Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: flug on June 20, 2011, 11:25:14 AM



Title: Organized run on the exchanges!
Post by: flug on June 20, 2011, 11:25:14 AM
People may hate me for this, especially at this time, but my intentions are good so...

One of the scams that big holders of gold and other money constantly pull is fractional reserve banking. Because of this, bank runs (i.e. taking back what's rightfully yours) can cause a problem. One of the great things about Bitcoin is how easy it is to transfer bitcoins quickly. Thus, it should be possible to test the integrity of any bank's, or exchange's, bitcoin reserves by everyone quickly transferring bitcoins out then back in to an exchange.

Alas, I just realized that big withdrawals are prohibited for security reasons. Hmmm. I'll post this anyway, in case it sparks off some other ideas along the same lines.


Title: Re: Organized run on the exchanges!
Post by: nhodges on June 20, 2011, 04:17:32 PM
Here's the Wiki for people who want to know what kind of schemes go on behind the scenes of fractional-reserve banking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking