locate errors as the OP points out.

Not knowing how a transaction affected your balance makes it harder to track down potential problems and reconcile the account. There is a reason accounting systems provide the balance information with transactions.

The way the data is stored internally is irrelevant.

The information that is provided to you with or without a "final balance" attribute is the exact same. If an exchange adds a column giving you, for each transaction, the square root of the transacted amount it doesn't convey any additional information. The same information is just presented in a different way.

You want exchanges to save you the trouble of firing up Excel to get this final balance, not provide you with more information.
This is why your title is misleading.

Your title is misleading.
What you're complaining about is that some exchanges present their data in a way you don't like, but not that there is actually information that's missing.

There is more to come on Mt.Gox and remember that we initiated the "Transparency" program, something that no other exchange had ever come public with. Now granted that we are WAY behind for our second edition... I am trying to get the information pulled out our DB for that, but our dev are so busy on other stuff that they always postpone my request.

Hopefully you find that Bitfloor provides you with a detailed enough statement? We never want to hide your information from you and hope our users take time to review their transactions to see that they are indeed correct!

d