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I'm new to the concept of crypto currencies but I understand the basics , I'm developing a website that will enable users to exchange their crypto currencies , it works like this

  1. User x sends Bitcoins (or any other type) to website Bitcoin address
  2. User y sends litecoins (or any other type) to website Litecoin address
  3. Website sends Bitcoins to user y Bitcoin receiving address , and sends litecoins to user x receiving address

I know how to send Bitcoins , using an API like inputs.io or blockchain.info , but I'm wondering about all the other types (Anoncoin for example) , how can I send coins to receiving addresses ? can I use inputs.io or blockchain.info for coin types other than Bitcoin ? or does each one has its own API ?

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  • the website works as an escrow service in case my explanation was not clear enough , both parties send their currencies to the website , then the website sends each user the currency of the other one
    – Sherif
    Commented Jan 8, 2014 at 1:14

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Technically speaking, many other cryptocoins are based off of the source code of Bitcoin. However, a quick look at the Anoncoin website (https://anoncoin.net//) suggests that it's been heavily modified from that of Bitcoin (using the darknet, i2p, and all that). Therefore, an API that works with Bitcoin, such as those at inputs.io or blockchain.info is really unlikely to work with Anoncoin in particular. On a more specific note, Anoncoin is a Scrypt-based cryptocurrency, while Bitcoin is SHA-256 based. Therefore, they're even less likely to be able to use the same API. Even if you did try to perform operations on Anoncoin (or any other lesser known cryptocurrency) with the API of a Scrypt-based coin, you're pretty much doomed to fail, and if the API doesn't catch that and the coin does make it into the system, then things could get very strange on the server side regarding how the server should process your request.

In conclusion, most cryptocurrencies, if not all (there are so many that I cannot make a giant umbrella statement here) are handled by their own API depending on the website (for example, inputs.io and blockchain.info use two completely different APIs). It also means that lesser known coins will have difficulty gaining support and usability.

Of course, given that Anoncoin doesn't seem to have a notable exchange to support it yet, perhaps you could make your own API, website, or exchange to handle transactions with it to say other cryptocurrencies. Otherwise, it might just be smartest to sit back, wait, and hope for someone else to do it.

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  • thanks for the great clarification , if i have a dedicated server that hosted the deamons for all the currencies (every currency has a xxxcoind that is forked from bitcoind) and suppose that i could communicate with them from a scripting language like php , would i be able to make them (the deamons) make the transactions ? to wallets hosted on the server of course .. is this a good solution ?
    – Sherif
    Commented Jan 8, 2014 at 20:04
  • I don't have a very strong background in server administration, but based on my knowledge, that sounds like an acceptable approach. Speaking from a security standpoint, it might not be a good idea to place all your eggs in one basket (i.e. perhaps you should get more than one server for the job). Also, it's safest to place only one daemon (at most) in a user account (create more accounts as necessary), and the account should be used only for that daemon to avoid cross-attack in the case of a breach.
    – Caleb Xu
    Commented Jan 8, 2014 at 23:28
  • worth noting only coins I've seen that use non standard apis are nxt, and counterpartyd
    – hafnero
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 9:19
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I would like to share how I ended up with this situation , After digging deep through most of the crypto currencies, I found that most of them use the same API, at least for the basic functions like sending and receiving coins and checking balance ...etc , so I ended up running all the coins on a dedicated server (I had to compile some of them and configure some others to run properly , which took a LOT of time), each coin had its own port, and whenever i wanted to communicate with any of the coins I used this library https://github.com/aceat64/EasyBitcoin-PHP, it was built to work with Bitcoin, but it worked with all the other coins, the only thing I had to change was the port number for each coin, At last i had my own crypto coin payment gateway on my own server :)

If any one is interested in the code and the server setup just let me know .

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  • Amazing job! would you be kind to share the codes and the server setup :)
    – Salam Amrani
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 23:26
  • Thanks ! sure, I will have to search for it as it was a couple of years ago but I know where it is, I will get back to you within a couple of days
    – Sherif
    Commented Oct 1, 2017 at 19:56
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Great work! I am just getting into the world of cryptocurrency and had come across the same thoughts. Would you be able to share the code to how you managed the send/receive between 2 wallets of different coins? Thanks :)

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