Gox is gone?

I am not a guru or even a novice when it comes to the world of digital currency. However reading this kind of gave me chills. This just seems like it is going to be the start of something big .

Bankers being offed and now an entire exchange disappeared. Is this just a heist for greed's sake or is the ball about to really pick up speed?

744,000 bitcoins were "missing due to malleability-related theft", and noted Mt. Gox had $174 million in liabilities against $32.75 million in assets. It was not possible to verify the document or the exchange's financial situation

www.reuters.com...

sorry if it's been posted already I did search.

reply to post by 200Plus


I think this is well worth watching to see how this develops

reply to post by 200Plus


This is great...I just bought my first bitcoin...there are other services around...someone else will hop in and pick up the slack...from the research I gathered no one liked working with them in the last several months.....

There are 2 other big ones coinbase and bitstamp that still seem fine ..and as the article mentions...its not bitcoin itself that is bad its MT Gox...I think in the long run this will help make bitcoin stronger...

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by 200Plus

 

I think in the long run this will help make bitcoin stronger...

edit on 25-2-2014 by cosmicexplorer because: (no reason given)

Could you explain that in a little more detail please?

If there was a way to make money by placing it in a box it would be amazing and everyone would be doing it. If the owner of the box could pick up the box and walk away with the money people would stop putting their money inside. That's what I see just happened. I understand that it is over simplification. I just wonder what you mean by this will make Bitcoin stronger.

reply to post by 200Plus


im no expert by any means...but one of the greatest enchantments of bitcoin is that it is so unpredictable...you can buy a coin for 500 dollars and sell it for 600 by the end of the day...then tomorrow its at 500 again and you buy another...and in a few weeks its 700...its crazy...there are such big jumps...ive only recently gotten into it.

The fact is I think the idea of an online currency of its own is a great idea...but for it to ever work..you have to weed out the nasty players. I think by Gox closing bitcoin has become more secure in reality...however people may feel there is less faith in bitcoin I personally believe the reality of it is that it just got stronger...which means we may not see as big of fluctuations in it.

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by 200Plus

 

This is great...I just bought my first bitcoin...there are other services around...someone else will hop in and pick up the slack...from the research I gathered no one liked working with them in the last several months.....

There are 2 other big ones coinbase and bitstamp that still seem fine ..and as the article mentions...its not bitcoin itself that is bad its MT Gox...I think in the long run this will help make bitcoin stronger...

edit on 25-2-2014 by cosmicexplorer because: (no reason given)

I have been mining and cashing out coins here and there, even sold a few on Craigslist but I have always used the Bitstamp BTC price when making a transaction. The last few weeks, I noticed Mt Gox was showing USD of about $320 and at the same time Bitstamp was showing $500+ per coin. I almost thought about buying them low and selling them higher from one exchange to the other but I realized that Gox was really projecting a lower value so that those who had stakes there (ie, Bitcoins on deposit ) would keep waiting for the resurgence in price before cashing out, kind of a way to stall the rush.
With all of the blogs and press pointing at troubles at Gox, I decided not to put anything in there and then ultimately decided not to purchase any coins from them either, no matter how tempting. I am glad I am not that greedy and my gut has steered me clear of trouble this time.

I would love to see Bitcoin succeed as an alternative currency as I like the idea of it being, for the most part, transparent to those who want to dig through the blockchain and can understand the transactions. There is a finite number of coins and that is also good. One thing that I will say though is that if the internet ever becomes unglued there could be a big problem transacting if nodes are not available to validate transactions. It is decentralized and spread out but connectivity is still a pretty necessary part of the equation.

I am hoping that Bitstamp and others are able to stay solvent and overcome this one operation which seemed to have very poor communication and management skills.

Good luck with your Bitcoin adventures!

Now you see it and now you don't. Is anybody surprised really .

reply to post by cosmicexplorer


That makes a lot of sense really. Thanks for the response.

I am one of the old fogey generation and need to have physical possession of anything I give my money for. I guess that's why I don't know a lot about the Bitcoin craze (I do think it will become a legitimate currency in the future).

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by 200Plus

 

im no expert by any means...but one of the greatest enchantments of bitcoin is that it is so unpredictable...you can buy a coin for 500 dollars and sell it for 600 by the end of the day...then tomorrow its at 500 again and you buy another...and in a few weeks its 700...its crazy...there are such big jumps...ive only recently gotten into it.

The fact is I think the idea of an online currency of its own is a great idea...but for it to ever work..you have to weed out the nasty players. I think by Gox closing bitcoin has become more secure in reality...however people may feel there is less faith in bitcoin I personally believe the reality of it is that it just got stronger...which means we may not see as big of fluctuations in it.

Stronger is quite possible, in time. Hopefully sites will take these looming issues when presented more seriously, that host so many people's BTC. Unless of course, conspiracy wise, it was an intentional plan.

In the meantime I am sure now we'll hear breaking news of Bitcoin's dead i.e. same in 2011 and 2012 for example. It's not an end just a warning of what can happen.


Sorry for those who lost out, very unacceptable but I guess it's part of this Wild West of currency. As many know, it's not the first Bitcoin site trading or holding money security site that has been breeched. Some, have yet to paid back the money owed, some people doubt they will ever be paid. With that sorry for those in loss because of what happened. In hopes with Gox, being a bigger company and for what it was, you'll be compensated.

reply to post by 200Plus


It might have something to do with the way bitcoins were used.
Bitcoin sinks in value after FBI busts Silk Road drug market

Plus it's not a secure way to transact business anyway
‘Pony’ is a botnet that steals Bitcoins

Really it's no surprise as it was a poorly executed good idea. But I'm sure someone else will step in to fill the void

reply to post by HardCorps


But It raises the question though. Bitcoin is an electronic currency. did the owner (who is now missing) know more than the rest of us? where are the missing Bitcoins? Can something like that just disappear? they are not physical and cannot be hidden can they?

Was it a CYOA situation or SHTF or just greed?

Maybe the bot you mention caused him to become overextended and he just split. Won't be the first time it's happened.

evc1shop

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by 200Plus

 

This is great...I just bought my first bitcoin...there are other services around...someone else will hop in and pick up the slack...from the research I gathered no one liked working with them in the last several months.....

There are 2 other big ones coinbase and bitstamp that still seem fine ..and as the article mentions...its not bitcoin itself that is bad its MT Gox...I think in the long run this will help make bitcoin stronger...

edit on 25-2-2014 by cosmicexplorer because: (no reason given)

I have been mining and cashing out coins here and there, even sold a few on Craigslist but I have always used the Bitstamp BTC price when making a transaction. The last few weeks, I noticed Mt Gox was showing USD of about $320 and at the same time Bitstamp was showing $500+ per coin. I almost thought about buying them low and selling them higher from one exchange to the other but I realized that Gox was really projecting a lower value so that those who had stakes there (ie, Bitcoins on deposit ) would keep waiting for the resurgence in price before cashing out, kind of a way to stall the rush.
With all of the blogs and press pointing at troubles at Gox, I decided not to put anything in there and then ultimately decided not to purchase any coins from them either, no matter how tempting. I am glad I am not that greedy and my gut has steered me clear of trouble this time.

I would love to see Bitcoin succeed as an alternative currency as I like the idea of it being, for the most part, transparent to those who want to dig through the blockchain and can understand the transactions. There is a finite number of coins and that is also good. One thing that I will say though is that if the internet ever becomes unglued there could be a big problem transacting if nodes are not available to validate transactions. It is decentralized and spread out but connectivity is still a pretty necessary part of the equation.

I am hoping that Bitstamp and others are able to stay solvent and overcome this one operation which seemed to have very poor communication and management skills.

Good luck with your Bitcoin adventures!

edit on 25-2-2014 by evc1shop because: spelling

You bring up a great point I never thought of with the internet branching out to its own nodes...that never crossed my mind once and you are right..could be a huge deal...I wonder how that would work...you know that gives me an idea lool......we should start a buisness to be the middle man! Between countries!

reply to post by 200Plus


I really know so little about it...its really confusing...ive talked with a few people on the site and have been really studying it the past month...I feel confident I understand how it all works but I dont get how or why its fluctuating so much. I dont think it is going to go away though. I think it will get better as time goes on...right now its like gambling...betting all on red or black haha.

reply to post by HardCorps


Are you part of the, recent, concerted effort to badmouth cryptos? Sure looks like it with that kind of "linking".

In the case of GOX, they're solely to blame, bitcoin is just fine. We called $150 after a year of 100-ish, but China and an online auction house got people in a tizzy. "Others" keep saying it "crashed", yet it's worth 5 times what it was a year ago. Expect these kinds of false doom attempts.

By all means, if it scares you so, stay away, but spamming silk road is obvious you either don't know, or are willingly trying to frighten folks.

If you ask me, the silk road thing was just one set of crooks using the tools and property of the United States people and government to infiltrate another group, so they could take their stuff. That's what this administration does!

Guess who's having a bitcoin auction worth BILLIONS of dollars... the D.O.J.!

Not only that, they have billion$ and billion$ more that won't be up for sale yet.. but, rest assured, they will be.

In the old days, the "bad guys" would raid drug dealers and what not, because the money was piled high, untracable, and nobody would care it was "missing". Oh wait, that's exactly what they did.

reply to post by lernmore

Unlike Bitcoin theft, hitting drug houses is what is called a "victimless" crime. I know people that made a lot of money doing it in the late 90's. Who is a drug dealer going to call to report you? LoL

I agree with you that this isn't the end of Bitcoin by any stretch. I can see this incidence as a turning point though. All it will take is one or two more to disappear. Two trading hubs lost and it will be an investment cliff not just for Bitcoin, but for all sectors. Many people are invested and when money is lost it scares people.

Who needs Gox? It's better to have more, smaller exchanges than only a few super large ones. I'd say it's analogous to the banking industry's "Too Big To Fail."

I've also wondered if the operators weren't artificially decreasing the price of bitcoin on their exchange so that while their users couldn't withdraw funds, they themselves could snatch them up at deep discount and reap a huge arbitrage profit dumping them at 300% more than they paid on a rival exchange.

This surprises you how?

I would like to weigh in on this a bit, if you guys dont mind.

Bitcoin has been in flux due to Russia stating that it has banned the use of it.

Mt Gox had it's own issue recently where under 200k bitcoins came up missing and earlier noticed some activity they deemed suspicious which led to them closing down last night.

Mt Gox is only responsible for the sudden drop early this morning. I caught wind of this and bought when the prices fell to 200$ per bit coin. For the most part, this ONLY affected bitcoin and very few other coins. But since bitcoin is the base for all the other coins, you could say the price went down across the board, but the trading itself was not affected on the other currencies. What you find on the crypto currency site is not accurate except for bitcoin. There was not a drop in induvidual prices, per say, but only bitcoin.

There is a difference between vs Bitcoin and vs USD. Vs USD was all crypto overall, but there was not an induvidual price drop on crypto vs bitcoin.


Anyways, for everyone that didn't get a chance to make million on bitcoin, this was their chance to get in with the prices being low.

I am so confident in what was going to happen, I bought $1,000 worth of bitcoins at $198 per coin. As I suspected, Bitcoin is back to normal based on what it has been the last few weeks. Just under $600. I made $350-400 per coin. Why, you say?

Mt Gox is ONLY a place to buy bitcoins and store them. It's a lot like Coinbase. So why would this affect bitcoins value? Because any bad news is bad for any stock.

Why wont it hurt bitcoin overall?

As I mentioned, it is only one of a few places to buy bitcoin. It was known that these guys had lax security and anyone could have seen that it probably wasn't a good idea to store your coins here. Not to mention, I never bought from them because the prices to buy were more expensive than any other source. Coinbase is way more secure as well and much cheeper to boot. Plus, I don't store my coins on these sites. I use them only to transfer to and from USD. Bitcoin will not suffer because the problem is NOT bitcoin but the people who were buying and selling bitcoin from and to you. Bitcoin will continue on. Great news = high prices, bad news = temporary low prices, but in the end, they will average out because bitcoin is till the dollar for all other coins with few exceptions.


Lets say it this way....

If you buy a camero from a dealership and you found out that this one dealer was getting hit by bandits that store parts from their cars, you might stop buying from that dealer and go to another. The camero itself is not the problem, but that one dealer. The bad publicity might make people think it's a problem with the cameros but after they realise what really happened, they will contnue as normal.

StallionDuck
Lets say it this way....

If you buy a camero from a dealership and you found out that this one dealer was getting hit by bandits that store parts from their cars, you might stop buying from that dealer and go to another. The camero itself is not the problem, but that one dealer. The bad publicity might make people think it's a problem with the cameros but after they realise what really happened, they will contnue as normal.

Huge difference... I can physically have a Camero sitting in my driveway. I can drive it, wash it on the weekend, take the wife and kids for a spin in it, etc. It is a physical purchase.

Those who are financially tied into Bitcoin can feel free to label me a hater or whatever else they feel the need to say to attempt to protect their *ahem* "investment" in their own mind and the minds of other whose peace of mind Bitcoin's "value" is dependent on, I honestly don't care. The fact is that it is beyond ridiculous to see the same people who bitch about how the dollar is a "fiat currency" are often the ones advocating and purchasing the completely imaginary and arbitrary Bitcoins. It is about as ridiculous as seeing Level 500 Paladins with Platinum tier loot from World of Warcraft being auctioned off on Ebay for $850. The digital age seems to have stripped more than a few folks of their sanity and common sense.