LocalCoinSwap API: Relaunched & Refactored

. 6 min read

The LocalCoinSwap API has always been something that we felt was not just an important feature to have, but one that should be powerful in its potential. As we worked on the transition to a multi-custodial exchange, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to not just adjust our API for compatibility with this new trading model but to entirely rework it. We are pleased to announce we are now providing what we think is the best API of any P2P exchange currently available.

After some dedication from our development team and excellent feedback from our traders on their needs and what they’d like to see available, we are now thrilled to both announce and unleash our API back into the hands of developers and traders across the world.

What is an API?

API is an acronym that stands for Application Programming Interface. An API provides a practical way for applications to interact with each other whether they are simple scripts written to make your user experience easier in some form all the way up to incredibly advanced platforms that can either build around the API or implement some of the features provided by it to leverage the source of the API in some way to integrate the tools provided by the platform.

Why is Having an API Important for LocalCoinSwap?

For those in our community that aren’t involved in any form of development or simply haven’t yet used software that leverages an API in the past, you may find yourself wondering why having an API is important. There is enormous potential for the fully-featured API we have built.

There is a range of use cases we anticipate the API being used for that we will elaborate on below. We are looking forward to helping foster continued innovation and development towards modernizing peer-to-peer trading and better serving our traders at LocalCoinSwap.

Automation for Liquidity Providers:

Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading is something that can involve a lot of work when you turn it into a more substantial business for yourself, something which many in the P2P trading community have done with impressive results. However, for many larger traders, they rely on custom tooling to help make their trading more efficient for themselves but to provide a swift and reliable experience for their customers as well. Trade automation is something that relies heavily on the foundation of a sound API and is something we are glad our traders can now embrace. Our API now helps us to continue welcoming traders both large and small from other platforms, while helping to provide them with not just the same flexibility they were used to, but more where required.

Third-Party Integrations:

One of the other things that an in-house API provides is the ability for developers of different platforms to integrate with the services and features offered by LocalCoinSwap. This connectivity allows projects like cryptocurrency wallets, arbitrage tools, or virtually any platform to leverage the potential of P2P trading for their users and to grow alongside LocalCoinSwap. What can be achieved in this regard, and the potential for integration is largely only restricted by the creativity of developers.

Data & Market Aggregators:

Something that can incredibly useful is to be able to find the right trades and the correct data when you need it. There are many fantastic tools available that work to provide this information to the cryptocurrency community and is something that we expect only to increase with time. Using our API trade offers can be searched, and this data used to add listings to market aggregation services or to provide other forms of data that benefit both traders and the broader market.

Additional Features:

While our API offers a lot of potential for external development, our development team can also take advantage of this service internally to build additional features as we grow and adapt to the needs of our community. At LocalCoinSwap, we understand the needs of traders change, as does the cryptocurrency landscape as a whole, and our API can further increase our ability to adapt to these changes rapidly. The framework provided by the LocalCoinSwap API allows us to explore features that further branch out our platform or enhance the services we provide.

Non-Custodial Bitcoin Trading

With the launch of this API comes the ability to trade bitcoin with both non-custodial and custodial trading. The development required to build out this functionality was a significant undertaking and is something that we are excited to be able to provide at LocalCoinSwap.

Non-custodial bitcoin trading will be activated soon on platform, and as of now it's completely functional when using the API and accessing the backend directly.

The World's First Multi-Custodial API

LocalCoinSwap strives to provide our traders with the tools they need, and part of that is providing options. One of the opportunities we are expanding into is our ability to provide multi-custodial trading both on the platform and through our API. We are very proud to be providing the first multi-custodial API. Using our API, you can trade bitcoin (BTC) and Dash using custodial trading, while also allowing for non-custodial trading of bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), ERC-20 tokens, and Kusama (KSM).

There is no one size fits all solution for traders, and it’s especially important to us that traders can trade bitcoin (the most significantly traded asset in the P2P market) in multiple ways as to allow both large and small trades to occur seamlessly, something that currently is being struggled with by some of our competitors. Whatever your priorities are when trading, we are excited to provide you with the tools you need to embrace them without unnecessary friction.

The First Peer-to-Peer Kusama Integration

As a team that likes to move fast and adapt, we are excited to be building on Kusama and providing core functionality in our API for the non-custodial trading of KSM. The innovative Kusama project is something we are inspired to be involved with and proud to be helping expose to the world of P2P trading. The addition of Kusama trading to our API is just one part of a range of projects we are working on to assist with building out the open-source functionality of the Kusama protocols and libraries.

For more information about our work on building out our Kusama implementations, you can read more in our recent announcement.

Complete Range of Documentation

One of the things we paid significant attention to was ensuring that our documentation for our new API was both thorough and accurate. We have provided examples for how to call the various endpoints of our API in Python and Javascript to allow for rapid development as well as included examples for cURL to allow for efficient shell scripting using Bash. In just a few lines, a developer can quickly send a request to one of our endpoints and receive the requested response.

For example, if you are working on a site that tracks the cryptocurrency listings of various exchanges; you could automate checking available cryptocurrency listings on LocalCoinSwap by sending a GET request to /currencies/active-cryptos and by reviewing our documentation you could quickly see how this could be done using:

Python:

cryptocurrency trading API python

JavaScript:

cryptocurrency API JavaScript

Bash:

cryptocurrency API bash shell scripting

Evolving Our Documentation to Fit Any Requirements

We are also growing out a further selection of more elaborate examples upon request on GitHub in our LocalCoinSwap API Examples repository. Whatever you happen to be building, if you are unsure how to proceed with a specific task, don’t hesitate to open a GitHub issue over there. Our team are enthusiastic about seeing developers take advantage of the API we are offering and will do their best to provide suitable code snippets that developers require to work with it.

We look forward to growing out this repository and exploring the various use cases developers begin to build around the API.

Generating Your LocalCoinSwap API Token

To generate your LocalCoinSwap API token is quite simple. First, ensure you are logged into the platform and then navigate to “Settings” that can be found in the main drop-down menu. Once there click the API tab and you can from there generate your token by pressing the button supplied.

Please note that generating your token again will invalidate previous tokens, also please take appropriate care with your token just as you would a private key to a cryptocurrency wallet.

generate API token for LocalCoinSwap API

The Future is Bright for LocalCoinSwap

The development of our new API was a significant undertaking, not in just providing the API itself but refactoring the entire backend to be published as a standalone API. This upgrade was no simple task, and yet it was something our development team has shined throughout, even alongside the other efforts they are currently undertaking not just to maintain the platform but continue to build as they always have.

Now that we have hit the ground running yet again with the launch of our new API, LocalCoinSwap is looking forward with much more to come, the future is bright for LocalCoinSwap. Thanks for being with us on this journey and being a part of our great community,

- The LocalCoinSwap Team