Bitcoin
BTC Exchange PS Coin Rebrands Itself to LZF: Interview with Co-founder Daniel Pusateri
Deepak Tiwari · @https://twitter.com/_deepaktiwari | Jun 10, 2015 | 19:00
Bitcoin exchange PSCoin.com is re-branding to LZF.com, the co-founder of the company Daniel Pusateri cites several reasons behind the decision in the exclusive interview with Bitcoinist. The rebranding effort is a part of its mission incentivizes trading in Bitcoin markets correctly.
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Daniel Pusateri informs Bitcoinist that LZF.com stands for Laissez Faire, which means the free market, a market without government interference. Though, currently, LZF.com redirects users to pscoin.com, he informs that the replacement will become complete within the coming weeks. Pusateri got the domain name from his partner Andrew Tepper, who agreed to sell it to the company for $20,000 in equity.
He admits that the company has never been entirely ‘set’ on the name ‘PS Coin.’ Instead of investing great time into coming up with something else, he says he kept focus on what really matters the most for the company. He realized it is engineering and launching the best product possible that should be kept as the top priority.
In his exclusive interview with Bitcoinist, Daniel Pusateri elaborates on various points including of the need for rebranding. Read the full interview:
Why did you need rebranding?
Daniel Pusateri: There are four reasons for our rebranding:
1) We have never been entirely “set” on the name “PS Coin”. However, instead of investing great time into coming up with something else, we have kept our focus on what really matters — engineering and launching the best product/service possible.
2) Laissez Faire means free market (a market without govt’s interference). However, I more generally interpret that as a fair market, and that is one attribute of our algorithm which traditional markets do not share – In traditional markets, HFT probing orders and predacious trading puts the average Joe at a severe disadvantage when trading. With our algorithm, there are no discontinuities in fairness. The average Joe can place an order safely without feeling like a sucker.
3) We had the unique opportunity to acquire it for only $20,000 in equity
4) For the purpose of a banking relationship we are in the process of finalizing, we needed to move our US state of business to New Mexico (so it was good timing to change the name)
Tell us about your company/organization? How it all started?
Daniel Pusateri: LZF (formerly PS Coin) is an exchange that seeks to incentivize exactly the kind of behavior desired of traders in markets with a novel market algorithm.
Our company started in late 2013. At one point, Andrew called me to tell me about an idea he had conceived sometime in 2011 for a properly incentivized market algorithm that could address many of the problems associated with traditional markets—recognizably such as excess volatility, high frequency trading, spoofing, and unwarranted flash crashing. As soon as I heard it, I had an Aha moment. I knew that this was the correct method for all markets, and so we decided to pursue development.
After spending over a year in development, we announced our exchange publicly and began alpha testing on Feb 4 2015.
What makes you different from other Bitcoin exchanges?
Daniel Pusateri: LZF uses a novel market algorithm that incentivizes placing orders for as many units of currency as you can, as close to the bid-ask spread as you dare, and having them sit there for a long time until they eventually execute.
When you place an order in our markets you pay 1% in royalty to the other orders of the opposite type (Bids to Asks, Asks to Bids) that already exist in the market, and this is prorated based on how large the existing orders are and how close they are to the spread (Bids with “higher” prices, Asks with “lower” prices). As your order remains in the market, it also accumulates these royalties based on the two aforementioned factors. However, you only “capture” (i.e., your account is credited) the royalties your order accumulates when it executes.
Given the current public reputation of Bitcoin exchanges with regards to security, I believe it’s also worth noting that we have taken, and will continue to take, security much more seriously than other exchanges. From the beginning of our development, we sought the expertise of cryptographers and decorated cybersecurity experts to design and engineer our systems. Moreover, I believe we have had more security bounty attempts than any other Bitcoin service, and we have also had very few successful claims. I encourage anyone who is considering using our service to read over our security page. https://pscoin.com/Security/
Tell us about your market algorithm?
Daniel Pusateri: Our algorithm is designed to incentivize placing orders for as many units of currency as you can, as close to the bid-ask spread as you dare, and having them sit there for a long time until they eventually execute.
When you place an order in our markets you pay 1% in royalty to the other orders of the opposite type (Bids to Asks, Asks to Bids) that already exist in the market, and this is prorated based on how large the existing orders are and how close they are to the spread (Bids with “higher” prices, Asks with “lower” prices). As your order remains in the market, it also accumulates these royalties based on the two aforementioned factors. However, you only “capture” (i.e., your account is credited) the royalties your order accumulates when it executes.
Our algorithm makes obsolete high frequency trading, spoofing, and unwarranted flash crashing. We also believe our algorithm is currently the only logically proposed solution to the problem of Bitcoin’s price volatility, which severely hinders Bitcoin’s function as a practical currency today.
What else do you aim to do in future?
Daniel Pusateri: In the short term, we are expecting to add fiat-to-crypto currency markets very, very soon. Eventually, we intend to have fiat-to-fiat markets as well.
In the long term, ultimately our goal is to prove our concept and correct the outdated method in which traditional markets function.
Any special offers available these days for customers?
Daniel Pusateri: Due to the nature of our algorithm, there is always a small but natural first mover advantage to getting in early in our markets.
We are still working out the details of an artificial offer for the launch of our fiat markets. We plan to provide an additional incentive to new and existing users who verify through our KYC procedure and place an order in our markets.
Thus, Daniel Pusateri made it clear that rather than a rebranding effort, it was a natural choice for the company to opt for a prime domain like LZF. In fact, they were never entirely “set” on the name “PS Coin”. Then an opportunity came for them to utilize the domain name that was already lying with his partner for just $20,000 in equity. He promises to offer complete security when he says the majority of all funds deposited in the exchange are stored offline in bank vaults. Not just security but LZF is the first correctly incentivized market that is being made available by the engineers who have extensive experience in the cryptocurrency space.
What do you think about LZF? Comment below!
Image Source: PixaBay
Disclaimer: The writer of the story is not associated with PS Coin or LZF.
