Asset Exchange

Signum Asset Exchange

The Signum asset exchange, distinct from the Signum marketplace, is a built-in decentralized peer-to-peer exchange that eliminates trust points, trading fees, and commissions.  No third party exercises custodial control, and no one in a position to abscond with entrusted funds, misappropriate them, or otherwise lose them due to poor business practices.

The Signum asset exchange builds upon the concept of colored coins, a class of methods for representing and managing real-world assets on top of a blockchain.  A particular coin can be colored with the designation of assets such as property, stocks, bonds, shares, or even intellectual property. The asset exchange is useful for exchanging digital assets and trading almost anything of value without relying on agencies or other organizations. In addition, the Signum blockchain is immutable, impossible to counterfeit, and transparent.  These strengths make it a trustworthy record of transactions.

Assets listed on the asset exchange are liquid by nature.  They can be easily purchased, resold, or traded.  Applying standard business analysis in evaluating the offerings can lead to capital growth for investors while providing the necessary capital for startups or growing businesses.  In addition to share price increases, asset creators can reward investors through dividends and distributions of net profits.

Using the asset exchange is inherently simple.  Below you will find the information necessary for using all of the asset exchange features.

Example:

I want to run a business. I issue an asset (let’s call it ABCD). I set the quantity to 1000. I announce that I will sell ABCD for 20 Signa each and pay 5 Signa of monthly interest within the next six months. I create an ask order — 1000 ABCD for 20,000 Signa.

You create a transaction that sends me 500 Signa for 25 ABCD. It’s up to you what you do with your 25 ABCD.  You could place an ask order and sell them for 27 Signa realizing a profit.  Regardless, each month I will check the blockchain to see who owns ABCD.  I will send each current owner 5 Signa for each ABCD that they hold.

Wallet Interface

The asset exchange is accessible within the Signum wallet.  The exchange is accessed using a standard web browser to connect to your localhost (wallet).  To connect, enter  127.0.0.1:8125  into the address bar.

By default, the asset exchange does not list any assets. Instead, you must locate and add the assets that you wish to follow by selecting asset exchange, adding asset, and entering the asset ID or the issuing account ID.  Your selections will be listed along with information such as a description, buy and sell orders, quantity, etc.  For illustration, see figure 1 at the end of the document. Several online resources (asset exchange explorers) are being developed to help rank assets in meaningful ways, such as volume, the number of trades, or another useful metric.  These resources include a variety of filters to help you locate assets of interest.  After locating an asset, you can bookmark it in your list.

By selecting an asset, the interface area will automatically display the corresponding information. This includes the number of tokens that have been created (“quantity”), how divisible the token is (“asset decimals”), a brief description of the asset, who created the asset (“account”), and the asset identifier (“asset ID”). This information is critical because there can be multiple assets that have the same name.

The cost of issuing an asset (1000 Signa) should discourage people from spamming the exchange with assets whose only purpose is confusion and abuse. However, it is reasonable to assume that perfectly legitimate users may create assets of the same name. Therefore a reasonable degree of vigilance before buying is always beneficial.

BUYING ASSETS:

• Select the asset from the list.
• Click on buy *asset name* with Signa.
• Quantity: define the number of assets that you are interested in buying.
• Price: set the amount you are willing to pay.  Warning: “price” refers to the cost of a unit of tokens. So, by entering 10, you are willing to pay 10 Signa per token.
• Fee: define the fee (the minimum fee is .00735 Signa).
• Select buy.
• Enter your passphrase and select buy asset.
• For illustration, see figure 1 at the end of the document.

TRANSFERRING ASSETS:

• Find the asset you wish to transfer under my assets.
• Click transfer.
• Type the recipient.  This is the account to which you wish to transfer the assets.  This field is mandatory.
• Select the quantity that you want to transfer.  This field is mandatory.  You can transfer all or part of your assets as there is no upper limit. The minimum amount that you can transfer depends on what has been defined as decimals. For 0 decimals, the minimum would be .0075 Signa.  For 1 decimal, it would be 0.1 tokens and so on.   (research tag).
• Set the fee you are willing to pay for the transaction.  This field is mandatory.  There is no upper limit. However, the minimum fee is .00735 Signa.
• Set the deadline.  This is how long (expressed in hours) you are willing to wait before the request gets automatically deleted.  This field is mandatory.
• Add a brief message if appropriate.  This field is optional.  It can contain any Unicode characters but should be URL-encoded.  The maximum length is 1000 characters.
• Enter your secret passphrase.  This field is mandatory.
• For illustration, see figure 2 at the end of the document.
• Note:  You can check the transfer history of your issued and purchased assets in this section.

CANCELLING ASSET ORDERS

• You can cancel an order at any time for the minimum fee.
• Cancellation is not instantaneous.  Your order may be accepted before your cancellation propagates through the network.
• Orders in the process of being canceled will appear in red in the ‘Open Orders’ menu.
• You can check the status of an open order or cancel an open order by selecting open orders.
• For illustration, see figure 4 at the end of the document.

ISSUING ASSETS:

Note: Incognito mode (or its equivalent) is not supported for adding assets to your watch list.  Your browser must be in normal mode for your list to retain the asset that you add to it.

• Select issue asset.  A form for entering the asset information will appear.  NOTE:  When you issue an asset, you will not be able to modify any of the fields, ever. Be certain that all of the information is correct.  When this process is complete, the issued asset will be publicly available on the Asset Exchange, where it can be traded for Signa.
• Enter an asset name that will allow your asset to be found by others.  This field is mandatory.  You cannot issue an unnamed asset; however, multiple assets can be issued with the same name. For this reason, it is important to pay close attention when buying or selling.  The length must be between 3 and 10 characters.  Only uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers are allowed.
• Enter a brief description to describe the asset being issued.  This field is mandatory.  It can contain any Unicode characters but should be URL-encoded.  The maximum length is 1,000 characters.
• Specify the quantity of tokens you intend to create.  This field is mandatory. It must be a whole number.
• Specify the number of decimals that will define the divisibility of the token. For example, by defining 2 decimals, the minimum amount of tokens you can sell or buy is 0.01.  This field is mandatory.  The decimal limits are 0 to 8 decimals. The latter corresponds to the minimum of 0.00000001 tokens.
• Define the fee related to issuing the asset.  The minimum required to issue an asset (to avoid spam assets) is 1,000 Signa.  This field is mandatory.
• Enter your own passphrase to identify the account to which the asset belongs. It will not be broadcast.  This field is mandatory.

Note:  There are several mechanisms for paying and rewarding your investor.  To do so, you will use one of three asset distribution modules:  dividends, automatic, asset distribution, or share swap.  Select payout dividends to choose one of the three modules.