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CISO of ShapeShift here. If our values speak to you, and you're a security researcher - WE ARE HIRING https://shapeshift.com/careers https://shapeshift.com/ca

CISO of ShapeShift here. If our values speak to you, and you're a security researcher - WE ARE HIRING https://shapeshift.com/careers https://shapeshift.com/careers In liberty, --Michael

Permit 6y ago
I'm trying to better understand Shapeshift's business model. How do you make money?
- tigereyeTO 6y ago
  ShapeShift is a platform that provides users with much more than just trading: we are a mobile wallet, a hardware wallet provider with KeepKey, a DEX, and an easy place to manage your crypto assets while retaining control of your private keys. And, for developers, we’re building a powerful software development kit (SDK). ShapeShift is building an ecosystem with the FOX Token at its core, and there are many opportunities to ensure a sound business model within it. We are looking to continually build value into FOX Tokens for the benefit of its holders while establishing a solid financial foundation for our company and our employees.
  - mbesto 6y ago
    Can you simplify a bit? Can I take my USD dollars and buy crypto on your platform or not? If not, how would I obtain crypto and leverage those solutions that you support?
    - tigereyeTO 6y ago
      ShapeShift partners with Banxa to process debit and credit card transactions. This allows you to buy BTC directly with USD, and the BTC is delivered directly to your own wallet with keys that are in your control. Note that Banxa performs their own KYC for their own MSB services. Once you have some crypto, you can then trade it for other crypto with a few taps on your smartphone, or clicks in your browser. Search your smartphone's app store for ShapeShift and give it a whirl yourself :)
      - mbesto 6y ago
        > Note that Banxa performs their own KYC for their own MSB services. Ok and so does Coinbase. So at any point I, an American citizen, must do some level of KYC. Is the idea that I can simply buy Crypto from another exchange and then send the hash to another wallet on your platform (where KYC isn't performed)? > Search your smartphone's app store for ShapeShift and give it a whirl yourself :) No offense, but I won't. It's hard for me to trust a wallet that clearly (or technically unclearly) is operating in a grey area of the law.
- csomar 6y ago
  Some kind of a miner fee: https://shapeshift.com/miner-fees https://shapeshift.com/miner-fees I think to be able to execute the transaction.
  - tigereyeTO 6y ago
    Miner fees are charged by the various blockchain networks, and not by ShapeShift. If the Bitcoin network is charging 0.00066 BTC for a transaction, ShapeShift passes this charge through to users transparently.
vizzah 6y ago
"Remote" job, physical requirements: "The employee must occasionally lift and/or move objects up to 50 pounds." ;-)
- tigereyeTO 6y ago
  You gotta lift your laptop every now and then :P
silentsea90 6y ago
Can you please share your thesis for ShapeShift from an equity upside standpoint?
- tigereyeTO 6y ago
  I'm not sure I follow the question, but I think you're asking about comp and whether employees have opportunities to earn equity. We do! Every ShapeShift employee has equity and has opportunities to earn more. It is vitally important that our employees benefit from ShapeShift's successes and I'm proud to be a ShapeShift employee. More important to me than equity is the feelings of accomplishment and camaraderie that we already feel for building such a great platform that holds user privacy and self-sovereignty above all else.
  - silentsea90 6y ago
    I am sorry for the unclear question. I was curious about the bull case/potential upside for ShapeShift equity. Specifically, what makes you believe (if you do): 1) ShapeShift will succeed as a business long term 2) ShapeShift will capture value as a business Broadly, where do you see the company in 5-10 years :) What makes you bullish about it!
ajkdhcb2 6y ago
I hope to see more support for monero considering the supposed privacy values
- thomaszander 6y ago
  This is an often seen opinion and there is some nuance to this idea. Monero doesn't enable privacy by default, but its known as a privacy coin. The first means that people could be unaware of the extra steps they need to take to get privacy, but the second is the risky one. Monero is known as a privacy coin and this makes it the target of governments that indeed made ShapeShift start to to KYC a year or more ago. Monero is unduly targeted for standard features because governments don't like perfect privacy... The good news is that privacy does not have to be built in to a coin for it to be capable of giving privacy. If we reverse the Monero situation we might get something that is actually useful for the majority of us. A coin like Bitcoin that doesn't have more than semi-privacy can have mixing added to become private. Now, mixing as historically done on BTC is both expensive and centralized, which has caused several servers to be confiscated and people arrested. Again, governments really don't like what you do with your money being private. I'm personally a big fan of https://cashfusion.org https://cashfusion.org ticks all these boxes. It is built on a semi-private (bitcoin-like) coin and it solves the other problems as well with a mix (sorry, fusion) costing you nearly nothing.
  - meowster 6y ago
    > Monero doesn't enable privacy by default It does in fact enable privacy by default. If you want to show someone the details of a transaction or an address balance, you have to provide viewkeys. > I'm personally a big fan of Now your comment reads like an attempt to shill, which would explain the misinformation about Monero. According to HN's rules, I have to assume you have better intentions than that. Please explain what you meant, since I must have misunderstood you.
    - thomaszander 6y ago
      > It does in fact enable privacy by default. Ok, my statement was maybe too black/white and you jumped on top of that. The point is that Monero has Privacy level / mixin settings, the default is not completely open, but certainly doesn't qualify as super private either. > Now your comment reads like an attempt to shill I shared a link to a product that I feel is very successful in reaching privacy. I have no ties to this product (though I have used it).
twodayslate 6y ago
Any plans to get added to 3commas?
- tigereyeTO 6y ago
  We've got connections for sure https://www.cameo.com/v/LP_Hemal_W https://www.cameo.com/v/LP_Hemal_W
LyndsySimon 6y ago
Done; I’m very interested.

CISO of ShapeShift here. If our values speak to you, and you're a security researcher - WE ARE HIRING https://shapeshift.com/careers https://shapeshift.com/careers In liberty, --Michael

Permit 6y ago

I'm trying to better understand Shapeshift's business model. How do you make money?

tigereyeTO 6y ago
ShapeShift is a platform that provides users with much more than just trading: we are a mobile wallet, a hardware wallet provider with KeepKey, a DEX, and an easy place to manage your crypto assets while retaining control of your private keys. And, for developers, we’re building a powerful software development kit (SDK). ShapeShift is building an ecosystem with the FOX Token at its core, and there are many opportunities to ensure a sound business model within it. We are looking to continually build value into FOX Tokens for the benefit of its holders while establishing a solid financial foundation for our company and our employees.
- mbesto 6y ago
  Can you simplify a bit? Can I take my USD dollars and buy crypto on your platform or not? If not, how would I obtain crypto and leverage those solutions that you support?
  - tigereyeTO 6y ago
    ShapeShift partners with Banxa to process debit and credit card transactions. This allows you to buy BTC directly with USD, and the BTC is delivered directly to your own wallet with keys that are in your control. Note that Banxa performs their own KYC for their own MSB services. Once you have some crypto, you can then trade it for other crypto with a few taps on your smartphone, or clicks in your browser. Search your smartphone's app store for ShapeShift and give it a whirl yourself :)
    - mbesto 6y ago
      > Note that Banxa performs their own KYC for their own MSB services. Ok and so does Coinbase. So at any point I, an American citizen, must do some level of KYC. Is the idea that I can simply buy Crypto from another exchange and then send the hash to another wallet on your platform (where KYC isn't performed)? > Search your smartphone's app store for ShapeShift and give it a whirl yourself :) No offense, but I won't. It's hard for me to trust a wallet that clearly (or technically unclearly) is operating in a grey area of the law.
csomar 6y ago
Some kind of a miner fee: https://shapeshift.com/miner-fees https://shapeshift.com/miner-fees I think to be able to execute the transaction.
- tigereyeTO 6y ago
  Miner fees are charged by the various blockchain networks, and not by ShapeShift. If the Bitcoin network is charging 0.00066 BTC for a transaction, ShapeShift passes this charge through to users transparently.

vizzah 6y ago

"Remote" job, physical requirements: "The employee must occasionally lift and/or move objects up to 50 pounds." ;-)

tigereyeTO 6y ago
You gotta lift your laptop every now and then :P

silentsea90 6y ago

Can you please share your thesis for ShapeShift from an equity upside standpoint?

tigereyeTO 6y ago
I'm not sure I follow the question, but I think you're asking about comp and whether employees have opportunities to earn equity. We do! Every ShapeShift employee has equity and has opportunities to earn more. It is vitally important that our employees benefit from ShapeShift's successes and I'm proud to be a ShapeShift employee. More important to me than equity is the feelings of accomplishment and camaraderie that we already feel for building such a great platform that holds user privacy and self-sovereignty above all else.
- silentsea90 6y ago
  I am sorry for the unclear question. I was curious about the bull case/potential upside for ShapeShift equity. Specifically, what makes you believe (if you do): 1) ShapeShift will succeed as a business long term 2) ShapeShift will capture value as a business Broadly, where do you see the company in 5-10 years :) What makes you bullish about it!

ajkdhcb2 6y ago

I hope to see more support for monero considering the supposed privacy values

thomaszander 6y ago
This is an often seen opinion and there is some nuance to this idea. Monero doesn't enable privacy by default, but its known as a privacy coin. The first means that people could be unaware of the extra steps they need to take to get privacy, but the second is the risky one. Monero is known as a privacy coin and this makes it the target of governments that indeed made ShapeShift start to to KYC a year or more ago. Monero is unduly targeted for standard features because governments don't like perfect privacy... The good news is that privacy does not have to be built in to a coin for it to be capable of giving privacy. If we reverse the Monero situation we might get something that is actually useful for the majority of us. A coin like Bitcoin that doesn't have more than semi-privacy can have mixing added to become private. Now, mixing as historically done on BTC is both expensive and centralized, which has caused several servers to be confiscated and people arrested. Again, governments really don't like what you do with your money being private. I'm personally a big fan of https://cashfusion.org https://cashfusion.org ticks all these boxes. It is built on a semi-private (bitcoin-like) coin and it solves the other problems as well with a mix (sorry, fusion) costing you nearly nothing.
- meowster 6y ago
  > Monero doesn't enable privacy by default It does in fact enable privacy by default. If you want to show someone the details of a transaction or an address balance, you have to provide viewkeys. > I'm personally a big fan of Now your comment reads like an attempt to shill, which would explain the misinformation about Monero. According to HN's rules, I have to assume you have better intentions than that. Please explain what you meant, since I must have misunderstood you.
  - thomaszander 6y ago
    > It does in fact enable privacy by default. Ok, my statement was maybe too black/white and you jumped on top of that. The point is that Monero has Privacy level / mixin settings, the default is not completely open, but certainly doesn't qualify as super private either. > Now your comment reads like an attempt to shill I shared a link to a product that I feel is very successful in reaching privacy. I have no ties to this product (though I have used it).

twodayslate 6y ago

Any plans to get added to 3commas?

tigereyeTO 6y ago
We've got connections for sure https://www.cameo.com/v/LP_Hemal_W https://www.cameo.com/v/LP_Hemal_W

LyndsySimon 6y ago

Done; I’m very interested.