Edit: We reached out to bitHolla, and they explained that their HEX system still requires custom onboarding, configuration, and cooperation. They expect to have a DIY version of the exchange kit by next month, which is going to be a full client with open source code.
bitHolla, a South Korean company released an “open” exchange kit dubbed HollaExShell, through which they hope to strongly compete for the cryptocurrency exchange market, according to a press release by the company.
Their product is a software package that enables anybody to start their own exchange, but it’s very far from what we would consider open. The company has done all of the hard work to create trading algorithms and logic, enabling anybody to create a trading website within minutes. However, the new software comes with a pretty salty price tag of $50k.
bitHolla’s CEO, Alireza Beikverdi says that they’ve spent multiple years developing the kit and that they are looking forward to seeing more crypto markets open up around the world. He hopes to cause a ripple in the ecosystem and inspire thousands to start their own cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to the CEO, their competitors, white-label exchange providers, charge anywhere between $100,000 and $500,000, while a bitHolla’s exchange kit costs only $50,000. If this is true, these developers should see a decent amount of threat from this move by bitHolla, as they are undercutting the standard by 10 times.
Naturally, we tried to see how launching a cryptocurrency exchange would work. Safe to say it is not as simple as the bitHolla team is making it out to be. In order to start the exchange creation process, you need to purchase $50k of their proprietary HEX token.
Only then you are able to begin the process. It wouldn’t be as scary to think about if the whole process was documented properly. There are no steps, and we had to dig around to discover these details. Some information is only found by interacting with the chatbot, for example.
According to their documentation, the current version only works with macOS and Debian Linux systems. It can be made to work with Windows through the use of third party applications such as Docker,
If you want to take advantage of their system, we recommend that you take the necessary steps to protect your investment. The team says that they are partnered with IBM and BitMEX, both of which are great leads to perform due-dilligence and check the facts. In addition to their partners, they also talk about successful funding rounds for which we found proof on Crunchbase.
This adds to the value of their proposition as the fact that they have received funding for their project increases their perceived legitimacy.
To recap, bitHolla may have created a new software package, but it is definitely not open and accessible for everyone. The entry barrier is $50k, which is indeed lower than the industry’s standard, and they will attract a significant amount of buyers. However, the language used in the press release is created to slightly misrepresent the true picture of the organization.
We’ve asked for a demo, so we can provide you with a better understanding of the product and it’s supposed simplicity. We want to discover how much coding and what the process looks like after you have made the investment. We will update this article accordingly after the team responds to our query (or fails to respond).
Photo credit: bitHolla
