A new service called StopCoin launched this week – an online extension to the Coinbase platform that gives wallet holders a user-friendly way to trade bitcoin.
Once logged in via Coinbase, StopCoin allows users to easily create buy and sell orders based on a specified bitcoin price without having to understand technical trading charts and terms.
Eliminating the need for users to place funds in a separate exchange and monitor the price themselves, the service monitors the bitcoin price activity and executes users’ orders automatically.
StopCoin’s creator Zack Shapiro told CoinDesk he chose to build his product off Coinbase because it is the leading wallet in the space – “well designed, well-built, trusted”.
He said:
“My biggest shortcoming with Coinbase is that I don’t have any granular control over my bitcoins. I’m terrified that one of these days the price is going to go crazy. I would love to protect my investment. […] I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I’d like to be able to sleep easy.”
By launching the service, Shapiro intends to target the growing number of people interested in bitcoin and want to become more involved – the users who open up Coinbase wallets, but whose funds just sit idle. This is in contrast to more seasoned traders who make the most of their bitcoin, buying and selling as the price moves.
Trading for beginners
StopCoin effectively gives less experienced users the opportunity to place limit orders.
To do so, the user indicates whether he or she is buying or selling, how much to buy or sell, and at which price bitcoin must reach for the platform to execute the order.
The dashboard displays all pending and closed orders, and the same information is also emailed to the user every Friday – in case those with multiple pending orders are out of touch with their transactions. StopCoin takes a 1% fee on all transactions up to a maximum of $10.
Shapiro said:
“My goal is to be very transparent with customers and help them really have financial security and take control of what they have in Coinbase.”
StopCoin is the first such service to be built on top of Coinbase. Shapiro said that some exchanges, like Bitstamp, offer similar functionality, but are more similar to day-trading platforms than consumer bitcoin wallets.
Consumer control
Shapiro’s believes that instead of bitcoin holders having to helplessly watch the value of their funds dramatically rise and fall due to the complex factors that affect the market, they should be able to protect that investment with a price floor.
Shapiro said that the concept for StopCoin was born out of his personal experience of first getting involved with bitcoin – one that many others in the community have also had to go through.
At the time, the price was swinging wildly on an ongoing basis, given the series of dramatic events making mainstream headlines around the world, including the demise of both Silk Road and Mt Gox. StopCoin is his solution.
This is the third version of StopCoin since its beta release. The service is not affiliated with Coinbase and Shapiro is bootstrapping the project himself.
He has previously worked at Path and TaskRabbit and launched a nighttime delivery company called Luna.
Trading graph image via Shutterstock