Lol'd at Mt. Gox

[hiVe]

I agree with zefir.
Got it for free, but I appreciate it that much more. It offers immerse value.

Also shipping to your side alone costs 1,5k yen, which at the current exchange rate 19$ !!

So much for bbit's claim/estimate of 4,95$, well maybe if you live in Korea you could get the shipping done for that much
Not to mention manufacturing price, shipping costs to Japan, logo printing {if you chose one with mt.gox logo}, possible customs clearance expenses if bought in bulk.

I say they have no profit from this whatsoever, just handling trouble and a good feeling from customer satisfaction.

The comparison to other companies that charge you for such authentication items has already been done, hell even my fking bank to whom I regularly pay for account keeping, charges me 5€ for a auth. plastic card worth 0,10€!! so I have nothing more to add.

[spruce]

Several banks offer various cards and keyfobs, none of them free. The only time I've actually been given such a device free of charge was when I needed it to log into my employer's VPN...

I'm in the UK. My bank provides a little electronic gizmo you stick your bank card in and it gives (different) authentication codes for each time you use online banking. That was free of charge.

[malditonuke]

Several banks offer various cards and keyfobs, none of them free. The only time I've actually been given such a device free of charge was when I needed it to log into my employer's VPN...

I'm in the UK. My bank provides a little electronic gizmo you stick your bank card in and it gives (different) authentication codes for each time you use online banking. That was free of charge.

some banks in the US do that; some don't.  Citibank did that for me when i opened a business account with them a few years back.  i just opened a Chase business account a couple months ago, and they didn't provide one.

[bbit]

Please be more objective.

I received my Mt.Gox YubiKey today. I got it for free, after my account was compromised during the last hack.

Just out of interest I browsed the manufacturer's web site [1] to get some technical info on that device and found price tags at [2] that are given as 750US$ for 50 pieces. Adding the 1500 JPY Mt.Gox paid for shipping to Europe (after the devices were send from Sweden to Japan for programming), they for sure do not make money providing those YubiKeys to their customers for 30US$.

If you want to complain about the money they make, better stick looking at the volumes and calculating the resulting fees (today so far: 65k*13.9US$/BTC*0.003*2 = 5421 US$).


Cheers


[1] http://www.yubico.com/
[2] https://store.yubico.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=27

I was merely pointing out have you ever heard of such a thing where a Business screws their customer base then charges them  regardless if they make a profit or not its odd isn't it ?

[bbit]

And a Bitcoin exchange that doesn't accept Bitcoins for this key... 

doesn't that seem odd?

[RchGrav]

Please be more objective.

I received my Mt.Gox YubiKey today. I got it for free, after my account was compromised during the last hack.

Just out of interest I browsed the manufacturer's web site [1] to get some technical info on that device and found price tags at [2] that are given as 750US$ for 50 pieces. Adding the 1500 JPY Mt.Gox paid for shipping to Europe (after the devices were send from Sweden to Japan for programming), they for sure do not make money providing those YubiKeys to their customers for 30US$.

If you want to complain about the money they make, better stick looking at the volumes and calculating the resulting fees (today so far: 65k*13.9US$/BTC*0.003*2 = 5421 US$).


Cheers


[1] http://www.yubico.com/
[2] https://store.yubico.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=27

I was merely pointing out have you ever heard of such a thing where a Business screws their customer base then charges them  regardless if they make a profit or not its odd isn't it ?

Not really.. they made a lot of concessions for their customers that were effected.  I'm satisfied with the way they handled the whole thing, I had about $3000 in there and didn't lose a penny.  But I'm not happy about the situation as a whole.. who is?

I give them credit for the way the handled the situation with integrity, and until the same thing occurs with another exchange I don't know how they would respond.. For all I know, if placed in the same situation, they would just take the money and run.

That being said... I have experience with their service, and I don't have any with the competitors.  That is why I continue to use them.  Not to mention they still have the largest daily volume of any exchange.

What exactly are you looking for?

Do you even use their service? 

[FlyingFlapjack]

Is this basically the same sort of little keychain thing that some MMO's use for account security?

You can usually get a 'free' one if you buy the collector's edition. Of course, it's not exactly free. When you add up what you got in the Collectors edition and how much it cost the company probably, you paid more. But at least you don't get ripped off as much as if you just bought the security fob from them standalone. And the thing is, most people won't even think to do a little hypothetical math about costs and what they've already paid. They will just get the security dongle in the CE and think yaaaay CE is so cool look at all this suff I get woohooo.

Think about it...that's just for stupid MMOs.

So...Mt Gox really should obviously consider the customer service angle.

1st, it's probably better for them to use a 'generic' supplier in China rather than a brand like Yubikey. For the people they do charge, they could charge less and make more money.

2nd...give it to your good customers 'for free.'

As in, don't send one for free to every dink with 10 BTC and $100 in there.

DO send one for free to every dink with say, 100+ BTC and $1000+ in there.

Or whatever the numbers are. They have big fees. Some customers have paid a lot more in fees already than the real cost to MTGOX of these security fobs/dongles/whatevers.

So yeah this thread is basically right except don't give them away to just anybody. "Give" them away to customers who are worth it.

If they had taken the route of dealing with a generic Chinese manufacturer, it should only be a few $'s per customer. They could then charge the rest of their customers less money and yet make more profit on the endeavor.

[zefir]

Please be more objective.

I received my Mt.Gox YubiKey today. I got it for free, after my account was compromised during the last hack.

Just out of interest I browsed the manufacturer's web site [1] to get some technical info on that device and found price tags at [2] that are given as 750US$ for 50 pieces. Adding the 1500 JPY Mt.Gox paid for shipping to Europe (after the devices were send from Sweden to Japan for programming), they for sure do not make money providing those YubiKeys to their customers for 30US$.

If you want to complain about the money they make, better stick looking at the volumes and calculating the resulting fees (today so far: 65k*13.9US$/BTC*0.003*2 = 5421 US$).


Cheers


[1] http://www.yubico.com/
[2] https://store.yubico.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=27

I was merely pointing out have you ever heard of such a thing where a Business screws their customer base then charges them  regardless if they make a profit or not its odd isn't it ?

For sure I was not happy to see my account and hashed password in files freely downloadable for everyone 

But hey, such things do happen regularly in modern world. Web-shops get hacked, as do companies and institutions that spend huge resources for securing their servers (VISA, FBI, Facebook, etc.).

I am realistic enough to understand that there are no (and never will be) 100% secure systems. More than that, I am even aware of the potential risk to loose all my deposits at Mt.Gox (or TradeHill) after an attack more successful than the previous one. So far, I did not loose a single Satoshi - whereas seeing my hashed password flying around motivated me to double-check my security policies

With respect to the charge for the YubiKey: I have to deal with a dozen of those 2-factor authentication devices to access my bank and brokerage accounts. About half of them I got for free (mostly 'cheap' TAN generators), for the others I payed some 15 to 25€ each.


Cheers

[bbit]

Going to move the conversation forward  and say Mt.gotcha cashed out the 25,000 bitcoins or 500,000 bitcoins I mean the price goes up and magically half a  million coins disappear!

[luv2drnkbr]

Just goes to show you the power of "being first"....

TradeHill has no cash withdraw limits, free security, far better security, they did it of their own accord before the Gox incident, 3rd party verification of their security and business finances, and lower fees, and that Duo security shit they use is super awesome and easy to use, free for the user, and can be used with your phone instead of having a brand new thing you gotta keep somewhere.  But Gox still has 10x their volume.

[GeniuSxBoY]

Just goes to show you the power of "being first"....

TradeHill has no cash withdraw limits, free security, far better security, they did it of their own accord before the Gox incident, 3rd party verification of their security and business finances, and lower fees, and that Duo security shit they use is super awesome and easy to use, free for the user, and can be used with your phone instead of having a brand new thing you gotta keep somewhere.  But Gox still has 10x their volume.

TradeHill interface is still crappier than MtGox. That's why it will and always will be #2.

[bbit]

Just goes to show you the power of "being first"....

TradeHill has no cash withdraw limits, free security, far better security, they did it of their own accord before the Gox incident, 3rd party verification of their security and business finances, and lower fees, and that Duo security shit they use is super awesome and easy to use, free for the user, and can be used with your phone instead of having a brand new thing you gotta keep somewhere.  But Gox still has 10x their volume.

Yes, the power of being first does go along way this is true...