Bitcoin Exchange 'Mt. Gox' disappears

Vox Populi Vox Dei

Vox Populi Vox Dei

High Tory
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
53,890
Reaction score
38,731
Location
Cape Town
BitCoin - the Scientology of Currencies! So glad I didn't get suckered into this nonsense.

MtGox, once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, has gone offline.

Sites tracking trading on the Bitcoin exchange are reporting no trading activity there.

Bitcoin prices were down as much as 14% to $465, a level not seen since mid-November.

Gox had halted withdrawals for more than two weeks amid what it claimed were software issues with its wallets. But The Bitcoin Foundation has emailed BI a statement about the situation, saying it appears Gox may be insolvent:

“We are shocked to learn about Mt. Gox’s alleged insolvency. While we are unable to comment on whether or not Mt. Gox's business operations employed operational best practices and reasonable accounting procedures, we can assure the public that the Bitcoin protocol is functioning properly.”

A document unearthed by Bitcoin enthusiast Ryan Selkis that's been widely circulated estimated at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation. The document asserts the coins have slowly been stolen over the course of several years. In an email to BI, Selkis said he confirmed the authenticity of the document with people close to MtGox. It's also been cited by the New York Times.
Click to expand...



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-mtgox-halts-all-trading-2014-2#ixzz2uLN3AYPS
 
What has BTC have to do with anything?

This is like trusting a local investor with any currency to give you astronomical returns over 5 years, which they manage to do over say 2 years (which is not natural ROI) and then disappears with the rest.
 
Garson007 said:
No, but the ponzi scheme is cracking.
Click to expand...

BTC is not a ponzi scheme per se, but the BTC market can be manipulated through a ponzi scheme.

BTC do have limitations and internally build regulations, however there are Alt-coins without limitations.
 
Garson007 said:
No, but the ponzi scheme is cracking.
Click to expand...

Agreed

My main concern when looking at this was how most of the people who were claiming to make so much money on bitcoins and were making such a killing were also helping people to get into mining of bitcoins by supplying the computers and knowledge on how to mine etc.

Why bother making money on a side scheme if you are making so much on actual mining of it?

I never trusted and still don't trust the scheme. I do not doubt that people are currently making money out of it but I can see this collapsing and leaving few people wealthy and a lot of other people short of cash
 
I don't know why anyone trusted them after their continuous, repeated ****ups which date back to shortly after they started trading (circa 2011).

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation
Click to expand...

They've moved "places" - they haven't been destroyed. They're still in circulation.

I'm also not buying that the coins were stolen:

Oj0 said:
Oh Mark Karpeles has them secure alright... This is absolute hogwash:

A widely-shared document purporting to be a MtGox "crisis strategy" said the firm might have lost more than 744 400 bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years.
Click to expand...

I don't know where that story originates, but it seems to be a third party. Regardless, MtGox did a full audit on their accounts recently to see how much Coinbase owed them. You telling me that you don't notice almost 750k coins missing during an audit? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
Someone made a point in the comments section of the article I posted that it was somewhat ironic that Bit Coiners are suspicious of the Reserve Banking system and yet some of those Bit Coiners entrusted their money with shady characters.
 
Chris said:
So glad I didn't get suckered into this nonsense.
Click to expand...

If you think this drop is bad, you really don't follow bitcoin much. There have been way bigger drops than this.

People said the same thing you did "So glad I didn't invest!!!1!" when it suddenly went from $30 to $1. (That's a drop to 1/30th of the price, if you've got a calculator)
The people who invested at that drop made up to 1200x their money invested, or 500x if they sold today. You might be that same person who says "Damn I should have invested" 1 or 2 years from now.

That's pretty much all I have to say about this.

A bitcoin exchange that started with "Magic: The Gathering" cards went down. big whoop :whistle:
 
Keeper said:
If you think this drop is bad, you really don't follow bitcoin much. There have been way bigger drops than this.

People said the same thing you did "So glad I didn't invest!!!1!" when it suddenly went from $30 to $1. (That's a drop to 1/30th of the price, if you've got a calculator)
The people who invested at that drop made up to 1200x their money invested, or 500x if they sold today. You might be that same person who says "Damn I should have invested" 1 or 2 years from now.

That's pretty much all I have to say about this.

A bitcoin exchange that started with "Magic: The Gathering" cards went down. big whoop :whistle:
Click to expand...

That $30-to-$1 drop was ALSO caused by MtGox a year or two back.
 
We wanted an unregulated currency - we got an unregulated currency.

Lost R20 000 in this hack :(
 
XennoX said:
Ouch. Though to be fair, I wouldn't touch something as unregulated as the kryto-coins. There is far too much volatility and vulnerability to it.
Click to expand...

Play it.. but don't put in more than you are willing to let go...
 
ghoti said:
I did try warn people that bitcoins have no security :/ Sorry to hear about your loss.
Click to expand...

Bitcoin was not at fault here. It was me trusting my coins to a 3rd party.

Should just have moved my coins to a paper wallet from the start.
 
EtienneK said:
Bitcoin was not at fault here. It was me trusting my coins to a 3rd party.

Should just have moved my coins to a paper wallet from the start.
Click to expand...

This post cannot be stressed enough. It's like giving someone you don't know cash in their hand and telling them to keep it safe for you.

That being said, it seems this might not be the end of MtGox...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X