CCXT Alternative - The Pro Cryptocurrency Trading API
CCXT is one of the most used open source projects in the cryptocurrency market with over 400k downloads a month. In fact, the CCXT Github has been starred and watched more than the Litecoin Github, the EOS Github, and the Stellar Github.
As a consolation to these cryptocurrencies, most crypto projects have less activity than CCXT. It has become one of the largest libraries for developers who are trying to integrate cryptocurrency exchange trading into their projects.
With this volume of activity, you would be right in assuming this library solves a large problem.
A Global Problem
Cryptocurrency exchanges have a serious problem. They are completely independent organizations which have individually decided the standards, functionality, and features for their APIs. They don’t abide by traditional conventions or follow industry expectations. Every single exchange has implemented their own completely unique API with custom endpoints which interface with their services.
Developing services which interface with crypto exchanges is unpleasant to say the least. Specialized infrastructure is required for each exchange you support. Custom software with peculiar logic is often a requisite to completing a new integration.
Once an integration is complete, the problems don’t stop there. Every few days there will be a breaking change to at least one of the exchanges you support. Sometimes these changes are announced ahead of time and sometimes you find out because one of your requests for data will simply stop working at 7pm on a Friday night.
That’s not even half the problem.
There are rate limit considerations, data processing issues, and API key management concerns. Scaling a trading service to 100,000 active traders is much more complex than managing the portfolio of a single trader. The required infrastructure stack is complicated.
CCXT attempts to solve this problem by providing an open source library. This library can be used in your custom infrastructure to interface with each exchange.
But, CCXT isn’t Perfect
While CCXT attempts to accomplish a lot, there is very little it masters. The complex library they have developed has become a stumbling block for many developers. Integrating CCXT still means a significant portion of the work is placed on the application developers to figure out. CCXT is designed in a way which mandates developers still write custom code for each exchange.
But that’s not even the worst part.
CCXT is a software-only solution. Each developer must build and scale their own infrastructure which meets the specifications of each exchange when using CCXT. This is a huge burden for developers that continues to incur massive development costs for years to come. Hundreds of servers are required to manage requests from users, store data, monitor rate limits, route orders, handle exchange errors, securely store API keys, authenticate users, process live data, develop custom order execution flows, and analyze the market is real-time.
Developing with CCXT is a lot of work.
A Professional Alternative
Instead of providing a software-only library, Shrimpy is a full infrastructure solution for those developers who want a single access point to every major exchange. A single set of APIs which unify the way you execute orders, collect data, and securely manage users. That means there is no exchange specific code. Every exchange is integrated in the exact same way.
Shrimpy requires no special rate limits for individual exchanges, and you can scale indefinitely without ever redeploying code or redesigning your infrastructure. Instead of maintaining a farm of hundreds of servers which all need to intelligently communicate with each exchange, Shrimpy can handle the communication for you.
Unlike an open source library, Shrimpy automatically manages exchange outages, down-time, error cases, and updates which can disrupt trading. Our team is experts when it comes to managing exchanges. That means exchange issues are properly mitigated without affecting your users. This professional operation is unlike anything which can be provided by open source libraries like CCXT.
Data Storage
Shrimpy stores billions of precise market data points which can be accessed on demand. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for storing terabytes of exchange data, access it in real-time from the Shrimpy developer APIs. Shrimpy offers tick-by-tick historical trade data, candlestick (OHLCV) data, and historical order book snapshots. Not to mention the numerous live endpoints supported by Shrimpy to access the most up to date order book, market, and exchange data.
Everything in one API. It’s the fastest and most reliable way to develop and scale a professional data or trading service.
Smart Order Routing
Trading can be complicated. Our team knows this all too well. In order to reduce the burden on developers which use the Shrimpy developer APIs, we provide trading endpoints which can automatically execute using intelligent order execution algorithms. That way developers who don’t want to worry about the detailed order execution logic for their application can focus their energy on other important aspects of their service.
Historically, smart order routing algorithms have been reserved for institutions and high net worth individuals. Not anymore. Shrimpy provides smart order routing endpoints which can be accessed by any application or service without limitations.
Portfolio Management
Traditionally, developers have had to manage portfolios trade by trade. Every single trade required careful evaluation of the market and precision when placing it on the order book.
Individual order execution for portfolio management becomes a thing of the past with Shrimpy. Developers can now manage portfolios holistically. Instead of painstakingly calculating the order execution logic from the ground up, the Shrimpy APIs provide a set of portfolio management endpoints out of the box. Quickly allocate a portfolio, rebalance on a regular interval, and manage diverse portfolios across exchange.
Error Handling
Handling errors from exchanges is a nightmare. The number of undocumented errors, edge cases, and restrictions is astounding. You never know what you will get when integrating a new exchange.
Shrimpy automates and standardizes the handling of these errors so you can spend more time building and less time debugging.
Do you like getting error messages like this from exchanges?
// Response fail
{
"error":{
"code":"2027",
"msg":"账户余额不足"
}
}Most likely, you don’t. Handling errors in other languages and different conventions is like trying to piece together a 1,000 piece puzzle with 250 pieces. That’s why error handling is built into the Shrimpy developer APIs.
A global solution for every exchange so you get predictable results for your order execution.
Robust Infrastructure
Everything we’ve discussed so far is only possible because Shrimpy is an complete infrastructure solution. Hosting the infrastructure opened the doors to a better life for developers in the crypto market.
CCXT doesn’t provide any infrastructure. Zero. Zilch. It is a 100% software-only solution.
Developers no longer need to accept the burden of developing this infrastructure from scratch. It takes months or even years to implement a robust solution which can scale as you grow. That’s not to mention the constant updates and maintenance required as exchanges change.
Stick with the one solution which works seamlessly across every major exchange.
The Shrimpy Universal Trading API
Conclusions
When building an application for cryptocurrency trading, it’s important to use professional APIs which are designed for scaling global trading services.
While software-only libraries can be convenient for personal projects, when the only client will be your personal computer, they are not ideal for user applications which will process requests from hundreds, thousands, or even millions of users. This can only be done through infrastructure solutions which provide access to servers that automatically route trades, aggregate and store data, monitor for exchange updates, and intelligently handle exchange error flows.
Shrimpy leads the market as the premier crypto portfolio management application. Users are able to configure a custom crypto portfolio and implement a passive portfolio strategy, removing the hassle of having to actively trade crypto.
Shrimpy’s Universal Crypto Trading API is a unified way to integrating trading functionality across every major exchange. Collect historical market data, access real-time websockets, execute advanced trading strategies, and manage an unlimited number of users.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates, and ask any questions to our amazing, active community on Telegram.
The Shrimpy Team