Why people use Mt.Gox?

[Giftcoins]

No complaining or accusations here, all I'm interested are reasons as i really have hart time understanding why they are taking 80% of BTC trade.

BTC deposits take 4-5 times longer then on competitor exchanges
BTC withdrawals take 3-4 times longer

$$$ withdrawals over $10,000 take up to 2 weeks?!
So much verification and documentation is required for everything
verification takes 2 weeks at least.
Their AML policies make no sense at all, things could be handled differently if you know anything about how banking system works.
If you can accept $49,900 from someone without verification you should release the same amount as well, not $10,000 limits, 2 week processing, verifications, monthly limits, etc.
what if I sent $40k month ago and bought BTC, now i would have $100k+, how would I withdraw this? During 3 months time, or?


What would you guys fix here?

What would you like to see improved or removed?

I'm not using mtgox and don't plan to, just very curious why others do.

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[lucif]

I already moved out of gox. See sig. Enough shit from them.

[meebs]

momentum and volume.

They've been around the longest and have the most orders to buy and sell on their site. They also are kind of THE place to look at to determine what the price of a BTC is.

Feel free to check out alternatives like BTC-E, bitstamp and bitfloor if you'd like to support an alternative to the 900lb gorilla.

[malevolent]

Mt. Gox was one of the first exchanges and everyone knows them; one could say they are ''well established'' within the Bitcoin community.

Other exchanges often get hacked or die due to some legal issues (not like Mt. Gox never encountered any problems).

As for their AML/KYC policies, they gather more information than it is required from them (I think they even admitted to it somewhere last year but I can't find that post) because they want to be ''extra careful''. I am not from US but as far as I see the finance sector is very heavily regulated, especially after 2001; thence why it may be difficult for Americans to open bank accounts in many foreign countries.

Most of Bitcoin exchange is done through Mt. Gox and one blow (hack, govt seizing their bank accounts, etc.) and the price of Bitcoin globally (i.e. on all exchanges) falls fith-fold (just an estimate out of my ass), similarly to how it happened in June 2011, few weeks after I got involved with Bitcoin. I am now moving my funds to other exchanges, their trading lag was what finally prompted me to move and as Bitcoin increases in value we need its exchange to be more decentralized. 

[Giftcoins]

momentum and volume.

They've been around the longest and have the most orders to buy and sell on their site. They also are kind of THE place to look at to determine what the price of a BTC is.

Feel free to check out alternatives like BTC-E, bitstamp and bitfloor if you'd like to support an alternative to the 900lb gorilla.

Momentum and volume and yet most people trade small

Not sure, maybe it's just me but when dealing with money my main goal is to be able to get $$/BTC in and out of exchange fast with no hassle and delays.

[Giftcoins]

Mt. Gox was one of the first exchanges and everyone knows them; one could say they are ''well established'' within the Bitcoin community.

Other exchanges often get hacked or die due to some legal issues (not like Mt. Gox never encountered any problems).

As for their AML/KYC policies, they gather more information than it is required from them (I think they even admitted to it somewhere last year but I can't find that post) because they want to be ''extra careful''. I am not from US but as far as I see the finance sector is very heavily regulated, especially after 2001; thence why it may be difficult for Americans to open bank accounts in many foreign countries.

Bitstamp was only one that was not hacked, MtGox was seriously hacked

[Elwar]

I trust the few coins I have for exchanging on MtGox. I have the routine down of transferring money from my bank account to MtGox (through Dwolla).

I tried CoinBase, it was fairly straightforward to buy 1 BTC but I referred a friend to that site and he is pissed because he wanted 10 BTC and was only able to buy 1 at $93 and now has to wait for that to go through until he can buy more as the price climbs.

I like BitFloor but with the amount of money they owe, I do not see them making it, and thus the higher risk of them potentially owing me at some point.

I do admit that the verification part of MtGox sucked when trying to get money out. When I needed money quickly last fall I had to end up taking my bitcoins out and sending them to BitPay through my wife's business to get dollars.

Also, my buddy will not be able to get his MtGox account verified because we are out here in Afghanistan and have no utility bills to prove our residency.

I should check out the other exchanges but have not gotten around to it since I am already able to move money in and out of MtGox fairly easily.

Also, I believe you can request your $10k monthly limit get raised. It is more for your protection from being hacked than anything else.

[Bennmann]

Never used Gox, I use campbx because I can drive to their headquarters if I ever needed to and they haven't been hacked while maintaining respectable volume and security for several years.

[kokjo]

mtgox is proof that darwinism does not work.

[Nesetalis]

I personally use Virwox.
its Slower, it usually lags behind mtgox by up to 10 minutes. But this can be a good thing. if mtgox makes a huge swing, I can do a quick order on virwox and it will (probably) play catchup unless mtgox swings right back immediately.

[superduh]

mtgox is the defacto "standard"
however, it's not very good.. and with so much investment into this i'm surprised other higher quality competitors aren't able to come around.
this is life.. nothing makes sense

[opsd1]

I'm using a smaller exchange and like the greater spreads due to less volume.

There is a big sell order right now and if they throw in the towel, it will take out all the bids right down to $91.

My bid is in line

[Elwar]

Also the .55% exchange rate is pretty nice.

[HorseRider]

People should know that Mtgox detains Bitcoinica users' money and refuse to give it back. The liquidator which was appointed by the High Court of New zealand are considering taking legal action against this exchange.

[zvs]

Mt. Gox was one of the first exchanges and everyone knows them; one could say they are ''well established'' within the Bitcoin community.

Other exchanges often get hacked or die due to some legal issues (not like Mt. Gox never encountered any problems).

As for their AML/KYC policies, they gather more information than it is required from them (I think they even admitted to it somewhere last year but I can't find that post) because they want to be ''extra careful''. I am not from US but as far as I see the finance sector is very heavily regulated, especially after 2001; thence why it may be difficult for Americans to open bank accounts in many foreign countries.

Bitstamp was only one that was not hacked, MtGox was seriously hacked

yah, i still get spam emails from that crap.

[b1tm3]

Can someone list some other exchanges with some brief info on why they are better than Gox? Ive only ever used Gox and Ive never had any problems with them, but I agree that it would be good if trading was more evenly spread out across exchanges and the OTC market.

[superduh]

is there a reason they don't have stop loss etc? fear it can cause a crash?