You may have heard of PubNub for its WebRTC functionality, open-source template or Real-Time Network, which powers thousands of apps and streams more than three million messages a second to more than 100 million devices a month. However, the company understands the demand for the power of the real-time network goes beyond just app development and WebRTC growth. Today, the company announced that it is releasing a Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit to enable Bitcoin exchanges to add real-time trading, pricing and collaborative features on their sites.
I caught up with Todd Greene, CEO and co-founder of PubNub, to discuss the Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit and what goes into providing the network and functionality necessary for Bitcoin exchanges.
Some background on Bitcoin: It’s a virtual currency that has grown from people paying $3 a coin to about $950 a coin. Today it’s mostly used as an investment, the same way people used to put money into gold if they were nervous about the economy. Just like how stocks have exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, Charles Schwab and E-Trade, there are Bitcoin exchanges. But unlike NYSE, Charles Schwab and E-Trade, Bitcoin exchange networks have all been built over the last few months, yet have to provide the same level of reliability delivered by million-dollar exchanges.
Bitcoin exchanges need to collect and distribute data instantaneously, streaming out price changes and managing the fluctuation and traffic spikes that come with a financial exchange. So, PubNub took a combination of its building blocks and visual components to deliver a scalable, bullet-proof Bitcoin exchange that can handle this type of traffic demand.
“Our WebRTC solution kit makes it easy for developers to enable collaboration for business problems. We’re doing the same thing with Bitcoin, connecting the dots for Bitcoin exchanges,” Greene said.
Some Bitcoin trading exchanges today include BTC-e, Bitstamp, Tradehill, Mt. Gox and Buttercoin. Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, recently selected PubNub to stream real-time data and manage the different volumes of data necessary to broadcast in real-time while maintaining a reliable service.
The Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit provides these core components:
- Real-time public pricing data stream
- Transaction and pricing history
- Secure streaming channels to users
- User detection and collaboration
- User analytics
- Reliable, persistent network connections
PubNub now processes more than half of the world’s real-time traffic. It goes after any industry where it sees a need for real-time functionality, such as advertising, telecommunications and financial services. Its goal is to power all financial trading exchanges – not just Bitcoin -- and become known for providing the reliable, secure and powerful network these exchanges need.
Working to power financial services means there is a big emphasis on security and reliability. PubNub has pending patents around replicating and storing data to 13 different data centers. It immediately replicates data quickly to every data and to multiple servers, delivering a mass amount of reliability and redundancy. It also has built-in AES encryption and offers an access control layer to determine who gets what access to ensure security.
Bitcoin exchanges also offer live customer support functionality via chat, and while the Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit does not automatically integrate PubNub’s WebRTC functionality, it is very easy to do so.
To learn more, visit www.pubnub.com
