Mt Gox closes it's doors without warning, apparently declaring insolvency

[Askew]

I heard rumours of some kind of hacking attack/potential bitcoin theft?

[ajoy39]

.... It could have cost them $35,000,000. 

The leaked report/memo thing said 744,000 BTC. At the price of BTC when that released, that would've been $35M. 

Although it seems like MtGox isn't really closed (based on the new webpage) and may just be transitioning into someone else's hands (the acquisition hint in the code from the old blank page).

yep got my numbers backwards thought it was 744k worth of bitcoin not 744k BTC. That's....damn

[dylandylandylan]

It's only the exchange that has gone down .. Their method in handling Bitcoin was flawed from the start and that screwed them. This doesn't mean Bitcoin as a whole will go away, there are still many bigger exchanges out there dealing with the currency, such as Bitstamp etc. Think about it this way, If one of the major banks of general currency shut it's doors, money wouldn't stop would it? It'd get slowly exchanged and divided among other banks. Bitcoin will take a monetary hit for the slow transition, but it'll be okay.

 

on the flipside, many people are speculating that this was Mt.Gox's founder's idea all along too, sort opf like a long term scam, wait until bitcoin hits critical mass, and then run with it. I believe it was over 700,000 bitcoin being locked up in Mt.Gox. 

 

Have they announced what is going to happen to that bitcoin? + the missing bitcoins that have happened countless times over the years?

 

Uh .. Bicoin.. Love it.

[bcredeur97]

guys... i dont know if you guys realize this but this is actually really good for Bitcoin tbh... Mtgox has basically been centralizing bitcoin for the past two years at least. now that they are gone, we are left with tons of small exchanges, with no possible centralization.

 

And those 750K BTC that are gone? puh... deflation time!!! BTC TO DA MOON!!!!!!!!

[Bonsai99]

.... It could have cost them $35,000,000. 

The leaked report/memo thing said 744,000 BTC. At the price of BTC when that released, that would've been $35M. 

Although it seems like MtGox isn't really closed (based on the new webpage) and may just be transitioning into someone else's hands (the acquisition hint in the code from the old blank page).

Uhh it's alot more than that, at $500 ea that's $372 Million.

 

guys... i dont know if you guys realize this but this is actually really good for Bitcoin tbh... Mtgox has basically been centralizing bitcoin for the past two years at least. now that they are gone, we are left with tons of small exchanges, with no possible centralization.

 

And those 750K BTC that are gone? puh... deflation time!!! BTC TO DA MOON!!!!!!!!

The 750k BTC hasn't just disappeared off the face of the earth, it was stolen by other people so it will still be circulating around. It's not like the 750K BTC was deleted.

[Toxiclegend]

I heard rumours of some kind of hacking attack/potential bitcoin theft?

They said they had been attacked for a year without realising.... To me that's like running a bank and leaving the vault door open and saying you didn't notice people walking in and out taking money for a year until it was all gone?

 

Uhh it's alot more than that, at $500 ea that's $372 Million.

 

The 750k BTC hasn't just disappeared off the face of the earth, it was stolen by other people so it will still be circulating around. It's not like the 750K BTC was deleted.

This is true. It can't just vanish it has to go somewhere with how Bitcoin works it can't just vanish and I bet they wish it wasn't such an anonymous thing now, but I'm sure there is a way to trace it. So surely some sort of law enforcement has to get involved because as far as I'm aware theft is theft no matter if it's solid objects or digital, so where are they?

[rashdanml]

Uhh it's alot more than that, at $500 ea that's $372 Million.

 

The 750k BTC hasn't just disappeared off the face of the earth, it was stolen by other people so it will still be circulating around. It's not like the 750K BTC was deleted.

Stolen BTC, especially in those amounts, is akin to disappearing off the face of the planet. Especially if only one person or a small group of people had access to it, they can effectively keep it off the market, drastically reducing the supply of BTC in circulation. 744k out of 12m is a sizeable chunk of the supply, enough to influence its value. 

[Bonsai99]

They said they had been attacked for a year without realising.... To me that's like running a bank and leaving the vault door open and saying you didn't notice people walking in and out taking money for a year until it was all gone?

They apparently haven't heard of a thing called auditing.

This is true. It can't just vanish it has to go somewhere with how Bitcoin works it can't just vanish and I bet they wish it wasn't such an anonymous thing now, but I'm sure there is a way to trace it. So surely some sort of law enforcement has to get involved because as far as I'm aware theft is theft no matter if it's solid objects or digital, so where are they?

Yeah you can trace it to which addresses the bitcoins are going through but you can almost never trace a wallet address to a person (unless they have it posted publically asking for BTC donations or such)

Law enforcement doesn't get involved with digital theft as much as they should, as far as they see it they probably see Bitcoin as something like Runescape or World of Warcraft gold sure you can sell it for real money but they see it as having pretty much no value. They usually aren't interested in taking their time to deal with those sort of things. Even if they were willing to they wouldn't have any idea who was taking the BTC and it would be incredibly difficult because of the large time period it occurred over and because of the amount of people that likely exploited it.

Stolen BTC, especially in those amounts, is akin to disappearing off the face of the planet. Especially if only one person or a small group of people had access to it, they can effectively keep it off the market, drastically reducing the supply of BTC in circulation. 744k out of 12m is a sizeable chunk of the supply, enough to influence its value. 

I guess so, but it should still pop up again at some point.

[Toxiclegend]

Stolen BTC, especially in those amounts, is akin to disappearing off the face of the planet. Especially if only one person or a small group of people had access to it, they can effectively keep it off the market, drastically reducing the supply of BTC in circulation. 744k out of 12m is a sizeable chunk of the supply, enough to influence its value. 

Yeah it is a lot there is no denying that at all, but if they took it and sold it, which is usually how most theives work then that group of people haven't made the coins vanish they've just sold it at probably a lower value to flip it quickly. but say if they sold at it $200 USD before the crash that's 744,000 x 200 which is $148,800,000 which is a lot of money no doubt about that.

 

They apparently haven't heard of a thing called auditing.

Yeah you can trace it to which addresses the bitcoins are going through but you can almost never trace a wallet address to a person (unless they have it posted publically asking for BTC donations or such)

Law enforcement doesn't get involved with digital theft as much as they should, as far as they see it they probably see Bitcoin as something like Runescape or World of Warcraft gold sure you can sell it for real money but they see it as having pretty much no value. They usually aren't interested in taking their time to deal with those sort of things. Even if they were willing to they wouldn't have any idea who was taking the BTC and it would be incredibly difficult because of the large time period it occurred over and because of the amount of people that likely exploited it.

I guess so, but it should still pop up again at some point.

This is the problem, it's too secret and as a currecny for it to work it shouldn't be for events just like this. I think this is THE biggest barrier to more people using these types of currency if it's more secure and less secretive then it'll get used a lot more. This is different to RS and WoW money though, because online retailers take it for products not all but some, so it has more value, you can't use RS gold outside of RS but you can use bitcoins in various forms, some people played it like a stock so if stock went missing the police would be all over it, the same needs to happen they have to find a way to trace it and stop this from happening.......Again....

[Bonsai99]

Yeah it is a lot there is no denying that at all, but if they took it and sold it, which is usually how most theives work then that group of people haven't made the coins vanish they've just sold it at probably a lower value to flip it quickly. but say if they sold at it $200 USD before the crash that's 744,000 x 200 which is $148,800,000 which is a lot of money no doubt about that.

It was stolen over a period of time and I doubt that it was just one group exploiting it. It wasn't like it was stolen all at once by a single group.

 

This is different to RS and WoW money though, because online retailers take it for products not all but some, so it has more value, you can't use RS gold outside of RS but you can use bitcoins in various forms

I know, but that's how I imagine most people see it as that don't understand Bitcoin, play money.

 

I think this is THE biggest barrier to more people using these types of currency if it's more secure and less secretive then it'll get used a lot more.

It is plenty secure, but people do stupid things and get Bitcoins stolen from them. Anonymity is one of the reasons Bitcoin exists, it isn't going to change.

[totjup5]

Good. I don't like cryptocurrency. I just want litecoin to fail so amd gpus can not be overpriced.

[Toxiclegend]

It was stolen over a period of time and I doubt that it was just one group exploiting it. It wasn't like it was stolen all at once by a single group.

 

I know, but that's how I imagine most people see it as that don't understand Bitcoin, play money.

 

It is plenty secure, but people do stupid things and get Bitcoins stolen from them. Anonymity is one of the reasons Bitcoin exists, it isn't going to change.

As I said before, a year is a very long time, and to not notice on average 62k coins a month go missing isn't a bit iffy you ask me.

But the anonymity of Bitcoin is both it's biggest strength and weakness, it means yeah loads of shady deals can happen and people don't have to worry about other people tracking them down for their coins, but it also means investors and companies wanting people to use it instead of money have to do something to make sure that they can trace and know where them coins come from if someone goes and spends like 2-3 bitcoints building a new mining rig and them 2/3 coins are hacked yes it's only 2-3 coins but it's 1000-1500 worth of money, and when playing with money if someone lost 1500 all hell would break loose.