[FIXED AGAIN] All funds at Bitcoin-Central.net frozen?

[Keefe]

It appears that no withdrawal of any currency from Bitcoin-Central is possible, and davout no longer replies to emails. I and at least one other person have a significant amount of money there. Should we be worried that davout has disappeared with it, or that someone hacked his site and stole the money? I have been trying to withdraw both BTC and LRUSD since March 2, and always get an error.

Does anyone know davout personally? Can anyone find him in person and ask him what's going on?

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[Anonymous]

A little birdy told me that Davout isn't interested in the site anymore.

[kiba]

A little birdy told me that Davout isn't interested in the site anymore.

Can you substantiate the rumor?

[Keefe]

A little birdy told me that Davout isn't interested in the site anymore.

That doesn't justify keeping our money though. So something else must have happened.

[Keefe]

Here are the dates (UTC) of the emails I've sent that have been ignored so far:
3/4/2011 22:29  -  support@bitcoin-central.net
3/2/2011 20:11  -  david@webflows.fr
3/1/2011 06:46  -  support@bitcoin-central.net

[kiba]

He is last active March 1, 2011.

He must have been hit by a bus.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Or disappeared in a natural disaster.

The wig was a give-away.

[Keefe]

I just sent him a forum message and emailed every address I know.

I'm hoping someone can find him and bring this problem to his attention. Unfortunately I'm in California USA, so my options are limited. But maybe someone in France has a better chance?

[doublec]

This whois for the domain lists a phone number. His website listed in his github account has a phone number as well. A person with the same name as that listed in the whois has 'liked' the bitcoin facebook page, so someone on facebook could contact him through that maybe.

[Keefe]

I just sent him a message through Facebook, assuming that's the same person. I'll give him a little more time before I try calling those phone numbers.

[BioMike]

I think the server just broke and Davout might be busy IRL (Winter holiday/Carnaval?). However, I've posted a message in the French park meeting topic, see if someone there has seen him.

[davout]

chill down, i'm here
have been pretty busy lately though.

no money frozen at all, going to have a look at the withdrawal problems

[veoddex]

I haven't used bitcoin-central but I guess this story just shows that TRUST is important with Bitcoin. Wether it is trusting that someone knows how to reliable runs an exchange, or trusting that he is not a scammer. (I don't know in which category davout falls.)

Perhaps in the near future more services like bitcoin-otc's rating systems will be launched.

[davout]

appears the bitcoin client crashed for some reason so thats why no addresses could be generated, no funds withdrawn and sent funds weren't appearing.

can someone confirm LR and Pecunix auto deposit/withdrawal status ?

[prcarter]

I remember sending an email to the Bitcoin Central guy about the web design (terse, to the point that it becomes confusing for new people) but no reply and no change. I guess he is too busy, or he only likes encrypted emails.

A lot of trouble for bitcoin recently.

[Anonymous]

I remember sending an email to the Bitcoin Central guy about the web design (terse, to the point that it becomes confusing for new people) but no reply and no change. I guess he is too busy, or he only likes encrypted emails.

A lot of trouble for bitcoin recently.

You know the code is open source right ?

 

[davout]

I remember sending an email to the Bitcoin Central guy about the web design (terse, to the point that it becomes confusing for new people) but no reply and no change. I guess he is too busy, or he only likes encrypted emails.

A lot of trouble for bitcoin recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEnfy9qfdaU

[Keefe]

appears the bitcoin client crashed for some reason so thats why no addresses could be generated, no funds withdrawn and sent funds weren't appearing.

can someone confirm LR and Pecunix auto deposit/withdrawal status ?

Thanks davout for fixing it for now. I managed to withdraw all my BTC, and $10 of my LRUSD. My attempt to withdraw the other $424 LRUSD seems to be in limbo at the moment, but that has happened to me before from another exchange so I assume LR's system isn't always instant. I'll post back here when it clears.

I'm sorry, but I can't feel comfortable leaving much money in BC anymore. I'm relieved that you did eventually come through this time, but what about next time? If the system isn't stable, maybe it's also vulnerable to hacking. I realize the code is open-source, but I'm personally not skilled enough to analyze it to satisfy my concerns.

[Keefe]

All my LRUSD did clear into my LR account.

Your site says "the 24/7 bitcoin platform". Some advice to avoid similar situations in the future:
1. Add to your support page on the site, saying you will respond to emails within 48 hours.
2. Check email once a day. If someone reports a problem and you don't have time to fix it, you can just reply very simply "I will fix it later. Please wait." so people know you haven't abandoned the site.
3. If there's a problem you won't be able to fix for a while, either add a note to the site's support page, or post on the forum, or email someone who can pass the word to the community.

[davout]

Thanks davout for fixing it for now. I managed to withdraw all my BTC, and $10 of my LRUSD. My attempt to withdraw the other $424 LRUSD seems to be in limbo at the moment, but that has happened to me before from another exchange so I assume LR's system isn't always instant. I'll post back here when it clears.

LR is usually instant, sometimes, for an unknown reason it can take up to half an hour to clear, from my experience

I'm sorry, but I can't feel comfortable leaving much money in BC anymore. I'm relieved that you did eventually come through this time, but what about next time? If the system isn't stable, maybe it's also vulnerable to hacking. I realize the code is open-source, but I'm personally not skilled enough to analyze it to satisfy my concerns.

It's usually the bitcoin client crashing XD

[JohnDoe]

So is Atlas' rumor true or not? I was kinda hoping that bitcoin-central replaced mtgox as the number 1 exchange.

[Binford 6100]

Your site says "the 24/7 bitcoin platform

and zimbabwe $ banknotes say i will pay on demand to the bearer ...

the site is more a demonstration of the technology, the code is open.
feel free to setup an exchange in your area

[BioMike]

So is Atlas' rumor true or not? I was kinda hoping that bitcoin-central replaced mtgox as the number 1 exchange.

I guess rumour.

[Anonymous]

I forgot where I read it but it's somewhere on this board. Two individual's were discussing Davout's apathy.

Heh, I shouldn't have posted this if I didn't want to bother with a source.

[MOON]

I´m trying to withdrawal PGAU from this site since 21.03 and get no response through this communication channels:
support@bitcoin-central.net , david@webflows.fr and PM .

Does someone have a better way to contact him?

[Keefe]

I´m trying to withdraw PGAU from this site since 21.03 and get no response through this communication channels:
support@bitcoin-central.net , david@webflows.fr and PM .

Does someone have a better way to contact him?

The site's bitcoin node is probably hung again. Give him a week or so and he'll eventually fix it.

[MOON]

I think the Bitcoin node works fine. I want to transfer Pecunix from the site to my account and this is done manually so i need to contact him for doing this.

[Keefe]

I think the Bitcoin node works fine. I want to transfer Pecunix from the site to my account and this is done manually so i need to contact him for doing this.

Ah, I see what you're saying about the manual withdrawal of Pecunix.

But I still believe the site's bitcoin node (bitcoind?) is hung because BTC deposit, withdrawal, and address generation are all broken. But I guess that's unrelated to Pecunix withdrawal.

As for getting any response from davout, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a long time, as he seems to rarely check his email. Be patient for a week.

[jgarzik]

I don't know about hung, but Pecunix withdrawal is not automated, because Pecunix does not offer an automated payment API to the public.

That means Bitcoin Central's PGAU deposits are automated, but withdrawals probably have to wait for davout to return to his email.

[BioMike]

Trade is quite limited on bitcoin-central at the moment. I want to do some trading there, but I'm waiting for more than 1 a week now to have the funds added to my account... and this all while the selling price of bitcoins is dropping.

[Keefe]

I don't know about hung, but Pecunix withdrawal is not automated, because Pecunix does not offer an automated payment API to the public.

That means Bitcoin Central's PGAU deposits are automated, but withdrawals probably have to wait for davout to return to his email.

Are any of the bitcoin operations working for you jgarzik? (deposit, withdrawal, etc)

[MOON]

For me generating a new address doesnt work.

[BioMike]

For me generating a new address doesnt work.

Bitcoin withdrawal is also broken. 

[MOON]

Just wanted to say that my withdrawal problem is now resolved.

[Keefe]

Davout just replied to my email (sent to support@bitcoin-central.net) saying he fixed it again (restarted the bitcoin daemon I suppose). He'll upgrade the bitcoin daemon for the site by the end of the week, so this shouldn't happen again.

I just confirmed that bitcoin deposit, withdrawal, and address generation works again.

[Raulo]

Anybody has problems with depositing BTC to bitcoin-central? I have 14 confirmations and still no update on the bitcoin-central account.

[S3052]

properly working exchanges are desparately needed.

The current situation does not spark any trust with investors.

[Keefe]

Anybody has problems with depositing BTC to bitcoin-central? I have 14 confirmations and still no update on the bitcoin-central account.

Their bitcoin stuff is broken yet again. You'll have to wait until Davout gets around to fixing it again. Could be a week from now, or could be as quickly as a day like last time.

[BioMike]

Anybody has problems with depositing BTC to bitcoin-central? I have 14 confirmations and still no update on the bitcoin-central account.

Their bitcoin stuff is broken yet again. You'll have to wait until Davout gets around to fixing it again. Could be a week from now, or could be as quickly as a day like last time.

Waiting now almost 3 weeks to have my funds added to my account. Totally not acceptable.

[Binford 6100]

Waiting now almost 3 weeks to have my funds added to my account. Totally not acceptable.

sad to read that. my top up was 24hrs resp 1 week (two times adding funds in the past)
but i was active in january/february. seems very different now

[BioMike]

Waiting now almost 3 weeks to have my funds added to my account. Totally not acceptable.

sad to read that. my top up was 24hrs resp 1 week (two times adding funds in the past)
but i was active in january/february. seems very different now

Yeah, I've transferred also a multiple times. At those times it was fast. Not having time to add it to the account is not so much of a problem, but 3 weeks no time? or even time to reply with a date when it will be added.

[Keefe]

Anybody has problems with depositing BTC to bitcoin-central? I have 14 confirmations and still no update on the bitcoin-central account.

Have you received the deposit yet, or has it been broken for 6 days now?

[Raulo]

Have you received the deposit yet, or has it been broken for 6 days now?

No, still broken.

I'm sad to say it because bitcoin-central was a great site but I think davout should sent back the money and shut it down if he does not have time to manage it at least from time to time.

[BioMike]

Nope, still nothing heard from Davout.

[xf2_org]

I am very disappointed.

I personally sent davout 5678.00 BTC to open source bitcoin central, then 2.0 PGAU, plus another 250 BTC when he whined about the PGAU.

Yeah, he open sourced it, but you would think he would stick around the bitcoin community, rather than just take the money and run

[P.S. this is 'jgarzik', using a new nick]

[BioMike]

I really hope that he is just busy IRL (but then again, a small post saying that would be nice).

[Mahkul]

I am very disappointed.

I personally sent davout 5678.00 BTC to open source bitcoin central, then 2.0 PGAU, plus another 250 BTC when he whined about the PGAU.

Yeah, he open sourced it, but you would think he would stick around the bitcoin community, rather than just take the money and run

[P.S. this is 'jgarzik', using a new nick]

If I knew that we would have started working on BitMarket much earlier and open sourced it as well. Back in the days I was talking to davout about running bitcoin-central together, but then he stopped responding, so I started my own exchange (which belongs to me and M4v3R now). Once we have the legal issues sorted (should happen within the next 2 weeks) we are going to allow EUR transfers onto the exchanges' account so that the trading process is smoother and quicker.

[BioMike]

If I knew that we would have started working on BitMarket much earlier and open sourced it as well. Back in the days I was talking to davout about running bitcoin-central together, but then he stopped responding, so I started my own exchange (which belongs to me and M4v3R now). Once we have the legal issues sorted (should happen within the next 2 weeks) we are going to allow EUR transfers onto the exchanges' account so that the trading process is smoother and quicker.

Yay!

[Raulo]

Unbroken.

My deposit from 1512 blocks ago was finally credited. Transfers out also work.

[Keefe]

Yep, looks like it's fixed again for the moment.