If I had the option to get some decent leverage, I might consider being a market maker. I could very easily put more competitive prices than are currently up on almost every bid/ask. The problem is that I would have to tie up thousands of bitcoins in funds to do so, and it seems silly since most of them won't even be purchased. At the very least, I'd like to be able to place $1,000 worth of bids even though I only have $100, and if $100 worth gets picked up, my other bids would get removed. Pseudo-leverage. I can't really see any risk in that for you. As long as the system is careful about not over filling me. If everyone had this option, both on the USD side and the BTC side I think we'd see a lot more action happening.

As far as actual leverage, I don't really know how you could manage that. At current liquidity level (and any in the foreseeable future) it seems like you would be taking far too much risk. I can't see how you could force me out of a position if it starts to turn against me without much, much more liquidity.

I think the site would become a lot more popular if people saw bids and asks in a whole lot of different sections, even if the spread was wide and the prices not that great. Right now I can't really get into the position I want to even if I'm willing to pay a good bit above what I think fair.

PS - the numbers on my board are right justified, instead of centered. Makes the board look pretty crappy. I'm using firefox 4, windows 7.

PPS - Thursday at 00:00 is Thursday morning right?

I don't mean to mock, it was just a little bit out there on the scale of things people normally believe.

I wish I could hold so tightly to such a simplistic view of international politics. Exaggeration and unbridled hate is certainly easier that nuance and understanding.

You don't have to be mean, he was born that way. But seriously, Atlas is clearly above average intelligence. We all went though our ethical egoism phase. He'll grow out of it. Maybe. Personally I like Atlas's unwavering dedication to a cause. It is more than most people have. (I'm just teasing, Atlas is good people)

Another happy silk road customer.

Wow, that's a whole new level of crazy. You better be careful what you type on here, the implants the aliens put in your head on behalf of the US government might alert the NSA that one of their citizens is on to them. Even if that doesn't happen, you may still get a marked on the permanent MIB record as being unable to conform.

You might also want to lay off the silk road orders. At least for a few years. I think you've had enough.

You read a lot of Ayn Rand, don't you?

That's a good one. Is there any evidence that this is happening? Besides the nonsensical anonymous threat?

^this

Bitcoin will be a success if it captures 10% of online sales and is used heavily in some area that makes sense, like micro-transactions in online games. I don't think the goal of bitcoin is to overthrow the governments of the world. Other people differ on that point.

Bitcoin related websites seem to frequently be the targets of DDoS attacks nowadays. Now I'm not one for conspiracy theories. I don't really buy most of the market manipulation claims, and I certainly don't buy any secret government crackdown nonsense. But I do have to wonder, who is DDoS'ing bitcoin sites and why? Mt Gox has been going down about once a day. Deepbit is down once a day. And I know many other sites are suffering. Even the forums seem extra sluggish sometimes (but maybe that is just normal volume).

Stretching my imagination as far as it can go, I can only think of a few theories, none of them that plausible:

1) It is just some hacker group doing it for the lulz

This doesn't seem likely to me. Why target bitcoin? I would think most hacker/computer savvy personalities would like the idea of bitcoins.

2) Someone is _really_ pissed that he didn't get in on bitcoin earlier

This is just silly, but bitcoin does seem to attract 'haters'. Do you think someone hates enough to start DDoS'ing bitcoin sites?

3) Intentional attempts to drive the market prices down

Attempting to benefit by moving the market down only works it there is still a market afterwards. No one is "short selling" bitcoins, so I can't see how anyone could make a profit on bitcoin crashing and burning. Are they confidant that bitcoin will succeed long term but want low prices now, or are they just trying to create market froth for profit potential?

4) Some government/agency

I find this hard to swallow. It seems like a half-assed DDoS attack isn't the response a concerned agency would begin with. Furthermore, I still think bitcoins are too new and small to get any real attention.

5) A company threatened by bitcoin (aka visa, paypal)

Firstly, I don't think any big company would resort to these illegal tactics, and secondly I think bitcoin is still "under the radar".

6) Competitors to the DDos'ed websites (aka other pools and exchangesl)

I find it had to believe that any member of the bitcoin community would be short sited enough to damage the community as a whole to attempt to profit themselves. They need the community to be strong to survive. Although perhaps the pool DDoS'es are from a "concerned" member of the community trying to split up the big pools.



As I said before, none of these seem particularly likely to me. What are your thoughts? Are there other potential perpetrators? Who do you think is behind it. These acts are happening, and someone is doing it for some reason. I just can't fathom who or why? What is your theory?

Cool. Nice to see that people donated to meet the bounty. Awesome work community!

Were you here on "The day of Trolls"? It was horrible, and I think it only stopped because of the restrictions. I think anyone can handle 5 posts if they want in. Plus you can always browse the newbie forum if you want to see what they have to say...

Just put in a few trades. We'll see how this all works out. A couple of things:

First, I think the american options should stay. I know they are hard to manage with the volatility, but otherwise it seems like a crap shoot. I can feel 50% confidant that bitcoins will trade over $30 sometime in the next month, but whether it'll be above $30 in exactly a month seems far too shaky and dependent on rumor and naive speculation.

Second, I would really like to be able to exchange my USD when I don't have enough for a full bitcoin. It seems like often when I'm asking on calls, my math is often based on being able to reinvest the USD I get into bitcoins. If someone buys my $5 call, I want to be able to invest it into .25 bitcoins. This helps me raise the "break even" price, because as bitcoins go up, putting me in a worse position, the .25 bitcoins I purchased are also going up in value. There currently doesn't seem to be the volume to guarantee that I can get enough USD to buy a full bitcoin, so in the meantime, I would like to be able to purchase (and perhaps sell) fractions of a bitcoin. Just like I can at mt gox.

Also if I'm biding on a call, there is often low volume, so I can only get a couple at $2. But in order to have any cash I have to break a full bitcoin. Then I have $15-$20 left over, and it isn't enough to buy a full bitcoin. This makes it so that my hoped for scenario of bitcoins going up may actually cost me compared to leaving the bitcoin because I have some spare USD instead of .8 bitcoins.

I hope that all makes sense, I'm not sure if I'm up on the lingo.


EDIT: I thought of a feature I'd like to request. I'll like to be able to fill of bid or ask in existence by just clicking on it. Right now when you click on a bid or ask you see the amount available and other prices behind them. In this window I'd like to be able to click a "fill" button. This way, if I want to fill the order I don't have to enter all the exact same data into the order field.

Your computer is open to RDP??? Well then, attack vector found. But you were still personally targeted.

I personally doubt it was dropbox. The odds that someone who has access to files at dropbox knew what a wallet.dat was stumbled upon your file (which had been deleted) which happened to have half a million dollars worth of bitcoins on it is not even remotely likely. You were targeted by someone who knew what your bitcoin net worth was.

It can't be "exploitable c code" in the client. Allinvein's pool payout address was changed. Someone had completely compromised his system, but he is saying anti-virus software has found nothing. Something able to compromise his system so thoroughly would have used a know vector, and the anti virus would find it.

All evidence points to the fact that his computer was compromised physically. Contact the pool operator and see if they can give you the exact time the address was changed. This is likely the exact time the thief was on your computer.

I have no doubt that you can provide proof that you controlled the balance. You cannot, however, provide proof that you do not still control the balance. This crime is unprovable. Bitcoin's strength is also its weakness.

Exactly. How would one hacker randomly have access to both of you? It simply isn't likely. Furthermore the attack vectors were different, one was mt gox, the other your wallet and pool payout. I see know similarities at all. There is still a 99.9% chance that this was a physical attack by someone who new you, knew you had bitcoins, and is around your computer a lot.

Who had physical access to your computer around the time that your pool payout address was changed? They most likely grabbed your wallet at the same time they changed the payout address. By all the information you've given, this sounds like someone had physical access to your computer, copied your wallet and and later transferred everything out.

It is simple: who knew you owned a huge amount of bitcoins, and was near your computer when the pool payout address was changed? Seriously, make a list.

If you think no one has had access to your computer for long enough, who do you know that is slimy enough to actually sneak into your house? I give a 99.9% chance that this was a physical entry job.

Just to rule out the .1% chance that it was a hack, let me ask this: Have you downloaded anything recently related to bitcoins? A bitcoin generator? Anything that sounded too good to be true like a "free bitcoin program". If it was a trojan, it would most likely be targeted specifically at the bitcoin community.

P.S. I'm not sure I buy this story, but if it is true, you have my condolences.

That could be mt gox's holdings.