The Founder and CEO of ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, has announced that the exchange is launching a membership program and soon, anonymous trading will not be available. For years, ShapeShift has been an easy way for cryptocurrency users to convert cryptocurrency into other types of cryptocurrency.
Not having to register and create account was Shapeshift's key feature. Without that, they'll lose most of the appeal and will become not much different from any other crypto exchange out there.
If they made such decision just to be on the 'safe side' of unclear regulations, they should make sure it's absolutely necessary.
Edit: source:
https://news.bitcoin.com/shapeshift-membership-user-information/Voorhees described five levels of membership. Level 1 is available now, and is free and open to everyone, he confirmed. The transaction limit for this level is $10,000 with a $50,000 monthly cap on volume.
Levels 2-5 will be available later, and enable benefits on higher amounts of volume, Voorhees added. These levels are optional and require FOX tokens, standard Ethereum-based tokens which will have a number of features and functions when they become available, Shapeshifts website clarifies.
Oh, they're creating tokens now...
I liked Shapeshift just because it required no registration. Sad to hear that they go to change it.
It makes Shapeshift the same as all other centralized exchanges. Too bad ~