(Poll) Do you have money in Mt Gox?

[Ibian]

If there is indeed such a problem.

Considering bitstamp temporarily halted withdrawals for the very same reason, Im not sure why you would doubt that.

Where I sit, there are roughly two possibilities; One, Gox is saying the truth, are dealing with a technical problem that is confirmed to exist and once they fixed it, BTC withdrawals will resume and anyone who sold their coins for less than 50% of market price is going to feel silly, especially after you realized you converted your bitcoins into gox dollars that are infinitely harder to actually withdraw.

Two; somehow Gox, a company that by my guestimate reeks in between 500 and 1000 BTC in trading fees per day, and has been doing so for more than 4 years, became insolvent. Problem is that I really cant imagine how. EVen if some hacker exploited the malleability bug to empty Gox' hot wallet, that wallet would not have contained more than a tiny fraction of the bitcoins (or corresponding dollars)  Gox has accumulated over the years. Do the math; ~0.5% trading fees, x2 for each side of the trade. Even on a black day as today, that is 1% of 60000 BTC or 600 BTC in fees. x365 = ~220000 BTC per year.

BUt lets assume those windfall profits have been paid out as dividends to shareholders and Gox keeps next to nothing in reserve, and due to some hack, they are now insolvent. What is more likely, that its shareholders will let it go bust, or that they will inject the needed cash/coins  to keep their 200K BTC per year cash cow in business?

As for it being a scam; I will not vouch for Karpeles, but even if he is stupid, evil and untrustworthy it makes no sense to scam when you can legally make this kind of money, especially not when you are already in crosshairs of just about every major financial regulator in the world.  It does not compute.

That just leaves incompetence then. Lots of scenarios there. Anyway, I think all options have been more or less explored by now so I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fireworks.

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[mp420]

Gox's incompetence has been proven already many times. On the other hand, they do seem to take security seriously, which is more than can be said of many past bitcoin endeavours. An organization (or a person) can be incompetent in some things and competent in others.

People are just mistaking the incompetence for malice.

[sf_btc]

Gox's incompetence has been proven already many times. On the other hand, they do seem to take security seriously, which is more than can be said of many past bitcoin endeavours. An organization (or a person) can be incompetent in some things and competent in others.

People are just mistaking the incompetence for malice.

^ this.

[TheKoziTwo]

Yes, BTC only.

Been depositing and buying some more BTC last few days, also converting with people selling goxBTC. I think I'm about to become a little too overexposed to gox, but I really can't imagine them being insolvent considering all the money they have made throughout the years.

[Edward50]

I had around $650 dollars there before I bought 2 bitcoins with it a few days ago.

The only reason I had money there was I moved like .7 or so for a test as they had the highest price. Then I had to do all these security verifications to get the bitcoin out and I was just too lazy to do that so just let the money sit.

[eoJ]

$3.

I'll be heartbroken if I lose it.

[dynodog]

if mtgox goes under, I'm sure the public at large, being skeptical and suspicious of bitcoin already, won't think negatively of it.

"Seriously, Mr. Public, just to clarify for you.... that one major exchange in Japan was run by a bunch of crooks.  But seriously, you can send your hard earned money to Slovenia or to a couple of anonymous Russian guys - there's nothing to worry about."

Bottom line, new money into bitcoin if mtgox goes under = almost zero.

[ISAWHIM]

Trick question. There is no such thing as 'money in MT Gox'. Only IOUs.

So then that would make Gox a typical bank... Just a bank that isn't handing-out physical notes for the IOU.

So the millions of customers (or just one million, forget which it was)... about 6000 who obviously had issues to start-off with, were asked to take an unofficial survey that confirmed no actual results (Just testimony, and possible FUD spreaders that might not even actually have an account)... about 60% of them actually have issues, the rest of the 30% who took the poll, didn't have any real issues.

That is like asking new customers for your cell-phone, who came from another carrier, to take a poll about how bad the other service was... not asking actual customers that are using that service, or actually checking any polled results. They went to the other carrier BECAUSE they were having issues. So that is a biased negative poll with no sustenance.

They failed to ask.. what was the amount you attempted to withdraw. ($40 wire for $10-$100 is obviously a low priority to Gox, as would be one suspiciously of $10,000,000.)

They can't be doing that honestly bad of a job, if they still have customers. (For now.) Longest time I had to wait for a withdraw was about 8 hours. (For BTC. I have no interest in removing money.)

Throw regulations at them, and you have more hindrance added to the mix. All and all, in my shallow opinion, I think they are doing well, for what they are. (That is not actually a compliment. )

[eoJ]

if mtgox goes under, I'm sure the public at large, being skeptical and suspicious of bitcoin already, won't think negatively of it.

"Seriously, Mr. Public, just to clarify for you.... that one major exchange in Japan was run by a bunch of crooks.  But seriously, you can send your hard earned money to Slovenia or to a couple of anonymous Russian guys - there's nothing to worry about."

Bottom line, new money into bitcoin if mtgox goes under = almost zero.

Or the excellent sellers on sites like LocalBitcoins  </selfpromo>