Any trades?

Say a 5870/VF3000A+cash or BC?

I actually find the poll to be kinda premature.

For Mt.Gox, I have more questions than answers. And this could be a bad thing -- apparently many people think that Mark's just stalling for time while he prepares to escape with our money. (And I'll guess half of those people just want to drive the market down so they can buy more coins cheap...) It could also mean that right now they're trying to worry more about fixing things and moving forward than about what is said in the forums.

TradeHill is just too new and hasn't made much disclosure. Sure, they did an interview which I watched, where they talked about how they will have better security than Mt.Gox did. That's not actually saying much. And it isn't a third-party security audit either. So all we really actually have to judge them on the grounds of code stability and security ... is them saying it's so. And while a self serving statement like that can actually easily BE the truth, it's harder to accept as such.

And, yeah, I'm sorta kicking the puck down the road in not coming to a conclusion. Why? Because I wasn't in a rush to sell my coins. I do want to sell a handful of them because my roommate needs a new computer and I'm tired of fixing the piece of crap he has now... but I don't actually have to go sell mine right away, and even if I did sell some I wouldn't be selling them all. I have time to sit back and wait for more info before I decide who I should distrust less.

Yeah, distrust less. Because there is a lot of validity to the point that a lot of the people who are upset with Mt.Gox were as vulnerable as they were because of foolish practices on their own end. People who had their coins stolen from other sites because they used trivial passwords, and the same password everywhere, come to mind. This DOESN'T give Mt.Gox a pass -- far from it. Everyone who's upset that Mt.Gox was part of the attack vector has every right to be, even when they were the vector too.

No business deserves your absolute, complete, 100%, undisputed trust. Ever. Even if they're ethical and technically competent. Why? Because shit happens, sooner or later. Mt.Gox and TradeHill could both go get security audits, and both could pass, and that doesn't mean they're truly secure. Sooner or later a bug shows up in Apache. Or in SSL. Or in the Linux/BSD/Solaris/whatever kernel. Or someone hires a corrupt employee. Or an honest employee gets stupid. Or your best friend steals your password...

It's fair to expect businesses to be competent, and to take your dollars and bitcoins elsewhere when they screw up. It's prudent to expect them to screw up and limit what harm could befall you as a result.

Imagine Bitcoin's beginning, when its userbase was no more than 100 users.

At that time, even someone with a weak Pentium 4 could mint blocks of coins quite easily for him or herself.

Now, with individual Bitcoins worth more than USD or most other major currencies on a nominal basis, one must ask: Did the guy who wrote the Bitcoins software do this primarily to enrich himself in such an unorthodox manner? Additionally, the lack of clarity over the identity of the person who came up with this software raises my eyebrows.

It's not a Ponzi scheme, but if the guy who came up with this is holding 10% of the current Bitcoin supply for himself, then I think he's a genius. He might make millions.

First you overestimate by assuming that all mined coins are sold. I think 80%+ are kept. Rerun all those number with only a fifth the coins for sale.

Secondly, judging by the bids that got filled recent crash, there was millions of dollars worth sitting in open buy orders. There may be many millions more that just didn't get a chance to be involved in that trade. My point -- bitcoins are starting to become really big, and it has attracted some people willing to put some serious money down.

$170 million in 5 years is actually a really small market on a global scale. Small businesses make that much. For a comparison that might be close to home -- Dungeons and Dragons brings in $1 billion a year. And yet, very few people actually ever spend any money on it. M:TG doesn't release their stats, but people have estimated it could be greater than $5 billion a year.

So if bitcoins only become as big as magic the gathering (which, lets face it, not many people have heard of), we may see $25 billion in the next 5 years. By your simplistic calculations, that would put the price of a bitcoin at > $3,000.

I know some people made trades the other day and quickly cashed out while the market was taking a dive.  Mark said that these people would have negative account balance when they return.  So the person who sold the coins will have their coins back? .  I'm just wondering where they come from.  Mark said in the interview the other night (if I heard correctly) that they aren't taking any losses?

 

This is most definitely a scam, and I have proof.

Yesterday, he pointed out in a support request that about 230 BTC in this address was his on behalf of his customers:
http://blockexplorer.com/address/16k6KeqY13MEwXCKa6uMWvsg7Bmqq1TzXb

Thus far:
35.5 BTC haven't moved
At MINIMUM 78 BTC was change that is still in his control (if it was the other way around, it was 150)

That's 113.5 BTC that the thief decided to just leave. Yeah... BULLSHIT!

I know this comment adds absolutely nothing to this thread, but I can't help it so here it goes: What a fucking loser.

security problems are going to be the end of bitcoin.


I had almost 400 btc in my wallet on my linux box today. Someone was OBVIOUSLY watching the forums and either hacked me today or already had me hacked.

I had a very public LARGE business deal going and someone STOLE ALL OF THE BTC !!!!!

I was selling 10 XFX 6990's , I had 4 different buyers and I am completely screwed now!!!!!!


this is crazy, I really do not know what to do. i am going to get sued because some hacker scum bag

i was holding 400 btc of other peoples money and I was hacked today.

I have known this for hours but am just going public with it now. I really dont know what to do.

someone hacked my linux box and transfered out all this btc to some other accounts


FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

i am ruined.

at least if you keep real money in your house and someone tries to break in and steal it you can fight them off
but these hackers are sneaky as fuck i dont know what to do im like totally freaking out right now!

yeah... databases don't like to be blinked.

hmmm.

i'd try stashing my whole bitcoin client in some other directory, installing a new client, deleting the wallet and block index from the new client, putting the old wallet into it and starting it up.

look at your wallet.dat.

is it still there?

what is the 'last access' timestamp on the file?  does that fit with the last time you accessed it?

Permissions? File got locked?