Ethfinex Beta Roadmap
It’s been a busy couple of months for the Ethfinex team, and we are excited to finally update you on the progress we have made.
Ethfinex is now in soft beta mode — our platform is live, we’re getting feedback from a group of users and we’re hard at work getting everything ready for the public. We’re not quite ready to let everyone test it out yet but we’ve been working with a number of key traders and developers to make sure it’s ready as soon as possible.
We are thrilled to open up our doors to you in what represents the start of a long and exciting journey for Ethfinex.
We’ve set up a Telegram channel for you to stay up to date with announcements, give feedback and share your thoughts on Ethfinex and what lies ahead. For anyone new to Ethfinex — we’ve compiled an overview of FAQs & resources on the Ethfinex subreddit which we hope helps with explaining what we’re all about. Feel free to send any unanswered questions or comments our way and we’ll make sure to respond quickly.
Beta Features
With the launch of the Ethfinex Beta comes access to an ERC20 token trading platform, a streamlined token sale platform and an information hub for analysing, discussing and rating these projects.
1. Trading Platform
The Ethfinex beta will initially allow for the trading of 7 ERC20 tokens, giving users access to exchange trading, margin trading and a P2P funding market. The number of tokens on Ethfinex is set to increase exponentially as our trading engine is tested and matures. Timely updates regarding new token additions will be made on our Twitter as we approach the end of the beta period.
The trading interface is customisable and allows you to combine advanced charting features with up to 10 different order types to help you optimise your trading strategy.
2. Token Sale Platform
The Token Sale Platform on Ethfinex allows users to track, review and contribute to a number of high-quality, pre-vetted token sales, straight from the Ethfinex wallet. This allows you to skip the crowdsale queues by pre-pledging your contribution whilst sidestepping the various identity/phishing risks associated with uploading your identity and wallet information to multiple token sale sites.
There are no fees associated with token sale contributions pledged through Ethfinex and the tokens will appear in your wallet as soon as they are distributed by the crowdfunding team.
We are incredibly excited to share more details surrounding the token sale platform and will be announcing the first token sales taking place on Ethfinex shortly.
3. Discussion & Information Platform
Ethfinex provides access to an extensive, project-specific P2P information network which enables users to rate, discuss and crowdsource information from across the Ethereum ecosystem. The discussion platform integrates a user-reputation system and a token rating system used to determine the fundamental value of any token.
Teams will be able to take control of their own profiles on Ethfinex, setting up landing pages and posting updates and official communications, creating a space where interested traders can go to gather information about the team, token, development plans and more.
The true value of the Ethfinex discussion platform comes from collecting disparate, scattered sources of information from multiple sources to facilitate an ecosystem for users looking to evaluate, analyse or contribute to open-source software tokens.
Timeline — Q1 2018
Although the core beta features are now live and usable, Ethfinex is still far from completion and this milestone represents only the beginning of a long journey for us.
The first step towards launching Ethfinex was getting trading and discussion features up and running, and we’re excited to say that this is largely complete. As Ethfinex matures we will gradually roll out a number of the more exciting and unique features whilst continuously optimising the discussion platform to create a more comprehensive, value-adding information hub.
We’d like to yet again emphasise the fact that Ethfinex is not ready for trading for the public, and we will make an additional announcement once this is set to change. It won’t be long, but there are few things we’d like to double check prior to enabling sign ups and full-fledged trading.
Complete
1. Ethfinex live
(Complete)
The beta version of the Ethfinex website is now live, providing access to an Ethereum token (ERC20) trading platform, a streamlined token sale platform and a community hub for the analysis, discussion and rating of these tokens.
Our aim is to build an ecosystem for the trading and analysis of Ethereum-based projects. As the discussion section is refined to allow our users to become the primary filter for determining token quality, we can begin to use this information to determine which additional tokens and crowdsales will be offered on Ethfinex.
In Progress
2. Information & Token Sale Platforms
(In Progress)
The next step for us will be refining the discussion and information features. We are creating the infrastructure necessary to facilitate professional contributions and due diligence to help users study and filter quality projects throughout the Ethereum ecosystem. Since this is largely experimental, it is important for us to roll it out gradually to avoid spam, abuse and misinformation.
In conjunction with this will be the roll out of the token sale platform. Our aim is to make the highest quality token sales available to users through our network of trusted partners. The biggest area of focus here is on KYC and we are looking to ensure we can cope with the potential KYC demands before making the first sales available to users.
3. Integration of the Ethfinex Portal
(In Progress)
Our focus is also on integrating our trustless trading portal, allowing for order settlement on the Ethereum blockchain using the 0x protocol messaging format.
Originally planned for phase 2 of the Ethfinex development roadmap, the Ethfinex Portal will enable trustless, non-custodial trading, enabling users to trade directly from their Ledger or Metamask wallets without the need to trust a 3rd party with custody of funds.
We’re extremely excited to see this component of Ethfinex go live in what will represent one of the most user friendly applications of trustless trading to date.
4. Integration of the Nectar (NEC) Token
(In Progress)
The next few months will also see the finalisation and integration of the Nectar token which is fundamental to the long-term decentralisation (and success) of Ethfinex. Our aim is for the Nectar token to become an integrated part of the platform within the next 2 months.
We recently announced the Nectar bug bounty and we encourage everyone to take a deeper look at what we’ve come up with. Although no security issues have been found so far, we appreciate all the time spent and comments we have received so far.
The Nectar token will become an integral part of Ethfinex through rewarding users who add liquidity, kickstarting less liquid markets once the beta period definitively ends. It will also work to decentralise the ownership and governance structure of Ethfinex, giving loyal contributors a meaningful stake in the future of Ethfinex.
Scheduled
5. Exit beta mode
(Scheduled for early Q1 2018)
A large portion of our resources will be dedicated to testing and maturing our trading engine, allowing for a steady stream of new tokens and crowdsales to become available on Ethfinex, for both trading and analysis.
Once we exit beta mode, our focus will be on:
- Expanding the range of token pairs offered;
- Putting our full development resources towards designing and building a fully decentralised, trustless exchange on Ethereum.
Ethfinex & Tether
Over the last 3 years, Tether has established itself as the most widely used peg for traditional currencies on the blockchain, removing the inherent volatility (typically) associated with digital currencies. The value that Tether has added to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, through providing a shared token for transferring value between exchanges and offering a shelter from volatility without the requirement of bank wires, cannot be underestimated regardless of current public perception and scepticism.
The Ethfinex team possess no doubts as to the integrity and continued solvency of Tether. However, whilst we worked closely with the Tether team to produce an ERC20 version to run on the Ethereum network, we also recognise that while Tether is currently the most widely-tested (and only blockchain solution to have reliably held a peg long-term), it is and will always be a partly centralised solution. Whilst this is definitely not limitation in and of itself, it does go against the values which are inherent to Ethfinex.
All stablecoins have ‘black swan’ risk, where a series of unexpected events can cause pegs to drop and ultimately collapse. This is not specific to blockchain and also includes government backed currencies which have tried to maintain pegs. As with many risks of this sort, decentralisation and diversification is often the best mitigation.
We are particularly excited by the growing number of decentralised stablecoin options being built on Ethereum, particularly MakerDao. MakerDao’s DAI, which will initially be collateralised by Ether held in a smart contract, is a particularly promising option. We have been in talks with MakerDao about the possibility of adding two DAI pairs to Ethfinex, namely DAI/ETH and DAI/USDT. These pairs would open the door to wide-scale testing of the DAI peg and its utility and would allow us to consider the further integration of DAI pairs once the concept has been tested under pressure.
Feedback
We are pleased to deliver this update to you and our hope is that you share our excitement. The months have flown by since our announcement in August and, whilst we’re thrilled by the progress made so far, we’re also humbled by the amount of work still to be done.
For us to optimise Ethfinex and create a platform that is of true value to our users and the wider Ethereum community, it is vital that we get some feedback from you. If you have any thoughts on our progress so far, what current exchanges/information networks lack, or anything in between, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can get in touch with us on Twitter, Reddit and LinkedIn, as well as our newly created Telegram group.
We have a number of exciting announcements in store as we progress, from new features to added token sales, and we’re eager to share these with you.
Thank you for your continued interest and support — we’re excited to hear your thoughts!
- The Ethfinex Team
