Bitcoin Forum

Anyone else having intermittent problems trading on Mt Gox this evening?  Two of us are for sure...keep seeing "too many connections".  :(

Yes.. I notice it too.

has this happened before?

if not the rally may not be over, or even close to slowing down, maybe the market could outgrow what mt. gox can handle?  :o

Or someone made a bad bot or greasemonkey script.

Nah, getting DDoS'd.

The attack is mostly blocked now, however I cannot tell for sure for how long it'll continue. Just hope whoever's doing this will get bored.

Thanks it has seem to have cleared up for me.

05:04 UTC and still MtGox is still having problems. 

While I'm delurked... is there an intro thread somewhere?  I've really got nothing interesting to say right now, but I don't want to come out of left field if an when I do.



eta:  I guess I'm not sure what happened.  I had to clear the cookie... I don't know if it got garbled somehow or if I got locked out because I was loading pages too fast.  The chart is flatlined right about that time, though.  Who knows?  Great site though.  Slainte!

Nah, mtgox is not having problems. You may be unable to access mtgox however if you flooded a bit too much, if so, send your ip to info@mtgox.com so we can check if you were blocked.

Oh, sorry don't mean to talk bad about your site.  I think I might be a little fried from work. 

My ip doesn't seem to be blocked though.  Cleared my cache and cookies and everything's fine. 

What's the allowed rate to poll MtGox API?

My software accesses it once a minute, to record the quotes and the book. Is that too frequent?

In the last week the API (and the site) was down for me for tens of hours at a time. Could it be that I was banned?

BTW, it would be nice if you would record and make historical prices and book info available.

A bit off topic, but I didn't want to create a new thread for this:

Has anybody recognized what kind of a money machine Mt Gox is ?

I mean, the current volume is ~75,000 BTC. Let's assume the average price was ~3.00 USD,
then the total transaction sum over the last 24 (48 ? not sure) hours was 225,000 USD.
As we know Mt Gox charges a small 0.65% fee.
Let's do the math:
225000 / 100 * 0,65 = 1,462.50 USD per 24 (or 48?) hours !

Small? Typical mature exchange charges 0.01%

bitmarket.eu doesn't even have a fee.

My intention was to ask whether my calculations are correct and to start a discussion about lowering the fees at Mt Gox.

Looks right to me, except that you seem to have forgotten to multiply by 2 (both buyer and seller pay 0.65%).

Banks are only bad when you're not the banker.

Oh, and is there another attack going on right now? Both mtgox and #bitcoin-market seem to be having problems.

I'm having problems too.

Let's just say this break in trading could be beneficial.  Maybe MtGox should implement "circuit breakers" to help prevent extreme volatility, like the the NYSE did after the 2010 Flash crash.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Flash_Crash#Circuit_breakers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Flash_Crash#Circuit_breakers)

btcex.com too

(although yesterday I was trying to introduce payments for the placing orders. But users revolt :) )

down again ...

Please assure us that you have adequate controls against being hacked.

Can you tell what percentage of your total BTC funds held in escrow do you keep offline?

Also would be interested in knowing if withdrawal of funds can continue (e.g. via e-mail request) in the event of an extended outage.

Rather it be a DDOS than a compromise of all the bitcoins on the server, Playstation Network style.

did the market just outgrow our little community very very quickly?

a simple DDoS and 95% of bitcoin trades freeze, it is a good way to drive prices down, investors will see our amateur level operations and wait a while  ;D ;D ;D

maybe its the wake up call we need. were not ready for the world to join in yet.

99.9% really :)

decentralized Bitcoin are highly centralized to mtgox!11 (https://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=6864.0)

MtGox' version of trading curbs  ;D

=( just took an evening off to play around with the API and get a trading bot started. Now I got some basic functionalty done and the page goes down.

I was implementing a BitCoin currency on my store using the MtGox API as it went down as well.  Was getting nice results too, was about to work on the final checkout page :(.  Guess it'll have to wait for a May 1st update.  At least people can still use US$ :).

Most likely it's not a dos, mtgox was featured on hacker news frontpage.

I'm sure magical tux is working on it, so this is me subscribing to the thread so I get notified as things progress.

Source?

MagicalTux is on #bitcoin-otc discussing the DDoS right now:

[21:08] <+MagicalTux> in 0.05 seconds, I'm getting 313 connection attempts
[21:09] <+MagicalTux> that's ~6200 connections/second
[21:10] <+MagicalTux> I'll be storing bits of flood from tcpdump, and blocking those

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-otc

Reporting here! What I got so far:

Getting ~6000 SYN/sec (standing at ~1.7MB/s) from various sources, mainly vietnam. Those are attempts to connect on port 443 to "poke" various urls, including / and /users/login.

There are different patterns, suggesting either there are various version of the "drones" out there trying to attack mtgox, or that different people are attacking.

The attacks seems specifically targetted at mtgox (use of the login url, for example), and contain a vast majority of russian bits (use of random russian referers, use of russian user agents, etc).


The strategy:

I'm trying to get some patterns out there I can block out from the server. Traffic load is still lower than server uplink, which should allow to block that without too much troubles. The first thing I'll be doing is to block the ips I've recorded so far, and write a little C program with libpcap to analyze the network traffic and block ips that seem obviously doing something bad. I'll also reduce the max open tcp connections per ip to limit the load caused by a single IP.

Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday (mtgox.com)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2501006

Bitcoin exchange account of Coinpal shut down by Paypal (bitcoin.org)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2501793

I miss the connection, how is hacker news related with any hackers crew?

Its not.  But HN is a high-profile site which can drive large traffic.  However, the HN traffic still would not be enough to cause the MtGox outage.  As MagicalTux explained above, apart from legitimate traffic, they are under a DDoS attack.

for us non hackers, is it possible to sustain a DDoS attack indefinitely and if so can mtgox restore functionality?

in theory; but he will likely be able to find patterns in the traffic and/or block the right IPs to restore functionality.  depends on how smart a ddos and how much resources they have

has a gov't ever launched a DDoS?

MagicalTux, if we mirrored your site, maybe you could do some load balancing?

And now I understand you :)

Nope.

An ddos could be a cover for a hack.

nope to which part of the question?

A DDoS can't last forever and performing it means giving away a large compromised network. This operation has an huge cost for the hacker and usually it's something desperate.

Yes, a DDoS can be used as an excuse for covering a succesfull attempt of violation, but usually the server will be immediatelly shut down and a backup placed insted of it.

I just transferred 5 BTC over to MtGox earlier today, then less than an hour later it started becoming impossible to go on. And they never showed up in my balance.

Am I going to lose those bitcoins?

No, don't worry, this is fine. Your balance will show up correctly once things are back to normal.

OK, thanks a lot for the reply.

@Sammoocow: unlikely unless there's a tremendous data breach and wallets are stolen. Bitcoins aren't really sent "to" Mt Gox in the sense that their server has to remain up; it's more like a deed transfer, in that there is a public record that ownership of the coins has been transferred.

MagTux, r u ever going to reply to my email requests?

Email requests about?

The empire strikes back, started with coinpal, mtgox, who's next?  bitcoin.org?

the more they fight, the stronger we become.

Is there another "liquid" exchange, or is the only one down?

Liquidity in banks do not move on weekends anyway, and we'll be back by monday :)

All go to the https://btcex.com just as planned

 Bid            Ask
1.5111   3.6472
Does "liquid market" have a different meaning in Russian?  :P
I'm sure it won't always be that way, since you seem to have an aggressive strategy for growth.

one of the great things about mtgox is the 24/7 trading

"as planned"?   

@bitcoinex   What does this mean?  Are you behind the DDoS attack on MtGox?

why am i seeing mtgox recent trades on bitcoincharts.com on its 1 min interval?

Of course, because I'm Hitler!

NOT! IT IS NOT I AM! YOU SEE IT?!

I read it as a joke

That exactly what he means:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6864.msg101352#msg101352

LEARN ENGLISH!

I saved you! At a price of $9 you would start killings!

I would say we've a "suspect", notice the two deals on BCM while MtGox was being DDoS'ed.

On bitcoin.ie/forum I have 5-6 bot attempts daily from Russian IPs to register and post spam. I was forced to switch to manual registrations and I am seriously considering blocking all Russian IP ranges at this stage. Parhaps mtgox should do the same?

Somehow I really dislike seeing that whole russian-bashing.
We have an international market. We have an international currency. We have international people.

Thank you, SmokeTooMuch. I hope that all will be OK soon. :)

I have nothing against Russia. I have a lot of friends there and my wife used to live there for a few years. However, the fact is that vast majority of spam and scam comes from there. That is a fact - logs don't lie.

I am sure you actually believe this and that you aren't intentionally trying to mislead anyone. But more spam comes from the USA than Russia. Indeed, USA is the originator of the vast majority of the spam in the world according to some sources.

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso (http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso)
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/01/11/report-reveals-the-dirty-dozen-top-spam-relaying-countries/ (http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/01/11/report-reveals-the-dirty-dozen-top-spam-relaying-countries/)
http://www.projecthoneypot.org/spam_server_top_countries.php (http://www.projecthoneypot.org/spam_server_top_countries.php)

Please be careful when generalising.

OKay Sir, I stand corrected.

Still, 9 of 10 spaming IPs invading my own servers come from Russia. They probably just love Ireland.

FYI: If you want to see your exchange succeed, you make a good exchange and focus on doing a good job. Anything else, and you WILL loose business.

What I mean by that is that you must conduct yourself in a professional manner to be trusted in the community.

Whoever said that DoS attacks do not violate the non-aggression principle, I disagree.  Bitcoinex's attacks are preventing many people from accessing their property stored in Mt. Gox.  This could be seen as an act of coercion.  The fact that I still can't get on Mt. Gox to access my fucking account is really pissing me off.  He's not only hurting his competitor (which is wrong in itself), he's also hurting all the community members who are customers and cannot access their property that is being stored at Mt. Gox.  So FUCK YOU Bitcoinex, and I will do my part to ensure that you never get any business. 

As others have already stated, the key to making sure Bitcoin has multiple strong exchanges is to work at making yours better and more efficient, not attack competitors.  All you have done is drive more people to Mt. Gox and put yourself out of business.  Now we have less exchanges, and therefore, less stability in the Bitcoin economy.



Also, as a personal note to the Russians/Eastern European members of the community: I want to say that the nationality of Bitcoinex has no bearing on my thoughts towards any people group.  I judge individuals not races or ethnicities.  I know several Russians and Eastern Europeans and get along great with them and have a lot of respect for them and their culture.

May I ask how do you know it is him?

He has admitted it many times.

Well, I think I read through most of the posts on this forum, but never read one where he admitted doing it. Can you post a link?

Yes, I know that the on west a "professionals" hide the truth, lie at the same time smiling and looking straight into your eyes. Sorry, but I do not like this behaviour, I came to the community to participate in creating a better currency and not to deceive mistaken people.

Centralization of the exchange, the complexity of the withdrawal of money and accelerating inflation of the bubble - for understandable reasons what happens. I'm surprised that the attackers did not think to do it sooner. And I am glad that it did not happen the week after, when bitcoiny would cost $10 - I think that if I lived in the U.S. I am would have been killed in these circumstances. while the haters would give a damn about what I do not have relation with the attack.

Seconded, I can't find evidence proving who it is.

Wow is it annoying to have Mt Gox going up and down.  Are we having the DDoS activity again?

But then again, he stated a few times that he has nothing to do with these attacks. *confused*

I wonder if it's an intentional attack or just too many people linking in trying to get exchange prices with bots or something.

SmokeTooMuch do you honestly believe that was written by someone who launched ddos? I admit it was not terribly wise to post such nonsense and he did not help his situation by doing so, but I don't believe it could have been him.

It is very hard to tell from his mangled English, but I get the impression he endorses and encourages the ddos-ing but isn't claiming responsibility.

Likely right and to be honest I was glad to see it yesterday during the rush, that and CoinPal going down I feel saved use from a collapse.
However this last few hours have been unnecessary.

I was convinced he did it, but only because I was sure to read the facts out of his posts.
But to be honest his English is even worse than mine so it all could be just an attempt to make a joke or something.
Currently I do not claim to know that he is behind the DDoS attacks. Could all be just a big misunderstanding. Hard to tell.

Only thing I know is Mt. Gox is still under attack or atleast some heavy load and if the intention is to bring it to fall, I can understand that and it should get openly discussed because I see the progressing centralization of our little decentralized currency here will become a big problem sooner or later.

SmokeTooMuch that is exactly what I am saying. There is no proof that he did it and if you put yourself in his shoes you can understand why these angry posts were made.
Our emotional nature is our worst enemy. People's reputations are at stake and this community might lose valuable members because of such stupid misunderstandings. So lets not jump to conclusions.

I was wondering if hanging the author of LOIC would count for aggression within the Anarchist handbook...  ::)

I totally agree with this.  In my opinion btcex has had the misfortune of making a post when he was frustrated as a "joke" and it just so happened to coincide with a real attack.  I think many people are giving him too much credit to think that he could even mount such an attack in the first place.  Plus, if he's got any kind of entrepreneurial spirit he certainly knows what kind of backlash that would cause his business and I doubt he's here to cause his own biz to fail.  He should just tell everyone "in English" that he was mad, it was a joke, and that he does not really support this type of attack and everyone get over it.  This is all just an annoyance that needs to go away so I can get back to tradin' some coin.  Please.

CoinMan

Dang. Coinpal and Coincard are shut down, and now MtGox get's DDOS'd!

Because of uncertainties like this, I'm experimenting with selling bitcoins in a much more traditional way (on Ebay). See this thread for details:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7072.0

SmokeTooMuch and Mewantbitcoins,

If this is a "joke" why did he say "this is not a joke".  And if he didn't do it, why doesn't he come out and say "I didn't do it, I was just mad"?  Did you read his posts?  He said "Let's attack Mt. Gox!  Here is a bitcoin address to donate to."  Someone replied "This is bad joke if it is one.  You are making me lose confidence in your business."  Bitcoinex then said:  "I'm sorry, but I am actually serious.  It's worth it because I'm/you/someone is losing money because of Mt. Gox.  I might even feel sorry, but this is what happens with autoregulation in anarchy.  Say goodbye (to Mt. Gox) in advance 'just in case'."  Then later he said something about quitting his DDoS attack which I seem to remember was about the time I was able to briefly access my Mt. Gox account again.  Perhaps he's just an angry person trying to capitalize on someone else's attack and these are just a string of coincidences.  But until there is proof otherwise, I'm going with the current facts and believing what he said.  Either way I don't want to associate with him, because either he's attacking Mt. Gox, or pretending to and lying about it.  Either way he's going to lose major respect.

The Script,

can someone tell e what his grip is with mtgox? maybe the DOS is warranted?

whats the deal?

p.s. i just wired 2k to mtgox today, hope I can get it back.

WTF. Yes, of course.

Ah, damn! Since that junk came out now you get DDoS all around for any reason and no reason, now every lame in the planet can be "a h4x0r", even if he doesn't even know what that thing does indeed... "DDoS for the masses"  :P

Can someone explain me in one sentence how LOIC is different to other (d)dos tools existing in for decades? Why "ddos for the masses"? Is it using some ultra simple gui maybe to allow every lowbob to use it?

Yes

You can also give control of your bandwidth to a remote operator. Hassle free voluntary botnet.

Ha ha, excellent.  Thanks for posting, I missed this one.  So in the west professionals lie and deceive but he is not like them.  He only lies about committing DDoS attacks on Mt. Gox and later retracts that statement when he feels too much pressure.  I suppose we'll never know now, whether he really is responsible, but either way he is a liar. 

Your interpretation:

Original quote:

I guess he means that the focus on Mt Gox is serious problem. And he points out to the low costs of such an possible attack.

But I'm really tired of definding him -.-
He should make an own thread and clearly state the things as they are.

He should start his own thread in the Russian forum and have someone with a good command of English translate for him.  Because we can debate about his vague English posts as long as we want.

LOL, I can handle the translations.

I hope that I have not lost the original meaning.

Either way...   He is OBVIOUSLY a liar and cannot be trusted.

I sent BTC from my main wallet to my MT. GOX account does it normaly take up to 24hrs to see the btc in the account?
or they have issues? thanks

Does the tx have confirmations? If it does then you should have your funds by now.

I have a transfer with 12 confirmations that has not yet posted to Mt.Gox account.  In the past it took less than 6 confirmations.   I really wish Mt. Gox would show all of the "pending" transactions so that you can feel good that you did not enter the wrong BTC amount for the address he gave. 

you should certainly email them or get on #bitcoin-otc and ask MagicalTux what is going on with that transaction.

Everything was resolved with Mt. Gox with very helpful support.

Just update the thread, I'll leave it here.

The Tokyo District Court approved a plan for the civil rehabilitation of the bankrupt bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox. This was announced by the trustee Nobuyaki Kobayashi.
The trustee submitted a proposal to reimburse users in December 2020.
https://www.mtgox.com/img/pdf/20211116_announcement_en.pdf

https://i.ibb.co/kSCK6k0/2021-11-17-184100.jpg (https://www.mtgox.com/img/pdf/20211116_announcement_en.pdf)