Bitcoin Exchange

It’s essential that you decide to work with a reputable, reliable, and trustworthy Bitcoin exchange. In fact, it’s arguably the most critical part of working with this cryptocurrency. If your chosen exchange doesn’t meet expectations, then you’re opening yourself up to a whole world of potentially costly issues.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important things you should be looking out for in a good Bitcoin exchange.

Payment Options

Common sense would dictate that a good exchange would accept a wide variety of different payment methods. However, despite this, many exchanges limit their client’s potential options. Do they accept cash? How about PayPal? Are they credit card only?

Figure out what payment methods you envisage yourself using, and ensure any exchange you’re considering accepts them.

How We Can Help

We offer a wide range of payment options including credit cards and Paypal (and we are working on adding more in the very near future).

Currency Options

The location of a Bitcoin exchange usually determines the currencies it will accept. If you end up working with an exchange that only takes payment in their local currency you’re going to be hit with a wide range of conversion fees. Essentially this means you’re going to be paying more for your Bitcoin than you would with a more globally aware exchange.

Many of the better exchanges will accept payments in a wide range of currencies, regardless of their location. Ensure that any exchange you consider working with takes payments in your currency of choice.

How We Can Help

We accept payments in a wide range of currencies including USD, EUR, JPY, AUD. We are planning on adding more in the very near future.

Exchange Fees

Bitcoin exchanges earn their money in the same way as traditional currency exchanges do. When you change your dollars into euros, the exchange charges a fee, the same applies with Bitcoin. Just like with conventional currency the amount exchanges charge vary massively between different organizations.

Many less reputable exchanges will hide charges deep within the small print of their terms and conditions. These additional costs are not always immediately apparent before payment, and in many cases, you’ll only find out about them after you have sent the money. Ensure that the fees charged by any exchange you are considering are reasonable, and ensure you find out about any hidden charges before you send payment.

How We Can Help

We pride ourselves on having some of the most competitive exchange rates in the industry. We work tirelessly to minimise overheads and keep things running as efficiently as possible to pass the savings directly on to our valued clients.

Additionally, we don’t have any hidden charges or nasty surprises buried in the small print. When you decide to put your trust in us, you know exactly what you’re paying, and you know exactly what you’re getting in return.

Reliability

Despite being financial institutions, many Bitcoin exchanges are run on low quality, unreliable software that is often not fit for purpose. If you’re unlucky enough to work with one of these exchanges you’re going to find that there are regular server outages, large amounts of downtime, and nonexistent resolution processes.

With a currency as dynamic as Bitcoin, it’s imperative to work with an exchange that will be there for you when you need them. If there’s a bargain to be had (or a great time to sell), you need to know you can access the service and make whatever moves you need to.

Luckily these exchanges usually fail reasonably quickly (and they are not that common these days), but there are still some out there you should be aware of. It is imperative you know that any exchange you’re considering working with is reliable and stable with excellent amounts of uptime.

How We Can Help

We are proud to say that we have invested heavily in some of the most reliable and advanced software on the planet that forms the backbone of our exchange. All our software is running on powerful cloud architecture that provides lightning fast responses 24/7.

We honestly take this very seriously, we consider even a second of downtime to be an unacceptable catastrophe. We have hired some of the best engineers on the planet to give us redundancy and reliability that is second to none.

Simply put, when you work with us, we’re always going to be here for you.

Security

This may sound like an obvious thing for a currency exchange to prioritize, but unfortunately, it’s not as common as you may think. Bitcoin exchanges deal with massive amounts of transactions on a daily basis, and they are responsible for millions of dollars passing through them every single hour. With this much money involved, they are apparently top targets for hackers.

Despite this, we are regularly shocked to see the inadequate levels of security that some less reputable Bitcoin exchanges consider acceptable. Doing a quick Google will present you with a long list of horror stories about the consequences of an insecure exchange getting hacked.

Ensure that any exchange you’re considering working with takes security very seriously.

Do not accept second best.

How We Can Help

Security is our top priority. Naturally, we adhere to all the simple best practices (like ensuring our entire site is HTTPS encrypted), but we go far beyond that. Our security team is continuously monitoring for threats, reacting to attempted attacks, and stress testing our system to find any potential weaknesses.

No exchange in the world can claim to be 100% secure, and even government agencies can get hacked. But we are going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure our platform is as secure as it can be.

Conclusion

So there you have it, just a few examples of things you should be looking out for in a good bitcoin exchange (and how we practice what we preach). This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are many more important factors (like transparency and reputation) that should be taken into account.

But following these few tips should at least put you on the right path.