GLBSE is offline We will update our users on Saturday.

[lebing]

From the site:

GLBSE is offline

For those worried about their bitcoin, please calm yourselves there has been no hack and your coins are safe and all accounted for.

I apologize for the lack of notice and the downtime, but there isn't much choice. We will update our users on Saturday.

[Blind]

Bitcoin should be worth at least 100$ each on entertainment value alone...

This is as entertaining as watching your severed limbs to squirt blood.

[isis]

I have talked to James.
I can give you guys a small unofficial update.
James can't reveal any details until the official statement, but he says the coins are fine and that there has been no hack or bug.

He also hinted upon legal issues, which leads me to believe that the reason GLBSE was taken down was due to legal issues probably SEC or something similar.
//DeaDTerra

Thanks for the update! This is looking very bad though. This could take many months to solve.

Bitcoin should be worth at least 100$ each on entertainment value alone...

The SEC or some of entity probably cracked down or threatened to.
Besides the fact that they have been randomly delisting stocks with no notice to shareholders, there are people hunting pirate right now and a bunch of other scams & bs that GLBSE was very laisse faire about.  Technically that makes them and their owners complicit in fraud.
 
However my feeling is that they weren't shut down per se, merely advised to shutdown, probably by their attorney, until a determination of legality could be made and a course of action could be taken.

Protip guys, don't start a business like this without first hiring a lawyer who specializes in finance & securities law, period.

At the moment they probably have a forward going safe harbor under the jobs act.  However prior to the enactment of that they are very likely to be found as having operated a broker/dealer without a license.  Unfortunately that's the type of thing that prevents you from ever getting one.

[Korbman]

Each equity should have its own separate website where users can buy and sell the security.

I think a whitelabel site would be a great idea.  git clone, bootstrap and configure, and go from there.  Account management would be tough unless there was federation, but underwriters could choose with whom they would federate for quick transfers.  If they don't trust or even like you, you don't get to participate in the StarCoin Alliance.

You could rapidly define and ensure a minimum level of security including cold wallets, openid or certificate based auth, a simple accounting backend, etc. by making them out of the box.

Mind starting a thread on features and prioritizing functionality into "can't do without", "important to have", and "wouldn't it be nice?"

That would be super cool and fantastically easier to manage from my point of view...or at least organized a bit better.

People need to calm down geeze lol

Easier said than done. Many people have quite a bit of money tied up here, and even though the page states not to worry about their coins there's still quite a bit of uncertainty that has a lot of people second guessing themselves. Historically, if someone says "Don't Panic" it's usually the time when panicking is a good option.

[Digigami]

Sigh.. I knew I should have sold my assets this week 

[Bitinvestor]

I feel sorry for anyone who didn't pull out after learning that the SEC guy knew something would be happening with GLBSE.

I missed that -- does anybody have a link for it?

[reeses]

Each equity should have its own separate website where users can buy and sell the security.

I think a whitelabel site would be a great idea.  git clone, bootstrap and configure, and go from there.  Account management would be tough unless there was federation, but underwriters could choose with whom they would federate for quick transfers.  If they don't trust or even like you, you don't get to participate in the StarCoin Alliance.

You could rapidly define and ensure a minimum level of security including cold wallets, openid or certificate based auth, a simple accounting backend, etc. by making them out of the box.

Mind starting a thread on features and prioritizing functionality into "can't do without", "important to have", and "wouldn't it be nice?"

That would be super cool and fantastically easier to manage from my point of view...or at least organized a bit better.

I don't have time to do product management on something like this, but could contribute code and advice.

[SlaveInDebt]

I feel sorry for anyone who didn't pull out after learning that the SEC guy knew something would be happening with GLBSE.

I missed that -- does anybody have a link for it?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=112438.0

[nedbert9]

I have talked to James.
I can give you guys a small unofficial update.
James can't reveal any details until the official statement, but he says the coins are fine and that there has been no hack or bug.

He also hinted upon legal issues, which leads me to believe that the reason GLBSE was taken down was due to legal issues probably SEC or something similar.
//DeaDTerra

Thanks for the update! This is looking very bad though. This could take many months to solve.

Bitcoin should be worth at least 100$ each on entertainment value alone...

The SEC or some of entity probably cracked down or threatened to.
Besides the fact that they have been randomly delisting stocks with no notice to shareholders, there are people hunting pirate right now and a bunch of other scams & bs that GLBSE was very laisse faire about.  Technically that makes them and their owners complicit in fraud.
 
However my feeling is that they weren't shut down per se, merely advised to shutdown, probably by their attorney, until a determination of legality could be made and a course of action could be taken.

Protip guys, don't start a business like this without first hiring a lawyer who specializes in finance & securities law, period.

At the moment they probably have a forward going safe harbor under the jobs act.  However prior to the enactment of that they are very likely to be found as having operated a broker/dealer without a license.  Unfortunately that's the type of thing that prevents you from ever getting one.

Good points.

Broker/Dealer combined = bad, bad, bad.   Bad.  

Any risk to GLBSE or any similarly structured securities operation is a risk possibly equating to a complete loss.


Research Open Transactions for securities ownership/trading.  Securities ownership is P2P, so ownership is easily proven, and the trading is mediated by the OT servers.  Counter-party risk remains, but removes mediator risk to a large extent.

[MPOE-PR]

Each equity should have its own separate website where users can buy and sell the security.

No, you should just shut up and get lost, shillboy.

Or do I need to pull up all the shit you were flinging at the actual exchange to defend the scam exchange?

Buy some shame, will you.

WTF. No statement, just going offline.

And another time they show their lack of professionalism.

Same goes for you.

[caveden]

Protip guys, don't start a business like this without first hiring a lawyer who specializes in finance & securities law, period.

In other words, don't start a business like this without first being a millionaire, or having one to back you up. (it won't stop on "hiring a lawyer")

[tvbcof]

This makes me worried, but I think that Nefario will be able to handle it well.

I wonder if he will live up to his name.  I'm not sure that anyone would, back in the dawn of Bitcoin time, choose 'nefarious' as a moniker unless the concept was floating around in his mind at some level.  MNW had the good sense to change his bitcointalk.org (formerly part of bitcoin.org) when he decided to try to play Mr. Legitimate.

[MPOE-PR]

Lack of explanation implies lawyers got involved. Wait and see what happens.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Saturday should be an interesting day.

No, lawyers getting involved implies lack of comments. Lack of comments implies nothing. Implications aren't two way, you know.

Lack of explanation implies lawyers got involved. Wait and see what happens.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Saturday should be an interesting day.

Agreed. If it was migrating servers or something like it, he would have put it on there and would even have announced it before hand. The fact that he doesnt means he doesnt want to talk about the real reason yet. A SEC or criminal investigation seems like a good bet, and also matches with the fact Nefario hasnt been communicating for quite some time now.

Anyone have an idea how much money we are talking about here? The combined asset value?

150k BTC asset value or so, I imagine most peeps didn't keep much of a BTC balance on GLBSE.  Probably less then 20k BTC on the exchange.

Aggregate value of all GLBSE assets was in the 50k range. It's conceivable 2-5k of that was in cash balances.

Protip guys, don't start a business like this without first hiring a lawyer who specializes in finance & securities law, period.

In other words, don't start a business like this without first being a millionaire, or having one to back you up. (it won't stop on "hiring a lawyer")

That is exactly true, and exactly the reason MPEx ate everyone's lunch.

[thebaron]

Bitcoin should be worth at least 100$ each on entertainment value alone...

This is as entertaining as watching your severed limbs to squirt blood.

Some people are into that.

[Ilikeham]

Christ that Mpex site looks like the last place I'd send a bitcoin. If you're here slagging the competition it rings even more true.

[MPOE-PR]

Christ that Mpex site looks like the last place I'd send a bitcoin. If you're here slagging the competition it rings even more true.

Keep sending them by looks and soon enough you won't have any left and we won't have to hear from you ever again.

Tried and tested by so many before....

[Ilikeham]

Christ that Mpex site looks like the last place I'd send a bitcoin. If you're here slagging the competition it rings even more true.

Keep sending them by looks and soon enough you won't have any left and we won't have to hear from you ever again.

Tried and tested by so many before....

I've reviewed your posts, you are definitely not worth doing business with , but carry on. Iggy button on.

[Namworld]

Christ that Mpex site looks like the last place I'd send a bitcoin. If you're here slagging the competition it rings even more true.

Keep sending them by looks and soon enough you won't have any left and we won't have to hear from you ever again.

Tried and tested by so many before....

I've reviewed your posts, you are definitely not worth doing business with , but carry on. Iggy button on.

Although I'm really not fan of the PR person MPEx chose, MPEx is a perfectly OK exchange. The fact it issues such great companies as SatoshiDice or BitVPS and is the only one to offer options is a major plus too.

[repentance]

Protip guys, don't start a business like this without first hiring a lawyer who specializes in finance & securities law, period.

In other words, don't start a business like this without first being a millionaire, or having one to back you up. (it won't stop on "hiring a lawyer")

This is pretty much true.  People wrongly perceive the barriers to entry into the Bitcoin financial services market as being low - they pretty much believe that all they need to be successful is an idea and a website.  Those who enter the market believing that are likely to fail quite spectacularly.

[Xian01]

Captain Hindsight says "It's stunning to me that people would entrust money to aliases such as Pirateat40 and Nefario"