Table of Contents

#1. 1. Remitano Business Model
#2. 2. Site and application features
#3. 3. Website and application monetization
#4. 4. Marketing strategy
#5. 5. Development Approaches

Remitano is a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles. The service allows you to conduct peer-to-peer cryptocurrency purchase and sale transactions with escrow using various payment methods: cryptocurrency, deposit and credit cards, bank transfers and mobile money.

In this article, you will learn how to create a cryptocurrency exchange like Remitano using a software cloning script. This is a development method in which you copy the functionality and largely the design of the original product in order to reduce the cost and speed up development.

Remitano cloning script includes five steps.

1. Remitano Business Model

The platform works as a service intermediary where sellers and buyers of cryptocurrencies can meet and conduct an exchange transaction using the escrow service. Such a deal follows the following algorithm:

1. The buyer and seller agree on the amount and rate of the transaction.
2. The seller transfers the cryptocurrency to the Remitano wallet, where the coins are “frozen” until the funds are transferred to the seller’s account.
3. The buyer transfers the money to the seller’s account. When the money is received, the cryptocurrency seller confirms this on the Remitano website.
4. “Frozen” coins are transferred to the buyer's account.

Escrow rate depends on the payment method. For example, if this is a purchase of bitcoins for Ethereum, then the transaction will take less than an hour, a regular bank transfer - up to 3 days, an international bank transfer - up to 5 banking days.

In case of problems, the support service will resolve the issue on the basis of evidence provided by both parties. The evidence in such disputes is the logs and text messages in the Remitano chat, as well as the transaction history of cryptocurrency accounts (they are usually open, as in Bitcoin). Such data cannot be falsified or interpreted in two ways, so deciding who is right is quite simple.

For intermediary services and the use of escrow tools, the Remitano web service charges a fee of 1% of the transaction amount. The fee is added to the transaction amount when creating an order. It takes into account both the Remitano margin and the payment to the miners for confirming the transaction on the blockchain. Pays the one who answers the order.

The service provides services through a website and a mobile application (Android and iOS), focusing on emerging markets in Africa and Asia, as well as North America. Regular users of Remitano can buy and sell cryptocurrency for any amount, beginners must go through the verification procedure and wait a while (limits will increase every day after verification of identity to remove restrictions)).

2. Site and application features

Trading engine. A set of software and solutions that will enable users to place ads, view listings, search for necessary offers, communicate with each other in real time and conduct exchange and sale transactions. To implement these things, you need to implement the following functions:

1. Book of orders. A list of all orders for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies placed on the exchange at the current time. It contains information about the transaction (price, rate, payment method) and the compiler of the order (nickname, rating, statistics).
2. Matching system. The mechanism for selecting relevant orders by rating, payment method, geolocation, amount and exchange rate. You can implement an automatic match system that will match buy and sell orders by conducting an automatic exchange. This will improve liquidity, but creating such a function is longer, more expensive and more difficult.
3. Text chat. Real-time messaging is needed so that the parties can clarify the details of the transaction and conduct additional verification. You can implement chat both inside the platform and through integration with WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Viber or another messenger.
4. Payment gateways. Connecting to cryptocurrency blockchains for conducting coin exchange operations using atomic swaps and connecting to PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Authorize and other payment gateways for conducting fiat money transactions. The choice of payment gateways should be based on the geography and preferences of the target audience.
5. User geolocation. Helps with the selection of relevant counterparties in the match system: choosing an interface language, payment methods, verification and some security features.

User interface. The appearance and convenience of the interface of the site and the application largely determines whether people will like your service or not. Therefore, the design of the platform should be pleasant and easy to learn. To do this, you need to implement the functions:

1. Creating a user profile on Remitano is possible using an email address or through integration with an account on Google or Facebook. When creating your peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, you can also connect registration via a phone number or integration with local social networks, for example VK, WeChat.
2. Profile setup. The ability to add a photo, address, phone, location and other information that other users will see, as well as payment data that will be hidden from everyone except the administration of the service.
3. Posting a request. Tools for creating and placing an order for the purchase or sale of cryptocurrency with indicating currencies, amount, exchange rate, payment method and other data.
4. Combining all current orders into one list. At the same time, it should also be possible to search for orders by keywords, currencies, payment methods, location and other significant parameters.
5. Deposit / withdrawal of funds. An exchange for Remitano implies a conditional deposit of cryptocurrency, which cannot be done if the necessary amount is not transferred to the internal deposit of the service. This requires integration with blockchains and / or popular cryptocurrency wallets.
6. Technical support. Reference information, instructions, answers to the most popular questions and the possibility of feedback through the site, phone, email, social networks and instant messengers.
7. Statistics and transaction history.

Cryptocurrency wallet. After registering with Remitano, each user receives a cryptocurrency online wallet for bitcoins. Exactly on it coins are “frozen” in transactions with escrow funds, so its use is mandatory.

Such a wallet can be implemented in two ways:

1. When user funds are stored in separate crypto accounts, access to which have only their owners. In this case, funds with the escrow are transferred to the account of the administration and are held there until the payment is confirmed by the buyer.
2. When user funds are stored in a single pool (wallet) of the service, and their division into different deposits is conditional. So you can save on transaction fees, but there can be problems: most of the cryptocurrency thefts from the accounts of exchanges are carried out precisely from this type of wallet.

In addition, it is also possible to create a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange without internal crypto-wallets. So you can reduce the cost and simplify development, but lose the opportunity to charge transaction fees with guarantee.

Admin panel. Tools that service personnel will use to manage, track processes, business analytics, resolve disputes, and provide technical support to users. When creating the admin panel interface, bid must be done on usability, its appearance is secondary.

Admin Panel Functionality:

1. Displays important relevant data on the status of the service, site, application and user activity.
2. View profiles. Shows key information about users: identifier, login, phone, mail, wallet number and balance, transaction history, verification status and identification documents.
3. Buy-Sell Tab. Shows key information about transactions: identifier, amount, rate, parties, timestamps, etc.
4. A set of tools for tracking the status of user accounts, verification, transaction administration, solving some technical problems and disputes between users.
5. Presentation of relevant information on the activities of the service in a convenient form, for example, in the form of graphs, charts and tables. The set of information can be anything from monthly returns to the number of negative reviews in the last 12 hours.
6. Processing user requests for support.
7. Moderation of the forum (if any).

Additional functions. In order to stand out among competitors and create a unique user experience, in addition to the basic ones, you also need to implement additional functions:

1. Two-factor authentication via Authy or Google Authenticator, protection against XSS and CSRF attacks, GDPR compliance, IP address tracking and Login Guard function (as on LocalBitcoins website).
2. Rating system. At Remitano, it is implemented in the form of reviews and ratings, which the parties put at the end of the transaction. User ratings can be viewed in the listing and in the profile of each user.
3. Integration with social networks. The service can pull up data about users (photos, address, location, etc.) from their accounts on social networks.
4. Telephone help desk and technical support.
5. Support for multiple languages.

3. Website and application monetization

Commissions and Fees. You can charge a fixed amount or percentage on each trade transaction made through your service and / or on deposit / withdrawal operations on a user's deposit. On the Remitano cryptocurrency exchange, the rates are as follows:

1. 1% of each trade transaction. Money is paid by the one who answered the order. The amount of commission is added to the amount of the transaction when the order is published, for example, if you created an order to buy bitcoins in the amount of $ 1000, then the order will contain the amount of $ 1010 (1000 + 1000 * 0.01).
2. 0002 BTC, 0.0001 BCH, 0.005 ETH and 5 USDT for withdrawing funds from the deposit.

LocalBitcoins (another cryptocurrency exchange) also has a fee of $ 200 per hour for technical assistance not related to the technical support of the service. For example, for researching external problems and setting up retail outlets.

Publication fee. Remitano doesn’t have it. However, if you want to create a cryptocurrency exchange with automatic matching and exchange of orders, then you need to enter it. This will be a very small amount (from 0.001 to 0.5% of the order amount), and its users will pay regardless of whether the exchange took place or not.

Premium features. Creating special conditions for those who are willing to pay for it. For example, posting more than 10 ads per month, the ability to show more information about yourself to increase trust, entering the list of "most reliable" after additional verification, etc.

Web mining. Using the computing resources of user equipment for cryptocurrency mining. The effectiveness of browser mining is very small, but with a lot of traffic, the profit can be comparable to the income from advertising. But users may not like this.

Advertising. You can introduce the possibility of paid promotion of individual ads: a special design, publication at the top of the natural listing, placement on the main page and more. You can also advertise third-party products and services.

4. Marketing strategy

Remitano was launched in 2016, and from the very beginning it was positioned as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange with a conditional deposit of funds. At the same time, the promotion rate was placed on the emerging markets of Africa. This marketing strategy allowed Remitano to stand out against LocalBitcoins and conquer markets where other P2P exchangers were not represented.

The markets were empty, because LocalBitcoins and other popular crypto exchangers supported only the most popular languages, while in developing countries, people, as a rule, practically do not speak foreign languages. This was used by Remitano, having made support first in Swahili, Bantu, Arabic and other languages popular in Africa, and then into Malay. English was also the default.

Promoted by Remitano with standard tools:

1. Advertising in search engines. Plain contextual advertising on Google.
2. SEO-content on the main and third-party specialized sites (reviews, recommendations, comments with and without links).
3. SMM marketing. Activity and promotion in social networks.
4. Referral program. The service pays 0.01 BTC for each attracted user if the volume of his transactions reaches 2.0 BTC.

5. Development Approaches

Development from scratch. The most expensive, longest and most difficult option for developing software for a cryptocurrency exchange. It is not very suitable for creating a “clone” of an existing site and application, unless you intend to implement any ideas that neither Remitano nor its competitors have.

Open source software. There are several free Remitano clone scripts on GitHub and other repositories, which are usually allowed to be modified and used in commercial projects. This option should be used if you have a small budget and you are sure that you have excellent programmers.

Programmers are needed, because if you use free software:

1. You have no guarantee of its reliability and safety. The code can have many critical errors and even security holes, using which hackers will steal money from your exchange or user wallets.
2. You will not have technical support and updates.

White Label products. Ready-made template solutions that are delivered as a service with a subscription or fee in the form of a commission from each transaction. There are not much White Label solutions for creating Remitano analogues, however, LocalBitcoins analogues can be used, since they are largely identical.