I don't get it - who is trading at MtGox and how do they withdraw cash?

[DeathAndTaxes]

I'm sorry for your luck.

You still aren't getting it.  Luck has nothing to do with it.

Find me a single person who had a US wire submitted in the last month go though in less than 7 days.

[EuSouBitcoin]

Believe it or not, perhaps there are 2 classes of customers at Mt Gox, let's call them "First Class" and "Steerage". If you are in First Class all your USD withdrawals from Mt Gox go through quickly. If you are in Steerage you have to wait weeks. But how do you know which class of customer you are? That's easy. Try a withdrawal and see how long it takes. Belive it . . . or not!

[coga]

Believe it or not, perhaps there are 2 classes of customers at Mt Gox, let's call them "First Class" and "Steerage". If you are in First Class all your USD withdrawals from Mt Gox go through quickly. If you are in Steerage you have to wait weeks. But how do you know which class of customer you are? That's easy. Try a withdrawal and see how long it takes. Belive it . . . or not!

Are you basing this on facts, or it's just your theory? It's a good theory, it explains a lot, but I wanted to know if you have any proof.

[EuSouBitcoin]

I don't have any proof. I'm just thinking out loud trying to figure things out. For example, why would USD withdrawals from Mt Gox via Bank Wire take weeks, they shouldn't? Possible explanations: Mt Gox is having cash flow problems, create a 2-class customer system so the First Class customers can arb Mt Gox against other exchanges but everyone else can't withdraw USD in a timely fashion. The only way you'll know if another exchange works better for you is to try it. Competition between the various BTC/USD exchanges make things better for Bitcoin traders.

[coga]

I don't have any proof. I'm just thinking out loud trying to figure things out. For example, why would USD withdrawals from Mt Gox via Bank Wire take weeks, they shouldn't? Possible explanations: Mt Gox is having cash flow problems, create a 2-class customer system so the First Class customers can arb Mt Gox against other exchanges but everyone else can't withdraw USD in a timely fashion. The only way you'll know if another exchange works better for you is to try it. Competition between the various BTC/USD exchanges make things better for Bitcoin traders.

If that's true, it will be a sad thing, because that would mean that bitcoin not only failed to prevent oligarchy from forming up, but actually facilitated one.

[shtylman]

I don't have any proof. I'm just thinking out loud trying to figure things out. For example, why would USD withdrawals from Mt Gox via Bank Wire take weeks, they shouldn't? Possible explanations: Mt Gox is having cash flow problems, create a 2-class customer system so the First Class customers can arb Mt Gox against other exchanges but everyone else can't withdraw USD in a timely fashion. The only way you'll know if another exchange works better for you is to try it. Competition between the various BTC/USD exchanges make things better for Bitcoin traders.

If that's true, it will be a sad thing, because that would mean that bitcoin not only failed to prevent oligarchy from forming up, but actually facilitated one.

Most people are happy continuing to use services they have been using (even when those services are not working 100% for them) as long as the perceived cost of switching is still higher. This could be a number of things from having to learn new processes, entrusting someone new with their funds, or even not being able to move your funds out in a reasonable time (lock in). Many places still reference MtGox and their price as the current BTC price so that adds another factor of difficulty for users who see prices at other exchanges and then wonder why they are different.

I think it is also important to remember that for many casual users who are just looking to buy bitcoins there is no problem at all. They only move funds in one direction (input usd, buy btc). As long as MtGox keeps this process smooth and delay free, all of these users (not a small number) will have no incentives to look anywhere else or try anything else. The things we hear on the forums are from users wanting to cash out or otherwise trade in the other direction. While this may seem like everyone (based on how much noise is raised over it) many are not affected the same way by the delays.

Honestly, until the sellers start taking a risk again (yes it is a risk to move to a more illiquid market) then they are just continuing to fuel MtGox so clearly they remain "happy" customers willing to continue using the platform.

[coga]

These has been explained over and over, but let's do it again.

Alex, would you mind answering following question:

- Out of your customers, are there any, who receive preferential treatment, as far as cash withdrawals go? Or, all of your customers follow exactly the same process for withdrawals? For example: it came to my attention that bit-pay has USD conversion rate close to your ticker, are they cashing out through you and are they also incurring same 2-3 week waits for transfers?

- I would imagine some folks do require big withdrawals, so paying %% to AurumExchange is probably not an option for them. Is there ability for your customers to withdraw ANY national currency fast (within 1-2 days) without incurring huge commissions, e.g., less than 1% of amount? Are there any of your customers that take advantage of such withdrawal methods and which exactly are those methods?

[BitPay Business Solutions]

- Out of your customers, are there any, who receive preferential treatment, as far as cash withdrawals go? Or, all of your customers follow exactly the same process for withdrawals? For example: it came to my attention that bit-pay has USD conversion rate close to your ticker, are they cashing out through you and are they also incurring same 2-3 week waits for transfers?

I can assure you that we wait 2-3 weeks for wire withdrawals from Mt Gox just like everyone else.  Our only other option is to sell the Gox USD to another party locally, which we do if we can find someone that needs money in Gox fast and doesn't want to wire money to Japan.

[Vandroiy]

I've not been active on Gox recently, but I know how it's been most of the time: The different payment methods get delays sometimes. International Wire mostly worked in days for me, but as Bit-pay just said, it can be weeks. Of course they're not fast, banks delay for various reasons. It's not catastrophic.

Isn't this lag one of the core reasons we're in Bitcoin in the first place? International banking is just outdated in its current form, and it causes these problems. Mtgox is not your standard bank account where you get a speedy cash out, just use the various specialized providers to do that.

[RodeoX]

I don't withdraw dollars, just bitcoin. After all, bitcoins are money. Why do I want dollars to spend?

[disclaimer201]

Funny enough hackers can legally withdraw tens of thousands of dollars AND bitcoins overnight without running into any problems at all. The latest Bitcoinica MtGox hack is what convinced me to never use MtGox ever again. Oh, I almost forgot I already haven't used Gox ever since they reserved themselves the right to play police and freeze customer's coins they decided were stolen before. To x-arbitrary%degrees. In the name of law enforcement and authorities that never requested these measures. In fact, the thefts weren't even ever reported. Turns out now they actually facilitate theft?

[Mt.Gox_Alex]

These has been explained over and over, but let's do it again.

Alex, would you mind answering following question:

- Out of your customers, are there any, who receive preferential treatment, as far as cash withdrawals go? Or, all of your customers follow exactly the same process for withdrawals? For example: it came to my attention that bit-pay has USD conversion rate close to your ticker, are they cashing out through you and are they also incurring same 2-3 week waits for transfers?

- I would imagine some folks do require big withdrawals, so paying %% to AurumExchange is probably not an option for them. Is there ability for your customers to withdraw ANY national currency fast (within 1-2 days) without incurring huge commissions, e.g., less than 1% of amount? Are there any of your customers that take advantage of such withdrawal methods and which exactly are those methods?

- No, as Bit-Pay said, everyone is at the same level, simply because the system is automated. Simply put there are some rules in the system that push withdrawals. If for whatever reasons a withdrawal fail or take too long he will be put on the top of the queue.

- Using SEPA is today the fastest solution for people who want to withdraw a lot of money, however, we are seeing a end to our USD Withdrawal delay, I believe that yesterday a HUGE chunk of withdrawal has been cleared and from this day forward things will be better. There will be, hopefully, some new withdrawal solution available in the near future, our goal is to have them for the End of August, but we can't promise any precise ETA at this point.

As I stated many time (I was using MtGox_Support account) Mt.Gox is the largest exchange and the oldest, while this is a very reassuring fact for our customers, our activity is quickly spotted by Banks and their "compliance/risk" department making our daily working life rather... Interesting and challenging ;-)

The situation is rather tricky and people do not always understand this. We at Mt.Gox are a middleman between two world. On one side we have you our customers that we want to please and help as much as we can and on the other side we have Banks and Authorities that we are also oblige to please if we do not want to get into any troubles. So far and despite what many people on the forum believe, we are doing an "acceptable" work in pleasing everyone.

[Narydu]

I didn't tried it yet but I gues that lots of tge users as my self consider btc as an long term investment so do not intend to withdraw. Thow based on my personal experience selling bitcoins.com to Mark using a big amount of trust from my side... I believe that this delays are absolutely intentional, but even so I think mtgox makes a relative good job not being a bank it self.

[BitMinerN8]

I'm just posting some feedback on the Mt Gox --> Dwolla transfer delays.

Withdraw from Mt Gox on: 7/16 @ ~7AM PST
Delivered to Dwolla: 7/24 @ ~9AM PST
Withdraw from Dwolla: 7/24 @ ~10AM PST
Dwolla update says it should be delivered by 7/27 5PM CST
Dwolla delivered on 7/25 5PM CST

So it looks to be about 10 8 business days. It's depressing to some degree, but I believe it is still the least cost option ($.25) at this point.

If I did a wire direct to my bank from Mt Gox, I would have fees on each end and it would by their (Mt Gox Support) estimates a longer process, around 2 weeks. I don't know if that is 14 business days or what.

Most other USD withdraw options from other money exchanges seem to be at a much higher fees, around 3%-6% plus other fees here and there.

So does anyone know of a faster method of getting USD out of Mt Gox to my bank account for tiny fee of $.25 via Dwolla? Please let me know, thanks.

[OhShei8e]

Why should I withdraw my money from MT Gox in other currencies than bitcoins? In order to tax my money? I live in Germany and must pay 25 percent tax on all speculative gains. And how do you explain bitcoins to the tax office? They think you're a criminal or crazy or both. So you have to spend additional money for a tax adviser. € 600 are tax free in Germany, but everything above is difficult.  I can understand if people just leave their money in MT Gox. There is it in fact tax-free as long as you do not change it in a normal currency. Otherwise your bank will grass on you, thats the law in Germany. So you have to consider what you doing. Who knows what you can buy in the future for bitcoins? You can already pay in some pubs with it. And last but not least you can swap bitcoins to dollar. On the other hand, the euro will go to the dogs pretty soon.  

Just my two cents.