Bitstamp is the Next Gox and why Bitcoin will be at $300 soon

[tkbx]

Man, I wish Bitcoin would fall to $300 so I can buy relatively cheap again. But I seriously doubt it. Don't see it falling below $500 unless there's an accidental fork or successful 51% attack or something major like that.

[Yololintian]

Seeing this post made me realize something. Lots of people over the past few weeks have been saying that they won't trust exchanges with their money now, that they are withdrawing for a safer way to store their bitcoins, etc. Obviously it is less risky to keep your bitcoin in your own possession off an exchange, but the fact that mtgox is insolvent does not make me any more prone to keeping bitcoin off exchanges. I've only known about bitcoin for 3 months now and it was obvious to me to stay away from mtgox from very early on, when I heard about the fact that you can't withdraw usd from them in any reasonable amount of time, and all the other problems they have had that other prominent exchanges have not had. However, if Bitstamp somehow runs into a similar problem and goes out of business in the medium term (next two years I'd say), it will be an incredible setback and the price will fall to double-digits or lower I would think, because people like me who like to trade would have no way of being confident that their exchange is not going to just run away with their money (assuming the traders/speculators have inflated the price quite a bit). I know many exchanges have been hacked or stolen money an all sorts of illegal activity has happened in that arena, but that was mostly in the early part of bitcoin's history, the actual wild-west period where people were discovering the technology and when it wasn't so expensive that anyone who actually deposited into one of those defunct exchanges would not lose too much. But now people rely heavily on a few exchanges, and one collapsing without any warning signs would be a major blow to bitcoin's future.

[Nagle]

There was an AUDIT from a third party company, they went to check the solvency and transparency of Bitstamp, this are the results:

STATEMENT REGARDING RECENT THIRD PARTY AUDIT REPORT
Dear Bitstamp clients,

On November 22nd and 23rd, 2013 an on site due diligence was carried out in respect of Bitstamp Ltd. on behalf of a 3rd party.

Bitstamp’s balance of BTC was validated by temporarily creating the largest single Bitcoin wallet and in the process the largest Bitcoin transaction in history.

The report identified that Bitstamp held 100% of validated BTC balance and USD funds. No material issues were raised as a consequence of the 3rd party’s investigations.

Original statement https://www.bitstamp.net/s/documents/Firestartr_DD_Letter_for_Bitstamp.pdf

Best regards,
Bitstamp team

The document was released the 6th March 2014, from Firestartr.Co

"firestartr.co" is not an auditor. They're a startup incubator.

This is a little better than Roger Ver's video about his examination of Mt. Gox's accounts. But it's not an audit. It's not even a financial statement.

[favelle75]

Have we hit $300 yet? Need moar coins!

[traderCJ]

<bullshit>

What makes someone like you tick?

[tabnloz]

[TERA]

5 digit fiat withdrawal just processed/confirmed in 3 business days.

[Soros Shorts]

I was having many problems withdrawing btc and fiat from bitstamp.  I repeatedly entered the amount of bitcoin or fiat that I wanted withdrawn.  This went on for around 10 days with sporadic responses from my daily customer support tickets.  I always confirmed the withdrawal by clicking on the link within the confirming email, and did it right after I received the email. The request always showed "canceled" after one hour.  Finally, someone from bitstamp support suggested that I use the same browser when making the withdrawal through the bitstamp website and when I click the link within my confirming email.  The email address I use is my work email which is on the cloud.  I get on the internet outside of the cloud.  I went on the bitstamp website within the cloud, made the withdrawal request, went to my email within the cloud and clicked the link within the confirming email and I now see that the withdrawal is being processed.  When I withdrew btc in the past I did not have to do this, but apparently you do now.  So try staying within the same browser when confirming your withdrawal. 

I have not received the funds yet.  If I don't I will update.  Good luck

That is a pretty retarded security hurdle, if you ask me.

[Denton]

I just looked at the first 2 pages in services discussion and there are no topics about Bitstamp currently having problems with withdrawals.  

Is there anything to substantiate "Bitstamp is the next gox" other than that they are following KYC requirements (isn't that a good thing)?

it's not a good thing when they plan to ask for more evidence than Charles Swab, remember that Gox did exactly 100% the same thing in the months following its collapse. They used excessive KYC to create delay tactics, don't forget this fact.

Can you copy your KYC questions here. Mine were about 8 questions. I answered them and then my withdrawal was processed the next day.

Do you know what kind of volume triggers additional KYC questions?

[mmitech]

There was an AUDIT from a third party company, they went to check the solvency and transparency of Bitstamp, this are the results:

STATEMENT REGARDING RECENT THIRD PARTY AUDIT REPORT
Dear Bitstamp clients,

On November 22nd and 23rd, 2013 an on site due diligence was carried out in respect of Bitstamp Ltd. on behalf of a 3rd party.

Bitstamp’s balance of BTC was validated by temporarily creating the largest single Bitcoin wallet and in the process the largest Bitcoin transaction in history.

The report identified that Bitstamp held 100% of validated BTC balance and USD funds. No material issues were raised as a consequence of the 3rd party’s investigations.

Original statement https://www.bitstamp.net/s/documents/Firestartr_DD_Letter_for_Bitstamp.pdf

Best regards,
Bitstamp team

The document was released the 6th March 2014, from Firestartr.Co

"firestartr.co" is not an auditor. They're a startup incubator.

This is a little better than Roger Ver's video about his examination of Mt. Gox's accounts. But it's not an audit. It's not even a financial statement.

and you know what that could mean right ?  let me speculate here, firestartr.co made an Audit before investing into Bitstamp, this could mean that Bitstamp is going big and when I say Big I mean bigger then what we can imagine...

this is only a speculation....

[cosmofly]

I laugh

Cosmopolis begins

[YipYip]

As i previously predicted, the markets have become 100% manipulated. Look at the pathetic volumes in the past few days why do you think ? That's because all the money from the peasants has been depleted. The Manipulation especially by chinese manipulators has been so severe it bankrupted a large number of new & existing Bitcoin investors. Notice how Bitcoin wasn't really allowed to bottom out, instead they kept playing the market forcing peasants (ie all of u here) to buy expensive bitcoin at $550-$700 so they can sell it to u.

The manipulation WILL continue until there is 0 new peasant money coming in, we might see more price swing upwards but ultimately we are going down to the real bottom at $300 or less. As i also stated earlier, the Gox fiasco is massive even if no one here cares about it, the real world is outside this forum. Every single day in the news there is something bad about Bitcoin, the media officially labeled it as a fraud and this will take atleast 1 year to recover. Like it or not Gox has ruined Bitcoin's image for a while, ontop of that every single day there is news of some bitcoin bank or service getting hacked.

I have been right so far, and most importantly Bitstamp is about to shutdown in the coming months Gox style, look at the signs:


1. Bistamp BTC withdrawals have siginficantly slowed down, before it would take 30min now takes up to 24 hours
2. Just take a look at the service discussion and reddit, you will see just how bad fiat withrawals have become
3. It takes weeks to get a withdrawal processed, especially if in large amounts
4. Bitstamp has been harassing users with pathetic unrequired questions about their personal life when asking to withdraw. This makes people think twice before withdrawing fiat
5. Bitstamp is introducing severe KYC procedure, even my Charles swab account doesn't ask me for so many documents and stupid personal questions. This is nothing but a delay tactic to cover for their losses
6. Don't forget that bitstamp shutdown btc withdrawals for an entire week just recently, this was actually because a large number of bitcoins were stolen but they haven't admitted it yet.
7. Endless complaints by bitstamp users, very similar to the months before gox collapsed

Good luck everyone

Bitstamp ... 6k TT wire to Australia in 3 day turn around on the 27th March ..You are full of shit once again

Bitstamp asking for KYC docs is all good and a sign of a healthy exchange

The Gox malability problem was a pure GOX Bespoke problem.... No one was confiming transfers in the way they where ..ALso the jury is definately out as too what happnend to teh coinz ..I do expect Karples to be spending time in Jail soon due to embezellement

Here is a study just out that show "THE MALIBILITY ISSUES WAS A SMOKE SCREEN" so trying also cast bitstamp in thei same light for 100's of millions of dollars being missing is pure FUD

http://www.cio.com/article/750351/_39_Malleability_39_Attacks_Not_to_Blame_for_Mt._Gox_39_s_Missing_Bitcoins_Study_Says?page=2&taxonomyId=3055


Make a statement and lets BET ...I would prefer you to PUT UP or SHUT the FUCK UP comotard !!!

[YipYip]

I just looked at the first 2 pages in services discussion and there are no topics about Bitstamp currently having problems with withdrawals.  

Is there anything to substantiate "Bitstamp is the next gox" other than that they are following KYC requirements (isn't that a good thing)?

it's not a good thing when they plan to ask for more evidence than Charles Swab, remember that Gox did exactly 100% the same thing in the months following its collapse. They used excessive KYC to create delay tactics, don't forget this fact.

Can you copy your KYC questions here. Mine were about 8 questions. I answered them and then my withdrawal was processed the next day.

Do you know what kind of volume triggers additional KYC questions?

I got hit when i was doing more than 3-4k a week fiat withdrawls

[jamesc760]

"I laugh

Cosmopolis begins" --cosmofly


Whoopsie, I think you laughed a little too early.

I also noticed you deleted your "prediction" about bitstamp going gox, from the title of the post. How convenient.

[favelle75]

Sooo...are we at $300 yet?

[rohnearner]

Sooo...are we at $300 yet?

not yet.. around 520$/btc at this point of time..! let see where it goes from here.

[Nagle]

Well, the real question to ask is why Bitcoin should be any higher than it was last October, when it was around $100.

The big run-up was due to the China bubble. For a few months, people in China could easily buy Bitcoins on line with yuan and sell them outside China for dollars or euros. That provided a cheap, easy, online way to bypass China's exchange controls. (Chinese citizens are not allowed to simply trade yuan for dollars or euros.) Then the People's Bank of China cracked down, the China bubble collapsed, and the exchanges in China are very slow or closed. (As one person from China points out on here, nobody even talks about Bitcoins on QQ any more.)

So that's over. The question to ask is, what else makes Bitcoins worth 5x what they were six months ago?  "Overstock.com" accepting them? A few Bitcoin ATMs? Higher mining costs?

[dropt]

Well, the real question to ask is why Bitcoin should be any higher than it was last October, when it was around $100.

I think that's pretty obvious.  More people are in possession of a coin, or fraction thereof, than there were a year ago.  It really wouldn't take that many people, each buying a single coin, to cause an uptick in price.

[knightcoin]

Well, the real question to ask is why Bitcoin should be any higher than it was last October, when it was around $100.

I think that's pretty obvious.  More people are in possession of a coin, or fraction thereof, than there were a year ago.  It really wouldn't take that many people, each buying a single coin, to cause an uptick in price.

OK, my post maybe will sound off topic, or crazy .. but here is my view...

I think since the bootstrap in 2009, we still have a plenty space to expand, the crypto primitives still strong

A little bit of magic - bootstrapping, allows the separation of code and machine, allowing one single piece of code to run on many different machines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nslY1s0U9_c

[spazzdla]

Well, the real question to ask is why Bitcoin should be any higher than it was last October, when it was around $100.

The big run-up was due to the China bubble. For a few months, people in China could easily buy Bitcoins on line with yuan and sell them outside China for dollars or euros. That provided a cheap, easy, online way to bypass China's exchange controls. (Chinese citizens are not allowed to simply trade yuan for dollars or euros.) Then the People's Bank of China cracked down, the China bubble collapsed, and the exchanges in China are very slow or closed. (As one person from China points out on here, nobody even talks about Bitcoins on QQ any more.)

So that's over. The question to ask is, what else makes Bitcoins worth 5x what they were six months ago?  "Overstock.com" accepting them? A few Bitcoin ATMs? Higher mining costs?

More people wanting them..

Supply, demand.

Supply 21 million, Demand = rising.

If Demand(2014) > then Demand(2013), price must go up.

100 people want a bitcoin, no one knows
1000 people want a bitcoin, no one knows
10000 people want a bitcoin..  a price is discovered
100 000 people want a bitcoin, the price jumps
1 000 000 people want a bitcoin the price jumps

Supply and Demand.