Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[creekbore]

My god, I'm starting to want the price to go up just so we can see the back of these stupid doom trolls more than anything else.

I doubt that will get rid of them. It hasn't any other time. Their envy is palpable. Their presence is the price of our success.

They always seem to come out more when the price is down by any amount for any amount of time for any reason. They just sound ridiculous when prices are on the way up so they shut up.

I don't mind a good bear. I even find myself agreeing with some of them short-term on occasion and take some good-natured ribbing in good spirits. It's just the incessant bleating gets tiresome (and I know that that is the desired effect so this isn't meant for their ears, just a general grouse). I still have no one on my ignore list but it gets tempting sometimes.

No-one knows the future.

In the traditional sense both bulls and bears are looking for profits, just over different timescales, so I often find this bulls/bears polarisation both misleading and unhelpful.

The only thing for certain is that BTC needs wider adoption and therefore newcomers should be welcomed.  If they don't share your personal optimism then this is the perfect opportunity to communicate the strengths of BTC.

You can't argue that the poster is correct in that the mainstream media is very 'down' on BTC at present and the perception is that the fundamentals have taken a knock.  It's going to be a rocky few weeks/months IMHO and although BTC is extremely resilient, it will only succeed by its supporters being positive and engaging its critics, not simply taking refuge in a static point of view or being personally aggressive.

[Richy_T]

My emotions are telling me to buy back in BIG right now.  

But my gut says I need to wait a little bit more.

So, yeah... I am waiting. And I fucking hate waiting.

Guess I was doing pretty well by not stepping in.

Got back from work and it already dropped to $380.

That sounds so alien to those of us trading real bitcoins on real exchanges. The price is so out of whack. Perhaps we need an exclusively gox wall observer to avoid the confusion.

That's what this thread was In fact, it started out as hardcore without the pics and jokes. What Risto's thread has ultimately become.

[billyjoeallen]

Willie is back dumping 100s of coins every few minutes on gox. I have a theory that this whole crash is being caused by one early adopter that put way too much faith in gox, leaving thousands of coins in there, and he fears they don't actually have his coins now so he's selling to be able to get something back when they default.

If you have a bunch of money and you have a good (but small fraction of your overall wealth) amount of coins on Gox and you're pissed off with them and you expect you're probably not going to see your coins or fiat ever again, it might be tempting to dump just to make Gox look even more ridiculous.

This is the most likely reason.

I respectfully disagree. Trading fake money for fake coins is either just a video game or a way to manipulate the real markets.

[xulescu]

Ladies and gentlemen, proof that Mt. Gox works better than expected: statistically, the price traces an excellent typical example of a Geometric Brownian Motion:

[Richy_T]

You can't argue that the poster is correct in that the mainstream media is very 'down' on BTC at present and the perception is that the fundamentals have taken a knock.  It's going to be a rocky few weeks/months IMHO and although BTC is extremely resilient, it will only succeed by its supporters being positive and engaging its critics, not simply taking refuge in a static point of view or being personally aggressive.

True enough. But as the blockchain fork and the silk road debacle showed, when Bitcoin takes a knock and survives in good shape, it just comes back even stronger.

The main issue that Bitcoin appears to have right know is that a broken Gox is clinging on and stinking up the place. It either needs to fix its shit and get everything working or go under (preferably in a graceful way without disappearing with everyone's coins or fiat). I'd prefer the former if it can be done in a reasonable timescale without stringing people along.

If Gox can't get the fiat thing sorted out, it needs to suspend deposits in those currencies that can't be withdrawn and offer to sell Bitcoins to those with accounts holding those currencies at the current rate on other exchanges or their own (whichever is lower. Which will be other exchanges if BTC withdrawals get fixed). Then if BTC withdrawals are still not fixed, it needs to start processing them manually, firstly for those who are looking to get fiat out and then for anyone else who wants their bitcoins out.

They won't of course. Too arrogant. Or possibly they don't have the funds (I don't subscribe to that viewpoint but it's difficult do explain some of the shit they're up to any other way).

[creekbore]

You can't argue that the poster is correct in that the mainstream media is very 'down' on BTC at present and the perception is that the fundamentals have taken a knock.  It's going to be a rocky few weeks/months IMHO and although BTC is extremely resilient, it will only succeed by its supporters being positive and engaging its critics, not simply taking refuge in a static point of view or being personally aggressive.

True enough. But as the blockchain fork and the silk road debacle showed, when Bitcoin takes a knock and survives in good shape, it just comes back even stronger.

The main issue that Bitcoin appears to have right know is that a broken Gox is clinging on and stinking up the place. It either needs to fix its shit and get everything working or go under (preferably in a graceful way without disappearing with everyone's coins or fiat). I'd prefer the former if it can be done in a reasonable timescale without stringing people along.

If Gox can't get the fiat thing sorted out, it needs to suspend deposits in those currencies that can't be withdrawn and offer to sell Bitcoins to those with accounts holding those currencies at the current rate on other exchanges or their own (whichever is lower. Which will be other exchanges if BTC withdrawals get fixed). Then if BTC withdrawals are still not fixed, it needs to start processing them manually, firstly for those who are looking to get fiat out and then for anyone else who wants their bitcoins out.

They won't of course. Too arrogant. Or possibly they don't have the funds (I don't subscribe to that viewpoint but it's difficult do explain some of the shit they're up to any other way).

Absolutely agree.

Mark needs to employ some savvy strategic and PR people, perhaps retire completely.
In many ways Gox needs to survive but to operate very differently and with more enlightened leadership.

[billyjoeallen]

ok, here's a hypothesis I haven't seen before: Mark is not intentionally manipulating anything and not profiting from Gox's troubles. Instead, he's just a bad manager and it's one or more of his underlings who are exploiting their inside knowledge and/or influence without his knowledge or consent. Whaddya think?

The guy's a programmer and obviously not a "people" person.

[yrtrnc]

Mtgox is in a freefall.

[BlackFlag]

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/Bitcoin-withdrawals-are-once-again-fully-automated/

BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE ONCE AGAIN FULLY AUTOMATED
Dear Bitstamp clients,

After rigorous testing, we have restored fully automated processing for Bitcoin withdrawals.

Unforeseen incidents like this DoS attack against an edge case in the Bitcoin protocol are to be expected with such a young technology. The core protocol remains sound and the world has seen how these incidents are addressed by the Bitcoin community. Every challenge that is successfully overcome is a milestone that allows the world to grow their confidence in Bitcoin.

We recognize that for many of clients the inability to make withdrawals may have been stressful and we are thankful for your patience and understanding.

Best regards,

The Bitstamp team

[yrtrnc]

I find extremely unethical that Gox allows deposits knowing their withdrawal system is completely useless. then again, why would people want to deposit anything in Gox?

The lure of buying cheap coins of course.

[billyjoeallen]

 It's going to be a rocky few weeks/months IMHO and although BTC is extremely resilient, it will only succeed by its supporters being positive and engaging its critics, not simply taking refuge in a static point of view or being personally aggressive.

Legit critics are one thing, but we have finite resources, so we have to attempt to distinguish between trolls, sophists, and the rare fertile mind where the seed of knowledge may take root.

[dmiceman]

Dear Mt. Gox Customers,

In order to implement our solution to the “transaction malleability” issue being
faced by bitcoin exchanges and businesses, we are going to have a 6-hour
downtime on all bitcoin deposits and internal bitcoin transfers in addition to the
current pause on bitcoin withdrawals. Trading will otherwise still be open as
usual.

Maintenance Schedule (approximate):

6pm ~ 12am JST (February 15
th
)

The above downtime period is approximate: it may be shortened or lengthened
as required. Once the implementation is complete customers will again be able
to deposit bitcoin, but we will be doing extensive testing before bitcoin
withdrawals are reactivated. We will publish an update on the situation on
Monday .

BlockChain.info have implemented changes to address the malleability issue.
Our solution should work in the short term, while a longer-term solution is being
discussed with the Bitcoin Core Dev team and the Bitcoin Foundation. We are
also discussing this with other exchanges and businesses.

Thank you for your support during the maintenance, and we will update you on
the progress shortly.

Best regards,

MtGox Team

Down we go.

[medialab101]

Dear Mt. Gox Customers,

In order to implement our solution to the “transaction malleability” issue being
faced by bitcoin exchanges and businesses, we are going to have a 6-hour
downtime on all bitcoin deposits and internal bitcoin transfers in addition to the
current pause on bitcoin withdrawals. Trading will otherwise still be open as
usual.

Maintenance Schedule (approximate):

6pm ~ 12am JST (February 15
th
)

The above downtime period is approximate: it may be shortened or lengthened
as required. Once the implementation is complete customers will again be able
to deposit bitcoin, but we will be doing extensive testing before bitcoin
withdrawals are reactivated. We will publish an update on the situation on
Monday .

BlockChain.info have implemented changes to address the malleability issue.
Our solution should work in the short term, while a longer-term solution is being
discussed with the Bitcoin Core Dev team and the Bitcoin Foundation. We are
also discussing this with other exchanges and businesses.

Thank you for your support during the maintenance, and we will update you on
the progress shortly.

Best regards,

MtGox Team

Down we go.

Up we go.

[medialab101]

That seems like good news. Patch today, testing tomorrow, possibly withdrawals reinstituted by Monday...

And all the time no break in trading... only change is that Bitcoin deposits are stalled for 6 hours... and who in their right mind would deposit Bitcoin now.

[F-bernanke]

Dear Mt. Gox Customers,

In order to implement our solution to the “transaction malleability” issue being
faced by bitcoin exchanges and businesses, we are going to have a 6-hour
downtime on all bitcoin deposits and internal bitcoin transfers in addition to the
current pause on bitcoin withdrawals. Trading will otherwise still be open as
usual.

Maintenance Schedule (approximate):

6pm ~ 12am JST (February 15
th
)

The above downtime period is approximate: it may be shortened or lengthened
as required. Once the implementation is complete customers will again be able
to deposit bitcoin, but we will be doing extensive testing before bitcoin
withdrawals are reactivated. We will publish an update on the situation on
Monday .

BlockChain.info have implemented changes to address the malleability issue.
Our solution should work in the short term, while a longer-term solution is being
discussed with the Bitcoin Core Dev team and the Bitcoin Foundation. We are
also discussing this with other exchanges and businesses.

Thank you for your support during the maintenance, and we will update you on
the progress shortly.

Best regards,

MtGox Team

Once again nothing to relieve the stress of people fearing insolvency, there press releases are just awefull (and still blaming the protocoll), Stamps releases are much better.

[F-bernanke]

And all the time no break in trading... only change is that Bitcoin deposits are stalled for 6 hours... and who in their right mind would deposit Bitcoin now.

Even allowing BTC deposits is unethical to me...

[hmmmstrange]

You can't argue that the poster is correct in that the mainstream media is very 'down' on BTC at present and the perception is that the fundamentals have taken a knock.  It's going to be a rocky few weeks/months IMHO and although BTC is extremely resilient, it will only succeed by its supporters being positive and engaging its critics, not simply taking refuge in a static point of view or being personally aggressive.

True enough. But as the blockchain fork and the silk road debacle showed, when Bitcoin takes a knock and survives in good shape, it just comes back even stronger.

The main issue that Bitcoin appears to have right know is that a broken Gox is clinging on and stinking up the place. It either needs to fix its shit and get everything working or go under (preferably in a graceful way without disappearing with everyone's coins or fiat). I'd prefer the former if it can be done in a reasonable timescale without stringing people along.

If Gox can't get the fiat thing sorted out, it needs to suspend deposits in those currencies that can't be withdrawn and offer to sell Bitcoins to those with accounts holding those currencies at the current rate on other exchanges or their own (whichever is lower. Which will be other exchanges if BTC withdrawals get fixed). Then if BTC withdrawals are still not fixed, it needs to start processing them manually, firstly for those who are looking to get fiat out and then for anyone else who wants their bitcoins out.

They won't of course. Too arrogant. Or possibly they don't have the funds (I don't subscribe to that viewpoint but it's difficult do explain some of the shit they're up to any other way).

It is possible that an earlier adopter is trying to acquire gox. If they believe gox is essentially insolvent, they can prove this by dumping coins then and demanding payment. If gox can not fulfill their commitment then the hostile party can take legal action as leverage to make mark their bitch. We already know there is at least one party who wants gox's clients.

[medialab101]

In other news, it seems there is currently a demonstration going on in front of Gox headquarters... probably just a few people.

[F-bernanke]

And all the time no break in trading... only change is that Bitcoin deposits are stalled for 6 hours... and who in their right mind would deposit Bitcoin now.

Even allowing BTC deposits is unethical to me...

If they where just a little ethical, they had to be suspended all trading until all their shit was fixed.

or at the very least 0% tradingfee's.... No they are just sucking the blood out of that panic cage.

[JorgeStolfi]

I find extremely unethical that Gox allows deposits knowing their withdrawal system is completely useless.

You mean, they have stopped withdrawals without a hint of when they will allow them again.  Yes indeed.

Then again, why would people want to deposit anything in Gox?

They are still quoted in the Bitcoin media and bitcoin chart sites as "the" exchange, their manager is in the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, there are still some bitcoiners who recommend them, and they sell the cheapest bitcoins.  Enough to trick a new investor who wants to buy some bitcoin and his not aware of their recent history.

Stopping withdrawals of bitcoin without stopping the deposit of dollars makes them a scam site in my view.