ICBIT

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Revision as of 02:38, 23 September 2013 by FleaSpirit (talk | contribs) (→‎Features)
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− There are have been complaints about several core practices at icbit.−

-The primary complaint involves contract price manipulations that allow larger traders, including the site owner, to make easy profits from smaller traders regardless of bitcoin price movements.

Documentation of contract manipulations, including screenshots, is included in some of the complaints, including https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=246845

Complaints directed to the owner of icbit, who also is the principle contributor to this wiki page, include https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173928.0

The owner of icbit has so far refused to publicly answer complaints and has refused to refund money to those who have lost money due to practices that a reasonable person would not spot without observing the site for a period of time.

−Any potential investor should understand the issues raised in the complaints. If you are not sure please ask questions in a public forum like bitcointalk.org and do not invest until all questions are answered to your satisfaction.−[1] [2] [3] [4]

- - - - - - - -

ICBIT is a trading website which runs a few markets. Both the Exchange and Futures markets are live now.

This site is said[source?] to be founded by Fireball and DeepBit by combining best practices in high-performance trading and Bitcoin experience.

ICBIT is not an exchange since it does not act as a central counterparty. According to their website users are totally exposed to counterparty risk from other traders whose identities are concealed from them; the exchange does not pledge its own assets to back the full extent of the other side of a customer's position -- it pledges only "as much to profiting traders as loosing traders lost (in total)". Traders are not allowed to conduct background or reputation checks of any kind on these anonymous counterparties. ICBIT recently modified the linked page and it now contains self-contradictory information, such as "we do pledge our own assets, it's not always the case" and "your profitable position will be closed" at whatever price the exchange deems convenient rather than value-at-maturity. Since the exchange pledges only "as much to profiting traders as loosing traders lost (in total)" it is, by definition, not the counterparty -- the "loosing [sic] traders" are the counterparty.

Features

For its currency exchange section ICBIT makes an accent on the following:

  • State-of-the-art technologies usage. Instead of using old, slow, polling-based algorithms ICBIT builds atop of the most up to date technologies. Its web trading client is in pure HTML and JavaScript (even compatible with most mobile devices), however it's fully realtime thanks to websockets and AJAX.
  • Speed of trading. Bitcoin forum is full of anger against slowness of existing exchanges. ICBIT implements special high performance trading engine and uses high-performance "no SQL" database to eliminate the problem.
  • No limits. Most of the existing exchanges put rather restrictive limitations and require users to prove their identity. ICBIT finds this totally unacceptable and does not put any limits at all.
  • One problem with this is that some unusual similarities have been observed between several 'different' users, indicating they may be the same user. This becomes an issue when 'several' of these users post on forums in defense of icbit and engage in chat on the icbit website that may be intended simply to draw in customers.
  • One example of this is the 'contango / backwardation' issue involving several users who each use these words improperly, in the same way, on various posts at bitcointalk and on the icbit site. Potential investors can research this simply by searching bitcointalk for these terms and noting when the terms are used in relation to icbit. Neither backwardation nor contango are involved in price variations on the site. There is no 'proper' use of these terms with regard to the specific contracts as traded at icbit. Any person with questions or doubts should research these terms and ask questions in a public forum.[3]

Futures

Futures traded include:

Futures contracts on USD/BTC rate

  • BUQ3 (expires August 15, 2013, settled in BTC)
  • BUU3 (expires September 16, 2013, settled in BTC)
  • BUV3 (expires October 14, 2013, settled in BTC)
  • BUZ3 (expires December 16, 2013, settled in BTC)

Futures contract on Bitcoin difficulty

  • DFU3 (expires September 16, 2013, settled in BTC)
  • DFZ3 (expires December 16, 2013, settled in BTC)

Futures contract on LTC/BTC rate

  • LBU3 (expires September 17, 2013, settled in BTC)

Futures contract on S&P500 index

  • ESU3 (expires September 16, 2013, settled in BTC)

Settled futures:

  • BUZ2 (Futures contract, expired December 15, 2012, settled in BTC)
  • BUH3 (Futures contract, expired March 15, 2013, settled in BTC)
  • CLG3 (Crude Oil Futures contract, expired February 14, 2013, settled and quoted in BTC)
  • GDG3 (Gold Futures contract, expired February 14, 2013, settled and quoted in BTC)

Exchange

Traded on the exchange are:

  • BTC/USD
  • BTC/RUB (Russian Ruble)


Adding Funds

BTC

There is no fee for Bitcoin deposits to the account's BTC EWallet. Funds are added to the account's wallet after six (6) confirmations. Transactions made by DeepBit mining pool are added instantly.

USD

There are no methods to add USD funds.

RUB

QIWI vouchers can be used to add funds to an account's Russian ruble EWallet.


Widthraw Funds

BTC

There is no fee for Bitcoin withdrawals from the account's BTC EWallet.

USD

There are no USD withdrawal methods.

RUB

Funds can be withdrawn from the account's Russian ruble EWallet as QIWI vouchers.

Security

Accounts can be protected where both login and any money withdrawal operation requires the one-time password (OTP) feature known as two-step authentication. A mobile smartphone with Google Authenticator is the most commonly used OTP device.

History

First mentions of ICBIT appeared in June and July 2011 in the Bitcoin Stock Exchange Security Standards thread at bitcointalk.org[5] and Bitcoin futures market discussion [6]. By that time a very first version of the trading engine was developed.

A more detailed thread specific to ICBIT futures market was started [7] in November, 2011. The first closed test of futures market was performed, and work on the new version of web trading client was started.

Finally in January, 2012 the currency exchange section went live [8]

In 2012 there were initial reports of possible unethical practices at icbit, culminating in a detailed exposé by a competitor of icbit. [9]

In 2013 complaints increased, including those linked on this wiki and several more.

As of late September 2013 the owner of icbit, Fireball, continues to avoid responsibility for what are widely regarded as questionable practices. He daily edits this wiki (see "View History" tab above) to remove any information that is not favorable. Still some traders hope he will reform, settle his bad accounts and work to create an honest site or have the decency to shut down.

See Also

External Links


References

  1. ↑ Article by Mircea Popescu, proprietor of MPEx
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ Bitcointalk "bucket shop" thread
  4. ↑ Bitcointalk "icbit warning" thread
  5. ↑ Bitcoin Stock Exchange Security Standards thread
  6. ↑ Fireball's statement about ongoing futures exchange work
  7. ↑ ICBIT derivatives market thread
  8. ↑ Bitcointalk announcement of a new exchange live testing
  9. ↑ [2]
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