Greetings all,
I am a BTC newb, as I haven't yet used it for any payments, but managed to get a couple of coins after buying into all the hype.
My ache revolves around MtGox, and I believe every new user should research this operation very carefully before dealing with them. Here's what I found in practice, and is not mentioned elsewhere that I could find:
In practical terms, NO accounts are "level 0", based on the AML rules MtGox has defined. This is because in an IP is used for more than one account, MtGox will automatically lock the account and require verification, thus changing it into a "level 1" or higher. Sadly, there is no indication of what your account's AML lock status is, until you attempt to cash out.
I say in practical terms because, even though you believe you're the only MtGox user using your IP address, consider:
- 1. Someone may have used mtgox from your current IP before it was assigned to you.
- 2. If you use MtGox from a laptop you sometimes travel with, and have an open MtGox window, when you log in from a random WiFi hotspot, your account will automatically share that hotspot's IP with all it's other users, some of whom may be MtGox users themselves.
- 3. If your household ever acquires a computer virus, it's very likely your IP address will be used by someone else as a proxy, and very likely for some kind of fraud involving MtGox, which will make your IP address shared, and thus cause an AML lock on your account. Of course, cleaning the virus will not restore 'level 0' on your MtGox account.
- 4. If you have visitors that you allow to use your wifi, you'll fall into the shared IP problem mentioned at #2
It is possible that at some point you will be assigned an IP address that had never been used for MtGox before, and thus you can truly have a "level 0" account from this IP. But can you guarantee that this IP will never change for the lifetime of your MtGox account? If you're extremely tech savvy you can keep your IP "MtGox level 0 clean" for some time, but as soon as you slip, you'll find your account is AML locked.
Now, doing the verification is not all bad if you have nothing to hide, but consider that when you do, your private information will become linked to all the other MtGox accounts you've ever shared an IP with, and therefore you may have some explaining to do if any of those accounts are investigated by authorities, even though you may be clean as a whistle yourself.
Now, if you only play with a few dollars, when you find you need verification, you might think "
forget it, I'm not giving my private information to these crooks", then MtGox gets to keep your money. Then can't appropriate it immediately, but when they eventually go out of business, they get to keep all the funds in the abandoned accounts. At some point, it may be more profitable to close up shop and keep the funds instead of keeping the show running.
Mt. Gox sure looks easy first sight, however, newbies,
please research it, as it can be a trap.
For all the good MtGox does to BTC, they do an equal bad to the community at the same time.
