Why is dwolla so slow?

[Extravagant]

Anyone tell me whats up with dwolla?

First i been waiting on a transfer from MTGox for 3 hours +.

And now Dwolla wont even load. I was really counting on dwolla and there really letting me down.

[moocow1452]

They're doing some website remodeling today. Not sure what that has to do with the backend, but it probably has their attention right now.

[Extravagant]

i guess i will continue to wait

thanks for the reply moocow

[Stephen Gornick]

Anyone tell me whats up with dwolla?

First i been waiting on a transfer from MTGox for 3 hours +.

Account-to-account (A2A) transfers at Dwolla show instantaneously, so the problem is most likely that Mt. Gox hasn't sent through your transaction.

This can be for a number of reasons sometimes including ones that are beyond Mt. Gox's control.  Dwolla just did a huge update over the weekend -- something that previously has caused problems for bitcoin exchanges which need to rewrite code to restore the same functionality that was available before the update.  (Dwolla's transactional and reporting systems are insufficient so exchanges resorted to doing "screen scraping" to get the data needed, believe it or not.)

Other times the problem has to do with cash management.  Mt. Gox doesn't know how many people will be withdrawing to Dwolla, so they only keep a certain level of funds in Dwolla that that they estimate will be needed for A2A transfers to fulfill the exchange's withdawal requests.  When Mt. Gox runs out of funds in their account, they too have delays in moving funds over to Dwolla - it can take a day or three just like with anyone else.

And now Dwolla wont even load. I was really counting on dwolla and there really letting me down.

If you are counting on Dwolla to do inter-exchange arbitrage, yes -- the delays from the exchanges are frustrating.  And as a result because the flows are not running smooth the arbitrage opportunities become even more pronounced which gets traders even more anxious.

If it isn't for inter-exchange arbitrage -- what's the harm from a few hours?  Withdrawal to a bank is usually a couple days before you can spend the funds.

[Extravagant]

Anyone tell me whats up with dwolla?

First i been waiting on a transfer from MTGox for 3 hours +.

Account-to-account (A2A) transfers at Dwolla show instantaneously, so the problem is most likely that Mt. Gox hasn't sent through your transaction.

This can be for a number of reason, sometimes beyond Mt. Gox's control.  Dwolla just did a huge update over the weekend -- something that previously has caused problems for bitcoin exchanges which need to rewrite code to restore the same functionality that was available before the update.  (Dwolla's transactional systems are insufficient so exchanges resorted to doing "screen scraping" to get the data needed, believe it or not.)

Other times the problem has to do with cash management.  Mt. Gox doesn't know how many people will be withdrawing to Dwolla, so they only keep a certain level of funds in Dwolla so that they can transfer to fulfill withdawal transactions.  When they run out of funds in their account, they too have delays in moving funds over to Dwolla - it can take a day or three just like with anyone else.

And now Dwolla wont even load. I was really counting on dwolla and there really letting me down.

If you are counting on Dwolla to do inter-exchange arbitrage, yes -- the delays from the exchanges are frustrating.  And as a result because the flows are not running smooth the arbitrage opportunities become even more pronounced which gets traders even more anxious.

If it isn't for inter-exchange arbitrage -- what's the harm from a few hours?  Withdrawal to a bank is usually a couple days before you can spend the funds.

Everything you said is very true, and i understand.

The problem is, well for me anyway, I am not rich, what money i do move around is very important to me.

And patience is something i totally lack sometimes. Recent stories of funds disappearing, not accounted for, stolen, fished ect ect drive me nuts,

And what usually happens is i end up freaking myself out to where anything out of the normal is hell.

Now i understand that's my problem and not dwolla's, BUT back to my first point, Money is important to me, what little i have. And when its in limbo i hate it.

So i apologize if it seems im making a big deal over nothing. Also, in the past bitcoin-forum has always provided quick answers since i don't keep up with bitcoin news. Which is why i posted.

Anyway ill stop rambling. Thanks for the reply

Edit: 4 hours :/

[likuidxd]

I've had it take 8 hours before, never figured out why.

I use AurumXchange now, cash deposits at a bank and within the hour it's in my Gox account. The fee is only 2.99% and I usually recover that in my first or second trade because of volatility in the market.

[Extravagant]

I've had it take 8 hours before, never figured out why.

I use AurumXchange now, cash deposits at a bank and within the hour it's in my Gox account. The fee is only 2.99% and I usually recover that in my first or second trade because of volatility in the market.

I also use them for deposits,

But this is a MTGOX > DWOLLA for transfer into my account.

Dwolla has the fastest times on bank deposits, 2 days has been my avg.

[likuidxd]

Ah yes, apologies. Sometimes my eyes move faster than my brain comprehends

[Extravagant]

5 hours...

Still no MTGox deposit.

[moocow1452]

Aurum does have their loyalty card for $25 that allows you to withdraw USD to their debit immediately. And I'm working on what could possibly be the fastest cash out in the west. But it's secret right now, so shhhh!

[Extravagant]

Yup, I will be getting one of those this week.

[Extravagant]

So,

It ended up taking 13 hours, i finally went to sleep and it went through.

To be fair it was not dwolla's fault, MTGox responded to my support request last night and they said it was there fault. They didn't give a reason though.

But oh well,


Ordered a AurumXchange debit card, They charge allot fees with there card but, there loyalty points and its only $1 to load the card works out to be cheaper than OKPay.

There is a %3 charge to send funds to OKPay to load there card. And a membership and fees so really AurumXchange is the best and simplest.

Can anyone tell me how AurumXchange is able to have a debit card and also handle bitcoin funds transfers and yet paxum just totally said , "well f'you we just wont deal with anything bitcoin related."

I have since closed my deleted my paxum account. There service is absolutely useless IMO.

[moocow1452]

Might as well use this instead of opening a new topic for a similar question, but what is the average turnaround time for Gox->Dwolla, and if it's more than 15 minutes or so, would it be worthwhile to consider another exchange?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Might as well use this instead of opening a new topic for a similar question, but what is the average turnaround time for Gox->Dwolla, and if it's more than 15 minutes or so, would it be worthwhile to consider another exchange?

It varies a lot from 30 minutes or so to couple hours.  I have never had a withdrawal not go through on the same day.

My understanding is the Dwolla user -> Dwolla user part should be instant (obviously the Dwolla -> bank part takes ~2 days) so no idead why Gox is so slow.

[moocow1452]

Right, so OTC or somewhere more formal?

[Stephen Gornick]

so no idead why Gox is so slow.

Now with Dwolla's new requirements that cash sent TO most bitcoin exchanges must (be verified, be at least 30 days since first bank transfer deposit, etc.), there is probably much less Dwolla USDs arriving into Mt. Gox than is being withdrawn.   Mt. Gox doesn't want to keep more than they need to at Dwolla so they probably estimate daily and send or withdraw from their balance at Dwolla as needed.

The pain to you and I as customers is likely less (to them) then the pain of one day the Dwolla clawing back for previous fraud or by government order or whatever and in an instant a quarter million of Mt. Gox's USDs go along with it.  (I'm speculating here, I don't know the actual reason their level of funds held at Dwolla isn't maintained at higher levels.)

So I'm guessing it is either a nip and tuck approach or they don't offer Dwolla as a withdrawal method.

Since many bigger accounts know in advance how much they'll be transferring and when, Mt. Gox could probably poll these accounts to know ahead of time the demand and as a result do a better job of managing the balance.