Why do we need data aggregators?
The internet is filled with vast amounts of information. And while this ubiquitous technology has become commonplace for almost everything done in today’s world, is it really being optimized? Most people surf the web in search of their favorite clothing, buying plane tickets for their next vacation, or even to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies. But it’s exactly the wealth of knowledge on the web that makes it necessary for added tools to make it more efficient and easy to use.
The problem
The internet has created massive opportunities for all. In the past, consumers and businesses were forced into local-only choices based on the goods and services they could obtain in their geographic area. If you wanted to buy furniture, you had to choose from the stores in your area, you couldn’t just shop online.
While this has created better access to goods and services for consumers, it has created another problem in its wake. With millions of websites to search, how does someone know they are getting the best price or quality in what they are looking for? The internet is just too vast for its users to be confident that they are optimizing its use.
Aggregators to the rescue
By compiling information into one place, aggregators provide an improved way to utilize the web and its resources. An aggregator is a web-based application that compiles and filters data from various sources in one place. In other words, an aggregator searches across the entire internet and provides the end-user with the requested data in one location. This way, the user doesn’t have to scour the internet themselves for this information. Aggregators exist in almost any industry you can imagine, making them a go-to technical solution across industries.
Aggregators work like this:
1. Data is retrieved from sources across the web
2. All retrieved data is processed and filtered to include only data applicable to the application
3. The filtered data is presented to the user in a summary or other easy to use view
4. The user can select a piece of data and trace it back to its source if desired
An example:
Imagine you are looking to take a vacation and want to find the cheapest flights to Rome, Italy. Because you are on a budget, you don’t care so much about which airline you use, and instead, you are just looking for the best deal. You hop on your computer and start to search across all of the airlines you know: Ryanair, United Airlines, Lufthansa, and others. But as you search across multiple sites you find this process is tedious and time-consuming. Then you remember that a friend told you about Kayak.com, a data aggregator for the travel industry.
So, you navigate to Kayak, enter in your desired trip information and the aggregator compiles all of the possible flights for you in one place. You notice that on Kayak the best flight for your trip is through Swiss Air, so you select the flight and are redirected to the Swiss Air page to complete your booking.
Aggregators in the crypto space
Just like in the travel industry, the crypto industry has gotten so big that it now has the need for its own aggregators to assist traders. Back in the early days, there were only one or a few places where crypto trades could be placed (hello Mt. Gox!), and there was no need to aggregate data from only one or two exchanges.
Today, the crypto landscape has grown exponentially, and there are now a wide variety of both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges to choose from. Competition is always good for any market, and the same is true for crypto exchanges. The influx of new exchanges meant traders could navigate from one exchange to another with ease. But doing so meant that traders were now forced to navigate between multiple windows and accounts, which is no easy task.
This is where aggregators came to the rescue. Instead of searching these exchanges individually, aggregators compiled all exchange data and allowed traders to view, and even complete trades from multiple exchanges from one platform. Now, crypto traders were able to optimize their trading based on exchange rates and trading fees across numerous exchanges.
Options trading: The next crypto aggregator evolution
While aggregators have proven to be invaluable to crypto spot traders, up until now, options traders have been severely limited in the tools afforded to them. A crypto options trader is required to manually scour the various options trading platforms in search of the best price and lowest cost for their trading strategy. This is an unsustainable and inefficient way of trading.
Fortunately, 3Commas has the solution. Our Options Trading Aggregator compiles options trading information across both centralized and decentralized exchanges to provide users with the most accurate options trading information.
Centralized: Binance, Derebit, OKEx
Decentralized: Aucuts, Siren, Hedgic, Opyn
Imagine you want to place an options trade on BTC. You could either go to your individual options trading account and hope you are receiving the best price and fees for your trade, or, you can utilize 3Commas to aggregate all available options trades across exchanges to get accurate information as to where your trade is best executed.
Just like Kayak provides travelers with peace of mind that they are getting the best rates, the 3Commas Options Trading Aggregator gives options traders the ability to maximize profits by providing a best-in-class data aggregation service.
Currently, the 3Commas Options Trading Aggregator is in a closed beta phase. But tune in for updates and future release dates to stay informed of our progress.
