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16 Comments

Please help me validate this business idea

I would like to offer an API for currency conversion.

People would send a number, USD and the desired Currency. Cryptocurrency as well!

10, USD, EUR => 8.44
10, USD, BTC => 0.000841

Maybe i could add things like "What are $10 from USA worth in Indonesia?"

10, USD, USA, IDN => 3.96

People could use it to offer more accurate prices.

Thanks a lot!

Valid business idea?
  1. Yes, could work!
  2. No, scrap it!
Vote
  1. 4

    I once looked into this. There where 2 reasons why I decided not to build such an API:

    1. There are already tons of APIs out there that do exactly this.
    2. The top google result for "currency conversion API" is a 100% free API that works great. This one: https://exchangeratesapi.io

    So I fear that there is little value you can add in this space.

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

      1. 1

        I also wondered whats their business model..

      2. 1

        In this case, if you cache the query responses, you probably can handle thousands of requests per second on a basic server. The exchange rates usually change only once per day.

        1. 1

          This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

          1. 1

            They do change a lot like stocks, only that banks usually just have a single exchange rate for a given day, which makes transactions in foreign currencies a lot easier to understand and more predictable.

  2. 2

    I appreciate your energy. Though I voted no and want to provide a reason. The cryptocurrency market is already quite big and there are already a couple of currency swapping businesses out there. What IMO is the best way forward is to establish open standards. There is the Pay ID movement and Interledger Protocol. There are working groups of the W3C. You got Ripple trying to bootstrap deep enough liquidity pools in order to make inter-currency exchange work. These guys struggle and have a war chest of 16 billion dollar under their belt. Don't mean to be Debby Downer pal. Just my view on the world.

    It is also that the accurate prices are already there and based on your post it is not apparent to me how your solution would be appreciated. You usually need something 10 times better.

    1. 1

      Its not a real swapping, only what are my 10 bucks worth in euros.

  3. 1

    Lots of yes/no answers here. I'm gonna take another angle.

    Who is this api for. Specifically. Not just developers, but what industry or vertical? Who has specific BUSINESS needs from currency conversion that a generic API doesn't serve? Is that an audience you belong to? Can you reliably reach them online?

    1. 1

      Good point! If I find this specific audience I could build an api tailored to their needs.

    2. 1

      This is my reason to vote Yes too.

  4. 1

    I think it must exist. Smh!

  5. 1

    I'd say definitely talk to people who already pay money for these services, or people who would and either can't find this service or who's needs are not fully met by what they use.

    As a general consumer, I've used a few different online currency converters. I expect there are some businesses that need to lookup prices thousands of times per day via an API. A quick Google search for a CC API revealed https://openexchangerates.org/, who (say they) serve Shopify, Coinbase, Etsy and others.

    Looking at their marketing copy suggests that reliability, consistency, speed and flexibility are key purchasing drivers.

    I'd say the market is probably pretty large here based on this initial look. So it's a valid idea. "Blue ocean" or "red ocean" - seems more like the latter potentially.

    Perhaps they don't serve a niche well enough, like Crypto or smaller companies? Perhaps you could find a way to simply differentiate on speed or reliability?

    Good luck, keep going until you reach full validation!

    1. 2

      One question @Cattpot.. do you want to build this product, or is it the idea of building an API that appeals to you?

      1. 1

        Thanks for your reply!
        Maybe I should find an answer for this before I proceed..

  6. 1

    I can't imagine normal currency API to be lacking...
    Bitcoin might be a niche difference
    I know there is at least one player doing Bitcoin arbitration based on currency..
    I'm not much into these alt currencies yet, so I probably don't know enough on this.

    1. 2

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

      1. 1

        I wont do a real currency swapping, just the informations..
        Simplified -> How many euros are $10?

  7. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Yeah, I would learn a lot.

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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