New Mt Gox Press Release - Feb 10 - they are claiming flaw in bitcoin protocol !

[vinboy]

The flaw isn't so much in Bitcoin as it is in exchange-systems. Many exchanges use the tx-id to uniquely identify transactions, but as it turns out, an attacker can change the tx-id without changing the actual transaction, rebroadcast the changed transaction (effectively creating a double-spend) and if his altered transaction gets accepted into a block instead of the legit transaction, the attacker receives his coins and can complain with the exchange that he didn't. The exchange will then check their db, fetch the tx-id from it, look it up in the blockchain and not find it. So they could conclude that the transaction indeed failed and credit the account with the coins.

A simple workaround is to not use the tx-id to identify transactions on the exchange side, but the set of (amount, address, timestamp) instead. If a user complains about not receiving their withdrawal, support can look it up using these 3 variables. It takes a little bit more work from support, but it prevents this attack from succeeding.

While it'd be nice if the tx-id isn't malleable, blaming this problem on a flaw in the protocol is quite a stretch.

well explained.

too bad gox can't afford a good dev like you  

[zerk89]

Everything they have done is basically to swing the market. First they had their fiat bank accounts frozen, so they ran out of fiat and stopped withdrawals to hike the price up and people were paying a premium to buy there, gox would take that fiat from a purchase and buy the same coin on another exchange for 10% cheaper and pocket the profit.l. Then they limit BTC withdrawals to cause a panic, and blame it on a flaw in the protocol. Price plummets and all of the BTC is still on the exchange, everyone sells their coins and GOX buys them all with the profits from before, price is way loweer on GOX because of the surplus of BTC that was held hostage by them in the first place. This caused more people to rush to deposit fiat because for them the risk is worth it to get some coins at a much cheaper rate. All the new deposits go into their ponzi fund to pay back the months and months backlog of withdrawals they have. What a clusterfuck.

[Moebius327]

This explain the huge number of BTC days destroyed a couple of days ago.

[hgamezoom]

There are so many exchanges and wallet service providers, why only MtGox detected this so called "bug"?

Are all others idiots?

[Aswan]

This thing has been known long enough and it's not that much of an issue. Gox probably ran out of BTC and now they want to buy them back cheap so they spread FUD.

[Kazimir]

I thought it might be worth pointing out for the Bitcointalk users who hate altcoins, this kind of thing is precisely why altcoins should be encouraged if it's true.

Read their press release:

Note that this will also affect any other crypto-currency using the same transaction scheme as Bitcoin.

[raskul]

i don't believe for a second that the problems with mt gox have anything to do with 'a glitch in the matrix'
I use several exchanges and gox has been the only one giving problems. what an utter load of sh1te.

gox should just do the right thing and close it's services, for good.

[sickpig]

very clear explanation of what's happening:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1x93tf/some_irc_chatter_about_what_is_going_on_at_mtgox/cf99yac

[tungteng90]

Everyone is panic now. Stop selling!!!! Don't be panic!!!

[aggster]

cryptsy seems to be having allot probs but I doubt they are related

[Aswan]

It's a non-issue.... everything is fine with bitcoin.

Gox can just create a new "buffer"address they control, send the coins there and then send it to you. That way they just check the buffer address and its all good...

[nickenburg]

Well the good news i think is:
They are not scamming everyone's money like first was assumed, lets not forget that.
I personally was hoping on good news so bitcoin can rise again, but i guess we'll have to wait till this thing settles down.
Untill then this is a good point to buy bitcoins on the lowest price if you dont have any, because im sure the prices wil rise once again!

[raveldoni]

It's 596 from 650 (BTC-e) within 10 minutes. panic selling started.

[Sutters Mill]

This isn't good at all. Naysayers will have a field day with this. Panic sellers probably gonna panic.

I think that's just happened

[pazor]

now it is time to buy litecoin !
 

[benjyz]

my current understanding is that bitcoin has to be upgraded. here is, as I understand, the proposal for that upgrade:
https://gist.github.com/sipa/8907691

To introduce these new rules in the network, we add both nVersion=3 blocks and nVersion=3 transactions (nVersion=2 transactions are skipped in order to keep the version numbers synchronized).

Edit: of course MtGox is to blame. seriously misleading statements from them. my apologies.

[nickenburg]

Hmm this website just released this: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-10/bitcoin-exchange-mt-dot-gox-says-users-can-withdraw-cash-as-normal

They say everything will be ok i dont know why everyone is selling there coins?

[FeedbackLoop]

Hmm this website just released this: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-10/bitcoin-exchange-mt-dot-gox-says-users-can-withdraw-cash-as-normal

They say everything will be ok i dont know why everyone is selling there coins?

You assume the "everyone" knows why they're doing it.  

Seriously though, if my money was stuck for so long in an exchange with such a poor record and then fiat withdrawal was available but not Bitcoin, I would also be selling Bitcoin and withdrawing fiat.

[hilariousandco]

This isn't good at all. Naysayers will have a field day with this. Panic sellers probably gonna panic.

I think that's just happened

It's still happening. Price has fucking tanked. FUCKING GOX!

[techstorm3]

This is a blame game - they want to buy some time.
If the procol got bugs, how come it's only MtGox that has detected this bug?

Also, why has it gone 5 years before the bug was found, this is pure Bull, i dont believe it.