Bitcoin Forum

Umm... wtf? I cannot buy or sell bitcoins? While other exchanges trading as normal?

So far I have lost ~$40/BTC because the exchange says it wants to try to stabilize the market. How could this be allowed? If this happened outside of Bitcoins we'd see a class action lawsuit.

i don't know law in your country, but in my country stock excha, when panic sell, like btc right now, stock excha can temp shutdown to cooldown heat

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If it were more than just MT Gox then I obviously would not have a gripe.

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Yes, you are right.

Not like the Wall Street circuit breaker where a 5% drop in less than 15 minutes shuts down everything I hope, that would be really boring!

Along with the recent spike in price seems to have come a HUGE wave of IGNORANCE as to what bitcoin is, how it works, how it is different than nation backed fiat etc.

There is no reserve bank to protect you.  There is no central bank.  No set arbiter.  No real protection aside what you provide for yourself.  This is why some many libertarians, anarchists, and (perhaps unfortunately) criminals are attracted to bitcoin.

If you choose to do business with a company that offers a service it is 100% on YOU and them to make that relationship work.  Mt. Gox is just a business who takes a fee to exchange your BTC into other currencies.  Sue them if you want... or not.  Find yourself a Japanese lawyer I guess.

The is the wild wild west.  

This is the beginning of an idea that will change the world more than anything since the internet.  It might be bitcoin... it might be a better idea in the end.  Hard to say for sure now.

You want in on it then you are gonna have to take your chances.

You want "class action lawsuits"?  Then go back to where you started.

Fortunes are made HERE.  By the time there are things like class action lawsuits and stability...  the big action is over.

Horrible move by MtGox.

Down for emergency maintenance because we're being DDOS'd and overwhelmed with traffic: fine.
Down because we want to control trading: incredibly foolish.

Hopefully they get a clue and reopen as soon as they can handle traffic. In the meantime they should retract this "cooldown" statement immediately.

keep in mind this is a "currency" not stock. It is not a stock exchange stopping the orders it is a currency exchange. The fact the others are not following suit shows other exchanges do not believe what MT Gox believes and they still operating. Because others are still operating and MT. Gox is not, it is causing people to transfer their funds and panic sell at another exchange. I think this is hurting more then helping. It should be all in or nothing.  

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Then do business with an exchange that meets your requirements better.

I get being pissed off at Mt Gox for having and exercising such influence over BC but it is what it is, and if this currency is going to be truly free there can be no restrictions on how the users of it do business.  That includes them too.

How about panic buying? If price drops suddenly, everyone is screaming and exchanges are shutting down to "cool off" - but no intention of intervening when the price surges up?!

There are already people doing this. Isn't that why the prices are within $5 USD of each other on all the exchanges (at least for the ones that are up and executing trades anyway)?

I think it is a good idea to close the market for the time being. Hopefully for the last time.

A even better one, IMHO, for would be for MTGOX to actually SLOW down trades.

They should have it so you put in trades and there is an enforced, 5 minute delay before the trade sets. BTC is not USD,  so I don't see why they can't think out of the box and come up with an equally novel approach to their problems.

They did not have the [massive] infrastructure required to support the very, very high volume and bandwidth requirements that currency speculators operate at. By accumulating lag and falling behind processing trades they made the crash even worse I think.