Disclaimer: I am not an official spokesperson for COSS. I work for them on a part time, contract basis. I have never been to their headquarters in Singapore (though I’d love to go one day!) and I have never met the team in person. I am speaking purely from my own experience and my intention is not to “pump” its token or hype the site. I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t see into the future of the market, nor am I offering financial advice or making any suggestions as to where to invest your money. As always, do your own research, don’t invest money that you can’t afford to lose, and keep a healthy skepticism of random strangers on the internet. If you would like an official statement from the COSS.IO team, please contact [email protected].
The one and only time that I ever truly hit the crypto jackpot was with Kucoin’s native token KCS. I knew that Kucoin was about to list the super hyped cryptocurrency XRB (formerly Raiblocks, now NANO), freeing all of us from Bitgrail in all of its shadiness. I woke up in the middle of the night to max out my daily limit on Coinbase and bought their dividend token at $1 on a hunch (which could have gone horribly wrong—I do not endorse such a move). Within a week, it hit its all time high of $20. I only cashed out a small amount before it quickly declined significantly, but I still made a fair amount of money off of it. Kucoin had abruptly terminated its referral bonus program without warning, and the token took a hit. I never regained my trust in the exchange, though I still use it occasionally. I just don’t keep my coins on there. (Of course, I don’t really trust any exchange, except for COSS, and only because I’m close enough to it that I can see how they operate.)
I had heard about a KCS equivalent called COSS; another token native to another small exchange which split fees with its users, and it was still at a mere 30 cents. It was deja vu. After some due diligence, I put some of my KCS profits into COSS, and I held. At the crypto market’s all time high, it was around $3; hardly anywhere near the $20 miracle that had been my experience with KCS. But I believed in their mission of facilitating the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency through Fiat pairings, merchant portals, and user friendly products more than I had ever believed in another project, so when the price declined with the rest of the market, it did not shake my faith at all.
It was around that time that I decided that I wanted to move into crypto as more than a hobby, but as a career. I did some research into COSS and realized that their teams were based in Singapore, Romania, and Amsterdam, but they didn’t have any employees in the US despite it being the majority of their user base. I took a chance and cold called them (well, cold Telegrammed) and made a pitch for myself as an operations specialist. At first they were reluctant, but I found ways to add value to the project by contributing a few hours a week.
Through talking directly with members of their team and seeing how they operate, I’ve come to know them as an extraordinarily hard working, small group who have every intention of going through with their mission. I have no idea when Rune finds the time to sleep. I see people on Reddit complaining that they’re taking too long relative to the pace of other exchanges, but I see how deliberate and cautious they are being with respect to ensuring their own longevity by doing things the right way—they’re careful not to launch products before they’re ready, they work closely with regulators, and they don’t jump in head first before they know that their technical infrastructure can handle it. When a glitch in the exchange caused limit orders to execute at market price for a few hours, they rolled back any trades from before the glitch and compensated users with two weeks of a 100% fee share, remedying what was probably a pretty small loss for users at an extraordinarily high cost to themselves—two weeks of the company’s gross revenue. I can only imagine how that went over with their CFO. It was an incredibly bold move, but it was the right one.
This past month has been incredibly exciting for the COSS team. They just launched the Fiat gateway and the new KYC system to go with it, and the new UI is coming out (and it looks great!). In a way it's been fortunate for them that the market has been down in these past few months, as it's given COSS the time and space to work with regulators and make sure everything is in place to handle what will likely be a big influx of new users. I hope that in the future I can get more deeply involved as the scope of their project grows, and I’m confident that it will, as long as the crypto market is around.
I like COSS but I think that new KYC is very bad and that it will damage a project. You have to do KYC for Crypto to Crypto trades. Not many people will want to do that...
Thanks for the comment! I can’t speak authoritatively about any of this (again, not a spokesperson) but I do know that COSS spent a very long time tailoring their new KYC policies to be in compliance with very strict securities laws globally so that they wouldn’t run into problems once Fiat was up. Keep in mind that COSS is largely a platform for running ICOs, which have VERY high KYC standards or else face the wrath of the SEC. There is going to be a lot of legal change in the upcoming year or two globally and COSS has every intention of surviving it. Many of the exchanges that are currently up aren’t in compliance with the law in some of the territories they’re running in and you can’t be holding that much money and playing fast and loose with your taxes and securities policies without anyone noticing. Anyway, all of the exchanges have hoops you have to jump through with KYC and approval times. But they’re still just launching these features and I’m sure policies will change over time to respond to the market.
I thought you were a history major? A business minor then perhaps?
Goobledy gook to me but I hope this job means you'll get rich soon.
No business minors for me, just a healthy interest in just about everything. I don’t care much about being rich but those student loans would be nice to take care of.
Read it this morning and am glad you just got yourself a job! What do they add in comparison to other exchanges? I'm a bit lost in the world of exchanges :D Congrats and enjoy your crypto career! I'm learning slowly but surely myself too :-)
Thanks! I don’t think I’m at career status yet but fingers crossed! COSS is definitely pushing the boundaries of what exchanges are capable of. A big part of the appeal is that they run ICOs on the platform, which is way more secure and trustworthy than sending some ETH over to a random wallet based on a white paper. I won’t contribute to random ICOs otherwise because of the lack of security and the dubious legality, but COSS does the vetting for you. Of course that’s not a substitute for doing your own due diligence and the COSS ToC is pretty clear about that.
They’re also aiming to build a merchant portal, which could be a game changer not just for them but for crypto in general. Their whole thing is making crypto more user friendly for a non technical audience. It’s hugely ambitious but I really believe in them.
Sometimes I think Rune and the team have never used other exchanges as they want to do things their own way. But stealing ideas from successful exchanges is easier than reinventing the wheel. I think that the current KYC needs a tweak. There shoul dbe 3 levels of KYC in my opinion. Level 1 simple - name address sms 2FA for crypto to crypto with 5k daily limit for witdrawl. level 2 enhanced kyc passport and utility bill with 25k withdrawl . Level 3 full KYC (all on COSS not on third party site) FIAT trading and unlimited withdrawl.
Thanks for stopping by!
The ultimate idea with COSS is that it is going to be a “one stop shop” and not just an exchange, and it’s never tried to be the next Coinbase or Binance. It doesn’t really need to be the best exchange if it accomplishes its goals as a merchant portal, ICO platform, user friendly wallet, and fiat gateway anyway. Personally I use about 5 different exchanges for different purposes because there isn’t a single exchange that really has it all in terms of coin selection and usability.
I agree the current KYC process is cumbersome but (again not speaking as a spokesperson) I suspect that had to do with appeasing regulators and showing that they’re operating on good faith. They’re still dealing with the final boss—regulators in the US—which is the bane of every crypto exchange’s existence right now. I think your idea about 3 level KYC is good. I know that was the original plan on COSS but I’m not sure whether that has been scrapped entirely for the new system. I hope that as things have settled in and they’ve fully figured out their FACTA compliance in the US they’ll be able to tweak the process.
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STOPThat's my approach to cryptocurrency as well - treating it not merely as an investment/commodity but as a career path. Nothing better than being able to have the confidence to invest your time and effort in a company because you know about how they operate!
@steem881 you're on the @abusereports naughty list!
If you do not stop, your account will be rendered invisible on Steemit. Bad Steemian! Bad!