RE: Warning For Exchange Users (Poloniex, Bittrex, etc.) - Exchanges are not safe places to hold coins
BitShares! Yes! Amen to that.
Good tips, great write-up! However, I think there are way better alternatives to Blocktrades. I meticulously compared Blocktrades, Changelly, and Shapeshift at the same time, with same amounts, with the same currencies to see where my dollar went the furthest. I did this a few times over the span of a month or so.
Here's some results from some research that I did:
Blocktrades.us consistently gave me the worst deal to a pretty insane degree a lot of times. There were sometimes gaps in actual exchange rates for some currencies at around 20% (handily to the end user's detriment, boo) a few times. Sometimes the rates were not so bad, but never on par with the other services that I compared it with. Losing 20% off of your trade right off the bat is one harsh blow to the end user. I used that service several times and I actually lost a LOT of money. It definitely needs a lot of work. I understand people like Blocktrades because they're pretty involved here, but I don't particularly like to throw cryptocurrency to the wind as I'm sure others don't particularly enjoy that either. I wont be using them again.
Shapeshift came up in second place, but their limits were kind of low a lot of times which can be pretty annoying if you're trying to change a decent chunk, but it works. Their fees are decent though, but not the best. They offered MUCH better exchange rates than Blocktrades, but slightly worse on average rates VS Changelly.
Changelly consistently gave me the best exchange rates as well as the lowest fees (0.5%). They also don't really have caps on how much you can change at a time which is extremely helpful. I haven't had any issues with them either which is always nice, I've used them I'd say roughly 50 or so times trading back and forth.
So yeah, my investigations led me to those conclusions.
TL;DR:
- BitShares is your best bet for an exchange due to its decentralized nature and the non-need to worry about trust or getting Mt. Gox'ed.
- Do not use Blocktrades.us unless you like giving money away.
- Do not use Shapeshift or Blocktrades because Changelly will consistently give you better exchange rates as well as cheaper fees.
Hope that helps some folks!
Thanks! I have used blocktrades many times now and did not even pay attention to how much I was losing :(
I was doing the exact same thing. I was unaware of alternatives and was using Blocktrades.us exclusively. I started noticing some wild fluctuations in what I would get out at the end and started digging. That's what led me on my quest and I'm glad that I went on it, otherwise I would've just kept getting burned. Hopefully Blocktrades ups their game, competition is always good. But at this point in time, I cannot recommend them, I can only caution against their service.
You can't see exchange rate on exchange??? Run, Forest, run!!
Well, they give you an "estimate," and that estimate has changed in a major way on me before, despite the markets not having moved in that direction. I know this realm very well and there's something that just is NOT working, especially for the end user.
Good info, thanks!
You're welcome, glad to supply some helpful info!