Hi steemians, happy weekend to you all. @dorth here to give a full rundown of our telegram based Airhawk exchange. Remember this was stated as one of our sister projects in our introductory post few days ago.
How did it all start?
So, some of us have been on steemit for a while now. We have earned some Steem Backed Dollars(SBD) and are ready to turn this to fiat (Instant Cash). To do this, we are all aware that the only currently realistic way of doing this is through the exchanges like @bittrex, @poloniex or @blocktrades, e.t.c.
So, to get your cash, you do the following;
You send your SBD to the exchange – Here you pay no fees – thanks to the steem design
Exchange your SBD for BTC - Here you pay a fee for buying BTC.
item 3Send your bitcoin from your exchange to your wallet. This operation currently on bittrex would cost you 0.001 BTC which is currently valued at close to 4.24 dollars.
4.Lastly, sell your BTC for cash. This we all know is dependent on the prevailing exchange rate for which changes with time.
From the above, you will agree with me that converting your SBD to cash is not as easy yet as we will expect it to be. Infact, a friend recently shared a post from a Malaysian user @lordoftruth here, where he expressed his frustration having not been able to get to buy his pall mall superslims blue at a friendly price with his earned SBDs. His 11SBD could only get him about 4$ when he converted from @blocktrades. This is obviously owing to the calculated hassles he would have gone through trying to convert his sbd to cash through any exchange as outlined above.
The way forward.
You will agree with me that on introduction of any money making venture to anyone, one of the first and sometimes, the major question asked is "how do I get my money". Infact, I recently found an article by @diana01 here where she shared her experience on the task it took her to introduce steemit to her sister and this revolved around how the actual earning is withdrawn. In order to encourage already known users and new ones alike who would love to exchange their SBDs for cash as at when needed, we decided to come up with the idea of an exchange wherein members can convert their sbds to cash much easily. This is @airhawkexchange on telegram here. This exchange is organized through an escrow service.
How does Airhawk Exchange Work?
Airhawk exchange operate on an escrow format. This is a financial arrangement wherein a third party holds and regulates payment of the funds required for the two parties involved in a given transaction. This arrangement requires that:
(1). Buyer and Seller agree on a rate/price
(2). Seller send SBD to airhawk-project’s steemit account
(3). Escrow confirms payment and directs buyer to make payment.
(3). Buyer makes payment to Seller.
(4). Seller confirms receipt of payment.
(5). Escrow account release the sbd to buyer.
Why should I trust this process?
The escrow team is made up of 5 members of the project team, namely @dreamchasser, @dorth, @diskorvery, @drepo15, and @geetasnani. They have all exhibited known levels of commitment and integrity to the project. They are the only ones who have access to the account information of the account. Although we cannot prove our trust by merely telling you to trust us or merely telling you we trust ourselves, but we believe with a couple of transactions and as the project moves on, the level of trust would be boosted.
Airhawk escrow reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third-party that collects, holds and only disburses SBD when both Buyers and Sellers are satisfied. All transactions are open on the steemit blockchain and can be easily confirmed by all when payments are received or not.
There will be no escrow charges as all SBD transactions are without charges and are instant. The transfer charge to be incurred by sending fiat is accommodated the agreed rate.
Price Control.
A price range is set based on the current exchange rate. The price will be set so as to find a balance between the buyer and the seller.
You will agree with me that the goal of the steem devs @ned and @dantheman and a number of witnesses is to have the value of SBD worth 1$. At least I could remember reading one of @timcliff ‘s last witnness report here where he talked about adding an interest to check occasional deeps in the price of SBD so that the price is always equivalently 1$. Therefore, we are promoting the fact that SBD is 1$
On our exchange therefore, the price of SBD is taken as 1$ at any particular time and so, it would be exchanged against the statuitory price of a dollar. However, to check and cater for the costs/charges the buyer might incur in the process of transferring to the exchange and all the process of getting his funds back to BTC, we allow a price range of *0.92 – 1.08 as the base price for negotiations and allow the market to determine the rest. This agreed price can then be used for negotiation.
Also, we make use of the flexibility of telegram to have quick access to the current price of SBD, just maybe it could assist in the basis for negotiation per time. For example, the digi bot is one of the bots installed on the trading group for this price update,
For example, if I as a Nigerian wants to sell 100SBD, and the current exchange rate is #345 per dollar.
To make my order attractive, I could choose to sell at 0.92SBD per dollar. So, I do 0.92 x 345= #324.3
I could then announce that I have 100$ SBD for sale at say #324/$ or 320/$ and probably get someone ready to buy for my price or willing to bring it down. This is in order to ensure that people get value for their earnings.
Limit of Price Control
We set a price control only for orders starting from 5$. We understand that the smaller the amount, the more the marginal exposure of the other party to transaction fees eating up onto their funds. This means therefore that sales below 5$ could be negotiated to any extent both parties wish to. We believe our buyers to get much of their gains from here as we expect some minnows who just wish to test how real it is to come around and testrun with their little earnings before they build their base. we could also have persons who need quick SBDs probably to boost a post or do anything.
Currencies Accepted:
All local currencies are accepted as long as there is a buyer willing to pay with your local currency.
BTC is also accepted on occasions where there is no local currency exchange. Both parties just need to find a common ground and they deal.
Airhark Exchange in the Future
We see the exchange being a “go to” place for steemians and non steemians alike. We see a numbers of bitcoin users withdrawing their bitcoins as SBD from the exchanges to escape the high fees and thereafter trade their SBD for fiat on our exchange. We also see some traders buying SBDs in bits to sccumulate to the amount of funds they need to send to the exchange for trading. Above all, we see a bright future for steem and SBD.
Happy trading.
Please note that this is a new project around. We would appreciate your comments, suggestions and contributions on how we can do better with this.
However, the first transaction was completed on Thursday, 5th October and we have been able to have some happy people from the platform.
Join us on telegram here
Join Airhawk-Exchange here