On January 29 2014 14:41 zatic wrote: There is no vice president of Bitcoin. They are prosecuting a by now rather unimportant Bitcoin exchange.
Very good overview over Bitcoin:
The first half hour won't be terribly new to anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin, but the expert uses interesting approaches to explain Bitcoin. The second half is an excellent outlook to the yet unexplored potential of the Bitcoin network, namely scripted transactions. Highly recommended.
From the article it clearly states:
"Among those charged on Monday was Charlie Shrem, vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation" Yes. There is a vice president and he's in trouble.
How much of the Bitcoin hype is going to get extinguished after this becomes publicized? Do you think some of the companies that were pioneering the "We accept Bitcoins" fad are going to remove that option?
I think its a big deal. If they are prosecuted. What guarantee do you have? It has not hit enough mainstream IMO to have a backing behind it like the federal reserve or Euro reserve. A lot of gains of it I think are speculation.
If you own a company and are worried about getting your return, still seems risky until this gets sorted out a bit.
How much of the Bitcoin hype is going to get extinguished after this becomes publicized? Do you think some of the companies that were pioneering the "We accept Bitcoins" fad are going to remove that option?
It will have virtually no impact to anyone using Bitcoin nor is it likely to influence the Bitcoin Dollar rate.
The first half hour won't be terribly new to anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin, but the expert uses interesting approaches to explain Bitcoin. The second half is an excellent outlook to the yet unexplored potential of the Bitcoin network, namely scripted transactions. Highly recommended.
From the article it clearly states:
"Among those charged on Monday was Charlie Shrem, vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation" Yes. There is a vice president and he's in trouble.
The Bitcoin Foundation is not Bitcoin. Even if the entire Foundation - chiefly a lobbing organization - would disappear, the impact to people conducting everyday Bitcoin transactions would be none.
Open source and open protocol don't mean there is no organization. Someone has to be in charge of the main branch of development. Of course, it'll only be ADOPTED if the majority of the bitcoin network use that adjustment in the software, but that's the same for anything. Open source is not an organizational structure.
Now, I have no clue what the Bitcoin Foundation is nor what its involvement is with Bitcoin as such, but yelling that it's open source means nothing in this context.
How much of the Bitcoin hype is going to get extinguished after this becomes publicized? Do you think some of the companies that were pioneering the "We accept Bitcoins" fad are going to remove that option?
It will have virtually no impact to anyone using Bitcoin nor is it likely to influence the Bitcoin Dollar rate.
The first half hour won't be terribly new to anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin, but the expert uses interesting approaches to explain Bitcoin. The second half is an excellent outlook to the yet unexplored potential of the Bitcoin network, namely scripted transactions. Highly recommended.
From the article it clearly states:
"Among those charged on Monday was Charlie Shrem, vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation" Yes. There is a vice president and he's in trouble.
The Bitcoin Foundation is not Bitcoin. Even if the entire Foundation - chiefly a lobbing organization - would disappear, the impact to people conducting everyday Bitcoin transactions would be none.
If anything it'll legitimize Bitcoin a bit more. When you've got a currency, you're bound to get laundering and fraud.
The first half hour won't be terribly new to anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin, but the expert uses interesting approaches to explain Bitcoin. The second half is an excellent outlook to the yet unexplored potential of the Bitcoin network, namely scripted transactions. Highly recommended.
From the article it clearly states:
"Among those charged on Monday was Charlie Shrem, vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation" Yes. There is a vice president and he's in trouble.
Seriously... People are still confused by this? As was stated a couple of pages back: "how are you no getting this?"
On January 10 2014 05:11 hmmm... wrote: guys, overstock just made BTC available as a payment option despite saying it would come 6 months later. it is officially LIVE. you can check out their page in-person.
Actually, this is really bad news for the "asset" as such. When you purchase things with bitcoin at overstock and the like, what they'll do is just dump it on the market and redeem them for dollars (after all, what would they do with worthless bitcoins?). No one will buy these bitcoins and so the price will tank.
How much of the Bitcoin hype is going to get extinguished after this becomes publicized? Do you think some of the companies that were pioneering the "We accept Bitcoins" fad are going to remove that option?
It will have virtually no impact to anyone using Bitcoin nor is it likely to influence the Bitcoin Dollar rate.
On January 29 2014 18:17 tokinho wrote:
On January 29 2014 14:41 zatic wrote: There is no vice president of Bitcoin. They are prosecuting a by now rather unimportant Bitcoin exchange.
The first half hour won't be terribly new to anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin, but the expert uses interesting approaches to explain Bitcoin. The second half is an excellent outlook to the yet unexplored potential of the Bitcoin network, namely scripted transactions. Highly recommended.
From the article it clearly states:
"Among those charged on Monday was Charlie Shrem, vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation" Yes. There is a vice president and he's in trouble.
The Bitcoin Foundation is not Bitcoin. Even if the entire Foundation - chiefly a lobbing organization - would disappear, the impact to people conducting everyday Bitcoin transactions would be none.
If anything it'll legitimize Bitcoin a bit more. When you've got a currency, you're bound to get laundering and fraud.
I see where you're coming from and I also think it's completely wrong on that count. You might be right but it seems to me that people are not so likely to see it like that.
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
Hopefully, it's the death knell for Bitcoin. The entire idea was a scam to begin with. The premise was to profit off of people who want to conduct illegal transactions (and therefore have zero recourse in the criminal or civil justice systems) and fanatical anti-government anarcho-liberals. In that regard, Bitcoin has been a marvelous success - the original founders and investors have created enormous wealth for themselves out of basically nothing. They've made millions, as have the people who took down Mt. Gox... and there's absolutely zero accountability. Nobody will be prosecuted, the victims won't get any restitution, nothing will be recovered in a civil suit.
Bitcoin was a sham and a fraud, and I genuinely feel bad for some of the people that were taken in by it. If you made a few bucks speculating, well, congrats on being a prudent investor. For those people who've lost money because they want to conduct criminal transactions, they really have nobody to blame but themselves. It's really the anarcho-liberals that I feel for. People so blinded by fear and distrust that they've allowed themselves to be fleeced by con men posing as their peers. Maybe some of them will learn, but I have a feeling that most won't, and that this cycle will be repeating itself in the near future.
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
MtGox hasn't been the largest exchange for some time now. They've been having troubles since last summer and their market share was constantly going down. Their problems were increased considerably when they had to shut down Bitcoin withdrawals a few weeks back. The Bitcoin-price on other exchanges took something of a hit, but are still significantly higher than what they were a few months back. The closing of MtGox has been anticipated for a week now and while they did it in a somewhat more spectacular way than expected, the net effect should be mostly priced in already.
In the meantime, the protocol still works. All other Bitcoin-related services still work. This is the downfall of one exchange that, while it has a long history and has had a significant effect on the Bitcoin-ecosystem in the past, was no longer that important.
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
MtGox hasn't been the largest exchange for some time now. They've been having troubles since last summer and their market share was constantly going down. Their problems were increased considerably when they had to shut down Bitcoin withdrawals a few weeks back. The Bitcoin-price on other exchanges took something of a hit, but are still significantly higher than what they were a few months back. The closing of MtGox has been anticipated for a week now and while they did it in a somewhat more spectacular way than expected, the net effect should be mostly priced in already.
In the meantime, the protocol still works. All other Bitcoin-related services still work. This is the downfall of one exchange that, while it has a long history and has had a significant effect on the Bitcoin-ecosystem in the past, was no longer that important.
If anything, the "decline" of MtGox was the culmination of this story. Certainly, market share declined, but the actual volume of trades seemed to dwarf that of the other exchanges. There was a large growth in BTC over the past 8 months, and MtGox didn't see a majority of it, but it still expanded with the rest of the system. This is a big blow to BTC, which HAS been declining gradually since the peak in November.
You also have to remember that MtGox has a fairly significant portion of the BTC available in it's system. If nobody recovers it or most of it is lost, that hurts BTC in the long run. Yes, the technology is still sound (for the most part), but the currency isn't only popular because of the technology.
I highly doubt that something that is basically a large amount of wealth will just be "lost". Or if it is lost, then in a way that says "noone knows where it went" instead of it actually being completely gone. Someone knows how to access those bitcoins, and they are still worth a lot of money.
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
MtGox hasn't been the largest exchange for some time now. They've been having troubles since last summer and their market share was constantly going down. Their problems were increased considerably when they had to shut down Bitcoin withdrawals a few weeks back. The Bitcoin-price on other exchanges took something of a hit, but are still significantly higher than what they were a few months back. The closing of MtGox has been anticipated for a week now and while they did it in a somewhat more spectacular way than expected, the net effect should be mostly priced in already.
In the meantime, the protocol still works. All other Bitcoin-related services still work. This is the downfall of one exchange that, while it has a long history and has had a significant effect on the Bitcoin-ecosystem in the past, was no longer that important.
If anything, the "decline" of MtGox was the culmination of this story. Certainly, market share declined, but the actual volume of trades seemed to dwarf that of the other exchanges. There was a large growth in BTC over the past 8 months, and MtGox didn't see a majority of it, but it still expanded with the rest of the system. This is a big blow to BTC, which HAS been declining gradually since the peak in November.
You also have to remember that MtGox has a fairly significant portion of the BTC available in it's system. If nobody recovers it or most of it is lost, that hurts BTC in the long run. Yes, the technology is still sound (for the most part), but the currency isn't only popular because of the technology.
Volume reports for MtGox are not really indicative of market share for the last 2 weeks to 1 month. Since they effectively closed all outgoing transfers about 2 weeks ago (and struggled to get stuff out before then), there's been a lot of panic-trading by people trying to find the safest asset to put their account balance in, as well as speculators trying to maximize their gains amidst the volatility.
In december and january, MtGox was typically behind Bitstamp and BTC-e in terms of volume.
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
MtGox hasn't been the largest exchange for some time now. They've been having troubles since last summer and their market share was constantly going down. Their problems were increased considerably when they had to shut down Bitcoin withdrawals a few weeks back. The Bitcoin-price on other exchanges took something of a hit, but are still significantly higher than what they were a few months back. The closing of MtGox has been anticipated for a week now and while they did it in a somewhat more spectacular way than expected, the net effect should be mostly priced in already.
In the meantime, the protocol still works. All other Bitcoin-related services still work. This is the downfall of one exchange that, while it has a long history and has had a significant effect on the Bitcoin-ecosystem in the past, was no longer that important.
If anything, the "decline" of MtGox was the culmination of this story. Certainly, market share declined, but the actual volume of trades seemed to dwarf that of the other exchanges. There was a large growth in BTC over the past 8 months, and MtGox didn't see a majority of it, but it still expanded with the rest of the system. This is a big blow to BTC, which HAS been declining gradually since the peak in November.
You also have to remember that MtGox has a fairly significant portion of the BTC available in it's system. If nobody recovers it or most of it is lost, that hurts BTC in the long run. Yes, the technology is still sound (for the most part), but the currency isn't only popular because of the technology.
Volume reports for MtGox are not really indicative of market share for the last 2 weeks to 1 month. Since they effectively closed all outgoing transfers about 2 weeks ago (and struggled to get stuff out before then), there's been a lot of panic-trading by people trying to find the safest asset to put their account balance in, as well as speculators trying to maximize their gains amidst the volatility.
In december and january, MtGox was typically behind Bitstamp and BTC-e in terms of volume.
You stated before that their trouble started back in the summer, don't backtrack now and claim it was all since New Years. Up until that point, their trade volume and market size was by far the largest.
Yeah I think some of the talking points are a bit misleading as one of the reasons MTGOX's volume and market share shrank so precipitously was because of all the problems they had. But even accepting those talking points at face value, that MTGOX is no longer the most important exchange or player in bitcoin, isn't what appears possibly to be the theft or loss of what, 5ish percent of all currently circulating bitcoins or so, going to have a major impact on whether bitcoin reaches the tipping point of more widespread adoption as an actual currency, as opposed to a speculative investment vehicle to be hoarded?
The most prominent Bitcoin exchange appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.
On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin’s existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.
While Mt. Gox did not respond to numerous requests for comments, and the companies issuing the statement scrambled to determine the exact situation at Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, the news helped push the price of a single Bitcoin below $500 for the first time since November, when it began a spike that took it above $1,200.
But at the same time that the news about Mt. Gox was emerging, a New York firm announced plans to create an exchange that could draw the world’s largest banks into the virtual currency market for the first time.
...
But plans for any new venture will be tested by the collapse of Mt. Gox, which could shake the faith of early Bitcoin adopters. Ryan Galt, a blogger who writes frequently about Bitcoin and was one of the first to circulate the news about Mt. Gox, wrote on Monday: “I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings.”
On Monday, Mt. Gox took down all of its previous posts on Twitter, one day after its chief executive, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for virtual currencies.
A statement from the chief executives of Bitcoin companies like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain.info and Payward, said that the “tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry.”
The events are in keeping with the stark ups and downs of Bitcoin’s short existence.
Released in 2009 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin program runs on the computers of anyone who joins in, and it is set to release only 21 million coins in regular increments. The coins can be moved between digital wallets using secret passwords.
...
Mt. Gox’s difficulties this week are only the latest in a long line of problems at the Tokyo-based exchange. Created in 2010, Mt. Gox quickly became the most popular place to buy and sell Bitcoins. But the firm has suffered several intrusions and technological mishaps, which have led to steep declines in the currency’s price. A few weeks ago the company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw Bitcoins after it said it had discovered a flaw in some of the basic Bitcoin computer code.
While other exchanges were briefly hit by problems, they came back online. Mt. Gox never opened up again, prompting speculation about its future.
Until now, the major Bitcoin exchanges have all allowed anyone from the public to buy and sell virtual currency. SecondMarket’s plan is to create a platform more like the New York Stock Exchange, where only large institutions can join and trade.
Mr. Silbert says he will only open the exchange once they have several regulated financial institutions signed on as members. His hope, he says, is to give them partial ownership so that they have an incentive to trade there.
For much of Bitcoin’s life, banks have viewed the virtual currency with either derision or dismissiveness.
Recently, though, a number of banks have released research reports that have been less negative. A December report from Bank of America said that virtual currencies could become an important new part of the payment system, allowing money to move more cheaply than it does with credit cards and money transmitters like Western Union.
The statement from the Bitcoin companies on Monday night, which was not signed by Mr. Silbert, said that “in order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible Bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of Bitcoin and the security of all customer funds.” (more at link)
MtGox hasn't been the largest exchange for some time now. They've been having troubles since last summer and their market share was constantly going down. Their problems were increased considerably when they had to shut down Bitcoin withdrawals a few weeks back. The Bitcoin-price on other exchanges took something of a hit, but are still significantly higher than what they were a few months back. The closing of MtGox has been anticipated for a week now and while they did it in a somewhat more spectacular way than expected, the net effect should be mostly priced in already.
In the meantime, the protocol still works. All other Bitcoin-related services still work. This is the downfall of one exchange that, while it has a long history and has had a significant effect on the Bitcoin-ecosystem in the past, was no longer that important.
If anything, the "decline" of MtGox was the culmination of this story. Certainly, market share declined, but the actual volume of trades seemed to dwarf that of the other exchanges. There was a large growth in BTC over the past 8 months, and MtGox didn't see a majority of it, but it still expanded with the rest of the system. This is a big blow to BTC, which HAS been declining gradually since the peak in November.
You also have to remember that MtGox has a fairly significant portion of the BTC available in it's system. If nobody recovers it or most of it is lost, that hurts BTC in the long run. Yes, the technology is still sound (for the most part), but the currency isn't only popular because of the technology.
Volume reports for MtGox are not really indicative of market share for the last 2 weeks to 1 month. Since they effectively closed all outgoing transfers about 2 weeks ago (and struggled to get stuff out before then), there's been a lot of panic-trading by people trying to find the safest asset to put their account balance in, as well as speculators trying to maximize their gains amidst the volatility.
In december and january, MtGox was typically behind Bitstamp and BTC-e in terms of volume.
You stated before that their trouble started back in the summer, don't backtrack now and claim it was all since New Years. Up until that point, their trade volume and market size was by far the largest.
There were 2 distinct stages to the problems that led to the downfall of MtGox. The first, is the issue they have with their banking partners. This started last summer, mostly following actions by the US government, seizing some of the funds of MtGox and in response their payment partner in the US, Dwolla, pulled the plug on their deal. After that, USD withdrawals came to an almost complete stop as the Japanese bank MtGox uses still handles those manually and MtGox was limited to 10 transactions per day. EUR and JPY withdrawals still worked, but with increasingly large delays.
It was after this that MtGox volume started to dwindle. During the Bitcoin-rally of april 2013, MtGox was with a distance the biggest player, but by the end of the year, they'd fallen to third place (not counting the Chinese, since their volume reports are sketchy). 2 weeks ago, MtGox announced it would halt Bitcoin withdrawals because of technical issues in their software related to a sloppy implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. At this point, it was effectively impossible to withdraw anything from MtGox and people with funds on the exchange started to speculate on its downfall. Coupled with the lack of clear information from MtGox itself, this caused violent swings in price on relatively high volume.
It should be noted that Bitcoin-exchanges measure their volume in Bitcoins, not USD or EUR. Since the closure of Bitcoin withdrawals on MtGox, the Bitcoin-price has plummeted on that exchange to less than 25% of the price on other exchanges. Consequently, even though Bitcoin-volume went up, volume measured in USD or EUR is still rather low on MtGox.
these events are all rly bad, but bitcoin faithfuls are a resilient bunch. anything that overreach its place as a niche would be a big bubble but by the looks of things there will always be a group of faithfuls propping up each other
EPT
