There's hardly anyone there any more other than trapped shorters?

It is indeed a full on liability, but they're dysfunctional and not insolvent. I get the feeling their legal and regulatory set up is a such a kludge that they'll never be able to find another banking relationship.

Let's not forget that their problems aren't Bitfinex specific. Many other places operating through Taiwan have the same problem and they all chose Taiwan because its regulations are slacker than elsewhere. It won't go back to how it was whatever happens.

They should do a one time fiat closure, which surely must be possible, and then switch to crypto only. They might end up making more money. I still wouldn't use them.

Well, it is a forum explicitly for BTC extremists. You'll find a more balanced opinion on bitcoinisumyeahkindofokayIguesstalk.org but it's pretty slow these days.

https://medium.com/bitpay-on-bitcoin/bitpay-enters-agreement-with-bitmain-to-develop-open-source-blockchain-security-software-9de2b48b452c

What do people make of this?

I'd say Bitpay is probably the most influential entity beyond developers and miners in the Bitcoin space. They've also shown plenty of commitment to working for the greater good. In the past they've said also they were working on off chain payment solutions.

Will this partnership come up with ideas that are palatable to everyone or will it descend into further screeching?

Good luck with the sale. It's a rather damning indictment of Poloniex's customer service that this has any value. No doubt you'll get it from someone.

So will Bitcoin. That didn't stop countless thousands of people being raped by whales over a period of years, and they maybe still are in the process of being tickled up and down.

The quality of a project has nothing to do with how badly it'll burn freshly hatched greedheads.

I disagree. For better or worse the potential for pumpage is higher this time. There's a generation of hardened holders, there are better reasons to hold, there are more reasons to buy and fewer options to buy, exchange options seem to be contracting quite rapidly.

Look at the gaps opening between Bitstamp and GDAX and they're both fully functional. There's more money being pushed through narrower pipes. If there was ever full on FOMO again it would be more explosive. In the last few years there hasn't been a breath of that which is why it feels like it won't be returning. It will at some point.

Agreed about the alts though. People will be hosed eventually.

I'm yet to be convinced and I'm yet to be convinced by this rise in general. If it had occurred when everything was normal I'd be far more content.


They may be greedy but they're not stupid.

Bless 'em. I prefer being told when to buy. And now is not the time.

Yup. But also lack of audits, zero updates on the hack other than saying it's 'sensitive', the CEO admitting he trades on the exchange himself, not knowing who anyone is or where they are, their involvement in Tether which is basically a giant regulatory and legal hack that won't survive any genuine pressure or scrutiny, their weirdly convenient string of outages when the market was heating up, and not telling anyone that their banking had failed for nearly two weeks.

None of that is good enough in this day and age.

You're right, but it was more of a screed about not trusting any exchange which blatantly has no comebacks.

BFX have managed to stay in the game but I've never been able to understand why they won't be more transparent.

I first got into Bitcoin in early/mid 2013. At that point Gox was still touted as the go to place.

After five minutes of googling I discovered the following - In a far off land, check. Completely unregulated, check. Previously hacked, check. Passwords showing up in the browser, check. Legal problems, check. Run by some incomprehensible weirdo on a beach ball, check.

it was perfectly obvious to me that it was a dangerous shit hole so I never went anywhere near it. You would have to have been stunningly dim to trust it. And I'm not saying that with the luxury of hindsight.

I remember when it first started to really look like it was dying. People were saying it was too big to fail. It was still a handful of assholes in a rented office. My feeling that Bitcoiners don't have much to do with the real world persists to this day.

Obviously there was little or no alternative for a long time and Bitcoin wouldn't be where it is without it, but I still went straight to Localbitcoins and stayed there.

And I find it pretty depressing that somewhere as shady as BFX still plays a major role to this day. It should be gone by now.

My main Bitcoin expenditure used to be on Cex which is a second hand electronics chain, but they've now stopped accepting Bitcoin. Now all I do is gift cards through giftoff.com and I hope they stick with it or I'm screwed.

Giving up on BTC is likely to be a trend that'll accelerate. Bitcoin has pretty much failed for retail. Maybe it'll try again in the future.

I would like to hear what people think about the role played in BFX's current woes and what it might be doing to the price at present.

Is it a key factor that's created some sort of feedback loop? An unfortunate and ever fading sideshow in action that was inevitable anyway? A large and fresh Willy lurking in an alleyway waiting to slip all the way up?

Share your wisdoms.

No doubt he feels sorry for you too in his own strange little way. At least that'll be some comfort for him in the dark years ahead.

No. It's right, albeit not phrased too well. The premiums go mental when there's a sudden rise because they're preying on the FOMO. If there's none then they almost disappear.

Hey, let's keep it matronly. They only want the best for us. Or something.

Now there if ever was a pisspoor call. I assume he believed we'd all be suckling on the benevolent udders of the Unlimited twins by now. Can't win 'em all I suppose.

The big companies like Xapo, Coinbase aside, how many custodial wallets are left?

I find it mind bending that someone would use an obscure one after stuff like the Tradefortress thing, yet I still see people popping up on here mentioning problems with wallets I've never heard of.

More and more people will end up with insanely lopsided amounts of their wealth in crypto by doing nothing and waiting. The question is in that scenario could you bring yourself to diversify? What else is out there?