Can someone please explain how the coin recycler actually works? Basically are the devs making their own market? How competitive are the exchange rates offered?
No - AFAIK they are using existing exchanges to sell 'other' coins to BTC/LTC then purchasing MAST on the open market as well... All in all rather clever way of driving demand of MAST up - which is what we all want.
Haven't seen any indications of volumes (which would be rather interesting) but if we start producing large volumes (buy/sell side) then we could probably ask exchanges for some sort of discount (transactional would be difficult I assume - given percentage basis for most conversions) - as we are in essence becoming a coin aggregator. Assuming people don't mind being pooled together into larger tranches which would impact turn around time (effectively a coinjoin) anyway whatever approach being used we would be driving ever larger revenue into whichever exchange we currently use...... this is something exchanges could bid on - we just need to make it widely known as a way to convert coins (quickly + effectively)
Spread the word!