My Views on MtGox’s Bitcoin Withdraw Pause

[prophette]

After long-time observation on the Bitcoin exchange MtGox, I think Bitcoin withdraw pause this time is probably a thorough conspiracy.

As a grand-old Bitcoin exchange, is it possible for it to ignore a flaw that had been detected in 2011? And this flaw may cause big loss to the exchange itself! Did MtGox have no cautious attention on this matter or just have no knowledge on this “transaction malleability” flaw? Don’t forget MtGox always boasts that it is the gold member of Bitcoin Foundation and has good cooperation with Bitcoin core developers.

So I have below hypothesis:

1) MtGox has deliberately made itself an in-yes, out-difficult barrier lake of fiat currency(except Japanese Yen) by the excuse that it account had been investigated in May 2013. Therefore, the Price of Bitcoin in MtGox has high premium on other exchanges.

2) Exploiting its reputation and advantage, MtGox made those new comers and conservative guys keep having confidence in it and trade Bitcoin in it. Therefore, its premium can be maintained.

3) Mtgox arbitraged by Yen using its Japanese domestic bank account(MtGox did this arbitrage craftily that it didn’t arbitrage in a huge amount every time so that the market cannot perceive it)

4) Earning enough profit from arbitrage, MtGox suspended Bitcoin withdraw by issuing a statement of suffering from the long-been-known flaw “Transaction Malleability”. It seems that MtGox becomes a victim of this flaw… The Bitcoin withdraw pause and everybody’s knowledge of the flaw led to a huge plunge of the price.

5) When the price was going to the bottom, MtGox began to buy Bitcoin(Again, MtGox did this buying craftily that it didn’t buy in a huge amount every time so that the price wouldn’t rebound dramatically to cause suspicion from others)

That’s it. MtGox made a lot of profit. And, it also “successfully” made a gesture of supporting AML to governments(refer to non-Yen fiat money withdraw difficulty) and a gesture of attaching great importance to transaction safty to traders(refer to Bitcoin withdraw pause). What a cunning fox!

In fact, there are 2 basic doubtful points from the very beginning:

1) Since the withdraw of non-Yen fiat currency to e-wallets(OKPAY, etc.) is suspended, why the deposit from these e-wallets is still available? If MtGox indeed has some trouble in AML or illegal activities investigation, the deposit should be unavailable as well as withdraw!

2) If MtGox is innocent and clear, it should make effort in effecting non-Yen fiat currencies’ withdraw through bank wire transfer, and publish statement of the quantity of unprocessed withdraws as well as future processing schedule on homepage. But, MtGox does nothing other than giving a vague period of 4 to 6 weeks. This move is to block fiat currencies’ withdraw and make the exchange a barrier lake.

As above, I call for independent investigation on MtGox immediately!


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[valiron]

1) Since the withdraw of non-Yen fiat currency to e-wallets(OKPAY, etc.) is suspended, why the deposit from these e-wallets is still available? If MtGox indeed has some trouble in AML or illegal activities investigation, the deposit should be unavailable as well as withdraw!

Good point that exposes the real intentions of Gox. They're crooks.

[hgamezoom]

I don't care a bit whether MtGox arbituraged or how much profit they made, if that is true, it's good news to me because they are solvency.

What we only care is whether it can resume the withdrawal.

[OceanWhispers]

Who do we go to to investigate!? As stated in another thread, we have pretty much all told regulatory agencies where to put it... They sure as hell won't be bailing us out.
Do we take this to the JSA? Unlike american bureaucracy, the Japanese do not use different organizations to deal with different levels of finance. It's all handled by the JSA.

What do we do? Start a petition and gather signatures, financial statements by those affected?
Normally we would be shit out of luck, but as this is for multi-millions I think we have a chance. Maybe we should even contact internet crime divisions to drum up some attention to the matter

I've thought since the beginning of this eMTyGOX scandal that they had known about the transaction malleability flaw for a long time and are playing that card as some sort of scam. I didn't know what exactly that was, wether they were running a racket for a long time and this is them "calling quits" when they hit their exit mark, or what. This makes perfect sense though.

1) Since the withdraw of non-Yen fiat currency to e-wallets(OKPAY, etc.) is suspended, why the deposit from these e-wallets is still available? If MtGox indeed has some trouble in AML or illegal activities investigation, the deposit should be unavailable as well as withdraw!

Good point that exposes the real intentions of Gox. They're crooks.

[grifferz]

As a grand-old Bitcoin exchange, is it possible for it to ignore a flaw that had been detected in 2011?

Of course it is possible. The fact that it took many other bitcoin services unawares too—look how many other exchanges suspended withdrawals—shows that many people other than those running MtGox failed to anticipate the problem. Even the core developers didn't consider it a priority until someone started using it to attack the network, and that happened after MtGox had already suspended withdrawals.

Clearly there is something wrong at MtGox.
Clearly their spinning of the malleability issue was unhelpful.
Clearly their inability to put a fix out when others have done so is yet another cause for concern.
Clearly they can manipulate the market by suspending withdrawals of btc of fiat or both and the community just has to trust (!) that they don't succumb to the temptation to do that.

But also clearly they had these sorts of problems long before malleability was in the news, so this is not really anything new and anyone who has an opinion on MtGox is not going to change it now.

Those with funds stuck inside MtGox may want some sort of external investigation to "encourage" the release of funds, but for the rest of us who stopped dealing with MtGox a long time ago I think it would really be best if they died by means of people no longer using them and them fading into irrelevance. That would be a lot less damaging to bitcoin as a whole.

[soy]

I question if MtGox can ever recover from this.  If and when btc withdrawals from MtGox are ever allowed to resume, I don't see any reasonable client leaving as much as a satoshi on the MtGox exchange.

[alfabitcoin]

Maybe if Mark hire new ceo, and invest a lot in exchange - from a to z. But that is a big if. You forget that btc is new and a lot of newcomers will start use mtgox due brand and marketing.

[pleiotropik]

Maybe this time Lucy won't take away the ball from Charlie Brown.

[bitpop]

.

[Armis]

People gave MG their money to safeguard it with great care.   They also trusted MG to inform informed them of any issues that would cause their funds to suffer loss at no fault of their own.   When MG stopped allowing withdrawals, for whatever reason, they knew or should have known that it would negatively impact the overall market, and likely cause irreparable damage to their own customers if allowed to remain more than 3 days.

3 days the withdrawal stop other cryptocurrency exchange began to distance themselves from MG in a responsible fashion as not to further disrupt the market.  The resulting separation allowed the overall market to adjust in such a way as to view MG as an absentee player, at that time MG btc values were material divergent from all other exchange btc values.   At that time MG should have reconsideration it's policy to allow any public trading of btc at all.

They knew or should have known that the ever widening gap, at that time 50%, would surely inflict massive damage on the already damaged holding. 

It is my position that MG acted recklessly in they fiduciary responsibility to exercise great care over the customer funds in their control, furthermore that their irresponsible behavior needlessly caused millions of btc holders to suffer permanent financial loss as a direct result of their poor communications of what MG claims to have experienced, solutions for the problem, and a good faith timeline for correction of the problem.

I ask that damages be awarded in the amount of $1B and that treble damages be awarded since this pattern of irresponsible behavior appears to be internally systemic, pervasive, and chronic.

 

[yumei]

Read my thread about this please:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=470685.0