Have just discovered that Bitstamp have decided to block BTC and Ripple withdrawals.  Without advising me by email in advance of doing so.  And not responding to support ticket requests that withdrawals be re-enabled.  Ostensibly it is to 'protect' customers due to 'phishing' attacks/email hacking.  Just leads us to the conclusion that their systems and their site are not actually very secure if they have to take these sorts of measures.

This refusal to honour withdrawal requests on demand seems very strange.  Hopefully they will reverse this quickly otherwise people might come to the conclusion that like Mt Gox Bitstamp don't have the BTC to honour withdrawal requests? 

Enquiring minds would like to know why BTC withdrawals from Bitstamp are blocked.

Bullion Bitcoin Limited, has launched bullionbitcoin.com, a web based gold to bitcoin exchange for professional investors. Bullion Bitcoin will enable the direct exchange of physical gold bullion and bitcoin between professional investors, in a regulated setting. 

Bullion Bitcoin has been developed by Bits of Proof, a leading bitcoin software developer with enterprise level expertise in bitcoin security solutions.   On the bitcoin side the exchange will set new standards in security, transparency and auditability, as Bits of Proof has developed a Secure Wallet enabling users to see their bitcoin holdings and exchange transactions directly on the Blockchain.  In addition the exchange will require multiple signatures to transact, as well as multiple signatures to authorise a withdrawal.  To further enhance wallet security, withdrawals will only be possible to a predefined bitcoin address verified by the Customer.

For more info visit bullionbitcoin.com

In case you haven't seen it.  It is better than radio silence at least. 

"Wallet Status Update

We sincerely apologise for the limited information that has been available up to now, but we have not had and are still short of facts to be able to make sufficient thorough official statements.

Most of what was recoverable from our servers and backups has now been restored and we are currently working on retrieving more information to get a better understanding of what exactly happened, and most of all what can be done to track down who did it.

1295 bitcoins in total were sent to an external wallet by the attackers.
https://blockchain.info/address/1LuG91tcSQxKj32BsCoRkX7yQLfj9LtkCs
Those bitcoins are not retrievable unless we can find the perpetrators and somehow make a demand they return the coins.
The Danish National IT Forensic Police department have agreed to assist us examining what data there is.

It appears that in order to file a police report for theft, we may need consent from all affected parties to lodge, as according to the police they can not classify this as a theft due to the current non regulation of bitcoin. We are currently looking in to details surrounding this further, awaiting a response from our lawyers and the police department.

Will there be any reimbursement available?
Please bear in mind that the wallet service was a free service and thus there has been 0 revenue generated from it. Hence BIPS is unable to reimburse bitcoins lost unless the stolen coins are retrieved.
We are discussing the possibility of a compensation plan with our legal advisors, but are unable to comment further on this for now.

Practical information:

There are a few account holders who have a small balance of bitcoins in their wallets after the attack. Some have also had payments sent to their BIPS wallet bitcoin addresses and we recovered these on November 19th sending them to an external wallet for safety reasons. These coins will naturally be available for withdrawal by the respective owners. Any bitcoins sent to old addresses after November 19th will also be available to withdraw by those they belong to.

Some merchants have accumulated sales that have been converted to Fiat over time, but not yet reached their minimum payouts. Their balances will also be available in their chosen currency with an option to have them paid out immediately or paid manually together with their new accumulated balance.

For all of the above instances, we are currently working on setting up a clone containing old wallet info and transactions, please grant us patience ..

Notice:

Our mailing system was wiped out during the attack and is still not restored. That means that if we send out mass emails, a large number of these will never reach their destination or end up in Spam folders (some email providers will even auto delete them).

Please check the news section of our helpdesk for more updates and information regularly in case you are amongst the ones who are not receiving our emails."

I suggested to Kris that we have a Skype conference call with him where we can find out what happened and discuss way forward.  This seems a way forward if BIPS wants to reach an agreed, amicable solution.

I might join if I knew where to start - that is why I wanted Kris' physical address - so we could serve notice on him... on the face of it it appears that the coins were just outright nicked... I guess he saw the price rise and couldn't resist it

I agree - it seems like a good holding strategy to keep our hopes alive and forestall more aggressive action.  

In the circumstances I do not understand this forgiving attitude from other people posting on this forum.  
I do not see any future for BIPS / Kris in the bitcoin community unless our balances are restored or at a minimum he comes totally clean and offers some recovery or a way to recover.  

These are our bitcoins. We trusted BIPS/Kris when they provided a consumer wallet.  BIPS were listed on bitcoin.org.  I do expect redress or at the very least a frank and open statement of the full position, something that has been notably absent.  

Just tell us the full unvarnished truth and set out a roadmap for recovery or recourse. Spare us all this smoke and mirrors stuff.  If the bitcoin are all gone and there is no hope of recovery Kris can at least have the courtesy be totally honest about this, provide full disclosure on what happened (including logs so we can all check where the coins went) and if he wants any future in the BTC community he can offer us shares in BIPS as partial compensation, fiat or some of his own bitcoins.  

does anyone have a physical address for BIPS? or a physical address for Kris where he might be visited? 

We are getting together a group of people who have lost money as a result of this scheme.  Please get in touch if you have lost bitcoins in this scam.  Curiously we have a number of US holders - can't think it would be ideal for Kris if it were reported to the US authorities that he had breached US law by for example offering securities to US persons without being registered with the SEC.  Orange jumpsuit, perp walk and dungeon time for him. 

I don't see how there can be any future for Kris or BIPS in the bitcoin community.    There should be a blacklist on which we list people who take people's bitcoins and fail to show their face afterwards.  Shall we leave it to private enterprise to organise such a blacklist?  Or would the bitcoin.org guys like to add a page on which we list these sorts of people so people can check it?

This is terrible.  And all the comments here are on target.  Communication from BIPS is terrible. 

First priority is getting the BTC back. 

BIPS has no future unless the BTC come back so there is no point working 24/7 to re-establish anything else.

ghenghis - I have signed up to your list.  As I suspected it is all gone.  As BIPS is listed as one of the 'preferred' web wallet options in bitcoin.org (alongside Blockchain and Coinbase) I would have thought they were a little better prepared - they are not exactly a newly established exchange in E Europe. And what are they doing with their site up?  They don't seriously expect to continue in the merchanting business after this do they?

It would appear BIPS has lost most or all the bitcoins that were held in its consumer wallets, among them some of mine.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252308.msg3645043#msg3645043https://bips.me/press

There seems to be a conspiracy of silence around this. 
And now they have put the payments part of the site back up, without any announcement - do they plan to try and pretend that nothing has happened?

Strange as BIPS is shown on the original bitcoin.org page as a ‘recommended’ web wallet. 


Why are they still shown on bitcoin.org as a 'recommended' web wallet?