Category Archives: General

General blog posts that inform users of recent developments.

Derivative Exchange and its purpose

So in a conversation with my boss (representative of my employer – a bank) discussing rules for External Directorships (or founders) of companies (like Massive Rainfall), I had to describe what I was doing and a justification. I came up with:

  1. Hedging of a bad Weather day ruining some important event (like a wedding)
  2. Hedging Bitcoin prices (like those who are unable to cash out on Mt.Gov)
  3. Speculating with a hope to profit on either of the above

Most of the other reasons are not customer focused. They’re for me (become more effective in Product Development, practice following E2E – a modified Rational Unified Process [RUP] for software development) etc.

Re-Submitting to Kickstarter

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. So goes the old adage, and so I blindly follow it where ever it may lead. Kickstarter recommended I remove some references to Bitcoins (i.e. Cash Equivalents) which is fair – it’s Out of Scope anyway.

I also upped the amount, making it less likely to get all the pledges required, but more likely that I could do everything I want to do should it succeed (i.e. employ others to do the work). I continue to do a lot of the coding myself (did you know for instance, that java code compiled on my Linux dev machine at home doesn’t run on my Linux web host?) I’m also happily at work coming up with features that I would want (as a user) making me believe it’s not wasted effort.

I’m also reading about how the CBOT does their Mark-to-Market Settlement (13:15 each day) and Delivery (T+3 as chosen by the deliverer). If this were real, there’d also be margin criteria and default collateral which OFSI helpfully provides how to calculate.

Interest rate swaps (to convert a mortgage from variable to fixed, or vice versa) or facilitating OTC derivatives (thereby removing Massive Rainfall as the buyer for all sellers, and the seller for all buyers) is a little bit more than cool. Goldman Sachs does something similar.

Why doesn’t everyone do this?

Hitting the Submit Button

I’ve fired off my project to Kickstarter to see if they’ll ok it. It’s very different than anything else they support – and its potential to become a business are obvious.

My hopes and dreams now rest with a faceless entity behind the internet on the other side of the continent. Who knows what the future will bring.

Also – the orders are submitted to the ‘Exchange’. They’re not matched yet. I found out that my web host’s PHP is a different version than my development environment. Had to convert some of the “protocol” code to pass transactions back and forth. Still need to transfer the Matching Engine. So much to do…

For the record: I don’t want to code. I just want it to work!

Bitcoins To Come

Basic Scenario

  1. User selects an existing Bitcoin future for a BTC index on a specific date and clicks Search
  2. System returns a list of futures ‘like’ what the user requested
  3. User chooses an existing Bitcoin security and selects Trade
  4. System presents an order entry screen
  5. User fills in the details and selects ‘Submit Trade’
  6. System validates the input and saves order
  7. System sends order to Exchange
  8. Exchange matches order against existing orders (Alternate: order is saved or partially saved in Order book)
  9. Exchange sends status update to Web Broker
  10. Order is updated as Partially filled
  11. PartialFill is saved as a Trade in Web Broker
  12. Trade is sent to Custody system
  13. Custody system moves money from Buyer to Seller
  14. Custody system indicates trade is ‘Settled’