So, has anybody else noticed that, if you view the source for Mt. Gox's "blank" webpage, it contains a comment:


I don't really have a comment about this. Just noticing...

Not only that, but I hate to see people (possibly) aiding Karpeles in his attempt to manipulate the market in order to make MtGox solvent.

If you believe what some people are saying here, then the BTC withdrawal freeze is an attempt to drive the price down so that MtGox can afford to buy the BTC they're going to need when they unfreeze withdrawals and everybody runs for the exit and tries to transfer their BTC out.

If that's true, then I'd prefer to see everybody cancel their sell orders to keep the price from dropping. I know they're thinking that they'd rather get *some* fiat for their BTC, but this means that Karpeles might be able to actually pull it off. Personally, I'd rather risk losing my BTC in order to make Karpeles conclude that this gambit isn't going to work and force him to finally come clean about how he screwed up.

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me, there. Out of the blue, I had "Your account has been restricted..." with no explanation on how to unrestrict it. I emailed the address they gave. No reply. I used the form on their web page. No reply. I used their support forum. No reply.

Finally, I just started emailing them the same email (asking them to explain why I was frozen) several times per day for about 4-5 days. After a few days of this, they finally responded that it's because I used BitInstant, and that I need to mail them (postal mail, mind you... to Japan) copies of my gov't ID and a utility bill.

"I can't use email?!?! Don't you guys have a public key you can send me and I can send them encrypted?" - I asked?

With that, they unrestricted my account enough so that I could upload, through their site, scans of the docs they wanted. A day after that, they unrestricted my account. (and then, I immediately tried to withdraw my BTC to my local wallet, and the transaction failed. I went to try again and saw the notice that BTC withdrawals had been suspended. Yup... I almost got out. Timing really is everything in life...)

But I'm still scratching my head: Why do they restrict the accounts so much that people can't even submit their verification documents?!?!

Mt. Gox couldn't find their ass with both hands.

Indeed. In fact, I kinda want to see if we can find one of the last people to get all of their BTC out before the gate slammed shut... maybe we can buy him a cake to express how badly we wish we had the foresight that he/she did.

Even before this fiasco, I was starting to feel that the BTC were safer in my *own* wallet than with an exchange. Now, with Bitstamp's suspension of withdrawals, I think it is going to cause a lot more people to hold their own BTC. This episode has really brought into focus the fact that the exchanges' priorities really are not aligned with those of the depositors.

... and how did they do this, exactly? They could try to buy BTC with their own cash reserves (which I'm not sure they had enough cash to do), or they could adjust everybody's buy/sell orders up a bit, but someone would notice and call attention to it, and I haven't seen *that* happen, either. So, explain to me how they can magically cause BTC sellers to have more cash in their pockets after selling at MtGox.

Keep in mind that what you're describing is the same as when countries try to enforce a certain exchange rate for their currency versus another country's currency. In just about every case, it fails. The central bank just isn't big enough to outweigh the whims of the rest of the market.

Where's the record of this sale in the blockchain? How do you know it's 40,000 BTC? Where's the evidence that they've sold any depositors' BTC or that 40,000 BTC was what they had to sell?

I'm not sure Karpeles is insane enough to gamble like that with depositors' assets. Keep in mind that BTC is a preferred currency for those who don't care much for laws (Silk Road, anybody), and, in this age of the internet, it's getting increasing difficult to hide from people who want to track you down. Surely, Karpeles woud know that, if he went down that road (of gambling with other people's money), it would end with him bleeding out in a dark alley somewhere.

Like I said... I can't imagine that he's that crazy.

Well, even if there's a run, I tend to think that they'll have all of the BTC balances ready to give out. The gov't seized some of their dollars, but I haven't heard anything about anybody seizing or stealing their BTC. Only if MtGox has been speculating by either selling or loaning or otherwise "converting" their BTC deposits to other instruments (a huge no-no) would they be without the BTC to give out to fleeing customers.

What I find rather amusing is the fact that, in 24 hours, MtGox has gone from having abnormally high BTC prices (because dollars were tough to get out of MtGox, so they weren't worth as much as BTC, which you could get out quicker). Now that they've frozen all BTC withdrawals, everybody there wants dollars more than BTC because, even if it takes weeks/months to get your USD out, it's better than BTC which you can't at all.

As much as I despise MtGox, this is the one time when I wish I had some cash there, so I could buy BTC at a discount. Like I said, I'm more confident that they have the BTC to cover everybody's balances than USD.

So, I've got the BC client running on my PC for about 2 weeks now.... with ZERO bitcoins to show for it.

The FAQ says that, after I get all of the blocks from the network, "Your average coin creation rate will be (6 * 50 coins / hour) * (your CPU speed / the total CPU speed in the Bitcoin network). At the moment (June 2010) it might be something like 50 coins / day, for example."

Well, I checked the wiki and my clock count matches the count they have there (69649). And the 50 coins / day is a figure that was given for just a month ago.

Right now, I'm doing about 400 khash/s, and I've yet to see a single coin.

Ideas?