The Reason Why Bittrex and Poloniex Have Taken STEEM Offline - According to Dan at BlockTrades... PLUS My Tips For Using BlockTrades
Since I learned earlier today that both Poloniex and Bittrex, two of the largest exchanges that support STEEM, had taken their STEEM wallets offline - I decided to find out why and find an alternative exchange that is still online... Success!
Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous post - suggesting possible exchanges to use. I found a list of sites that at one time exchanged STEEM, but alas most of them no longer support STEEM - so the options were limited.
The short answer is that I just spoke with an admin at Blocktrades, Dan, who informed me that:
From what I've heard, bittrex and poloniex are just having some problems with their wallet software. We (BlockTrades) put out a potential fix for problems experienced by bittrex, and they're in process of trying to get our fix and use it now.
He also said, on the topic of why the Bittrex price for STEEM was jumping around today:
Generally when an exchange disables deposits/withdrawals, it's pricing becomes more unreliable for a coin, because of the uncertainty of if/when coins bought on such an exchange will be accessible.
So there you go - probable answers to the questions raised.
My First Experience of BlockTrades
After playing with the exchange tool at BlockTrades I concluded that I would try to use them to exchange my STEEM into another coin that I can then exchange again into a fiat currency that I can use locally (GBP).
I initially attempted to test the system by sending 1 STEEM to my Bitcoin Wallet Via their exchange. However, the system failed because 1 STEEM is to small. I was not shown any warning of this in advance and I found the lack of information on the BlockTrades site on this issue a bit concerning. I emailed the BlockTrades Admins and got a quick reply that explained why the issue occurred and that they had manually refunded my 1 STEEM.
The BlockTrades system does not display exact fees and instead you choose the input and output currencies, which results in the final value you will receive being displayed - including any fees.
Dan at BlockTrades explained that the fee for converting STEEM into Bitcoins is quite high because Bitcoins are high at the moment and that it would be more cost effective for me to convert into LiteCoin Instead.
I went ahead and converted 904 STEEM into LiteCoins and sent them to the other exchange I am using to convert my Crypto Into Fiat Currency.
All that went just fine, but as usual I got stung at the other end - with CoinsBank charging me about £50GBP to covert my crypto into GBP and pay it into my Paypal Account. They wanted over £100 to pay it directly into my bank account! I have no idea how these fees are justified, but in any case I haven't yet found a cheaper option..
If you know of an exchange service that can take crypto and pay it out to a paypal or bank account with less fees involved then I'd greatly appreciate you letting me know!
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
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Still no deposit on poloniex???
What is goin on
Who would want to risk using Polo anyway, given so many reports about them not allowing users to withdraw.
Sooner or later, Polo is going to go belly up like Mt.Gox or get raided by the government like BTC-e, because they also allowed users without KYC, which is a sure indicator the site is being used for money laundering.
How's it going @ura-soul?
Glad to see you found some solutions.
I'm not going to tell you what to do with your hard earned rewards but i think reinvesting in Steem Power is worth considering.
There are numerous reasons to do so. Like gaining more influence with your voting power and if and when the value of Steem increases you will benefit much more from this in the long run. Many people believe that STEEM is very undervalued atm and the issues with Poloniex and Bittrex only contribute to this cycle.
Of course, you may have numerous real world reasons for withdrawing funds too!
I think this article by @lukestokes is well worth taking the time to read.
https://steemit.com/steem/@lukestokes/consider-buying-steem-be-an-owner-not-a-renter
Cheers, keep up the great work!
Aloha! I'm doing ok thanks - I'm glad to be able to put aside all this exchange business for a while!
I currently have almost zero cash outside of Steemit, so I have no choice but to cash out here.. However, my SP continues to go up each week, even after cashing out - thanks in no small part to your helpful voting. :)
I think the 50/50 split of SBD to SP is a sensible option that keeps a balance between being supported in 'real life' and also gaining presence in the community as a valued curator.
Buenos Dias / Noches /Tardes^^
I thought that may have been the case, I've been there too! I've been lucky that I haven't needed to withdraw much at all from my Steem funds but I have transferred modest amounts to exchanges in order to invest in other cryptos.
There's also important lessons to learn while dealing with different exchanges and i feel like i always learn something from my experiences (sometimes learning the hard way,lol).
Yup, the 50/50 option is very useful for covering all your needs.
Anyways, hope things are looking up for you have a good one.
hehe - thanks for your support and care. I like to spread around what I have when there is no guarantee backing the integrity of a system - there are a variety of outcomes which could potentially result in crypto wallets vanishing, so it makes sense to me to be careful.
I'm converting my SBD into Steem and powering up for the moment. What @v4vapid suggests is what I think is the prudent choice. Having said that, I hope to at some point in the future to become reliant on the income streem a built up Steem account can provide.
Good ideas. I read that quote by Dan at Blocktrades a few times..... and I cannot wrap my head around what that actually means.
I have enjoyed my dealings with him! Not many and brief - but he seems nice, and I like that.
It was the 2nd quote -- this one below, do you have any idea how to simplify this or even in your own terms or experience what it means?
I have found it frustrating always wondering why wallets go offline for DAYS. Hours, I understand....... (BTS is down again on Bittrex tonite LOL)
TYIA @v4vapid
I know he is busy and do not ever like tagging them - but maybe if @blocktrades is around and not busy LOL, he can answer on his quote there. I am truly perplexed.
Hi @barrydutton,
Yes, I've had this conversation with several other Steemians who I believe are much more qualified to assess what's going on.
Basically, I think that when there's an issue with the wallets (on either end) the pricing or value of the coin becomes more unreliable (over or under valued) due to the uncertainty. This uncertainty is compounded by the reaction to closing or suspension of the coin on the exchange and this in turn feeds more unreliability in the price of the coin.
So, if I've interpreted this correctly, the process is cyclical.
An exchange has a technical problem and stops trading the coin. That fuels an unreliable price which makes people wary of trading or investing using that coin (uncertainty), this reduces trading volume and that ends up fueling more unreliable pricing.
Hope that makes sense.
Personally, I feel this is something that can and will be corrected in time. It would be nice if more exchanges picked up Steem/SBD though. I imagine that if it was on more exchanges we would see less of this kind of thing happening.
Thank you for taking some time there to help me understand things more, even from just your perspective.
That means a lot to me.
I have actually pasted that into a document to continue looking at --- because I am really wanting to continue learning.
Sorry for the late reply.... I am wiped out, I have had a very very hard couple of days on here and in my life trying hard to improve the community but I do not think it is working.
I have put your name here, in my document so I can remember who helped me, and if I figure something out even more one day, and someone asks me -- I can credit that back to you accordingly.
I have appreciated your support, I will say again. It has meant a lot to me.
Thank You.
Check this option, I think it will work for you uphold
Thanks! That definitely looks like an interesting option - I'll explore that more tomorrow. :)
Crazy fee's
Great post
Thanks for the info!
You are welcome!
Fees are getting rediculous everywhere, as more exchanges come in the followers years, the fees will drop due to competition but in the mean time, they can charge and arm and a leg 😂
It looks like euro exchanges are much cheaper than UK Pound Exchanges - I need to learn why.. :/
What I find really weird is that Steem has been taken of Shapeshift currently. Before I was able to convert it to Bitcoin and quickly put it into my debit card. That doesn't work right now. I didn't find any reason for that anywhere.
I don't know why either - in fact, I only heard about shapeshift for the first time earlier today...
ShapeShift needs liquidity. If the only two major exchanges delisted STEEM, then ShapeShift has to as well.
blocktrades has continually supported STEEM - so at least they can be relied on.. so far.
Wow that £50GBP fee is rather steep !! When I reach the point where I want to take money out of steemit I will make a note to avoid CoinsBank.
Great post
I am using them because they actually charged the lowest of all the options I found! :/
If you only have a UK bank account I'd suggest opening either a N26 or a Revolut account. N26 gives you a real bank account, which can receive Euros. All you need is an Italian, German or Spanish friend who you can have the card sent to.
Thanks for the tip. Wouldn't that result in exchange fees being charged when I tried to use the Euro account to pay for things here in pounds?
Thanks for sharing! A link to your post was included in the Steem.center wiki page about Steem Exchanges. Thanks and good luck again!
Nice!!!
Thanks! I just realised it was that page which I referred to above, when I wrote that many of the exchanges listed there no longer support Steem.