Hi everyone, just a quick update on the situation and what happened last night. First of all we would like to reassure you but no we were not last night victim of a DDoS but instead victim of our own success! Indeed the rather astonishing amount of new account opened in the last few days added to the existing one plus the number of trade made a huge impact on the overall system that started to lag. As expected in such situation people started to panic, started to sell Bitcoin in mass (Panic Sale) resulting in an increase of trade that ultimately froze the trade engine! To give you an idea of how impressive things were here are some numbers that we would love to share with you guys: - The number of trades executed triple in the last 24hrs. - The number of new account opened went from 60k for March alone to 75k new account created for the first few days of April! We now have roughly 20,000 new accounts created each day. Due to these facts we have been busy working on improving things since last week and our team has been working around the clock to improve Mt.Gox to catch up with the demand. We will continue to release several updates today and in the coming few days to improve our system overall performance. Also please note that we may have to close the exchange for two hours in the next 12 to 24hrs to add several new servers to our system. Thank you for your understanding and continuous support!
That was me, but that's not precisely what I wrote. I said if Bitcoin goes up I win, and if Bitcoin crashes to extinction I win. My contention is that if BTC crashes to zero then the ones that do manage to pull their money out would instead look to park it someplace the government can't touch it, probably precious metals given the libertarian leaning of most bitcoiners. Unless this is a bear trap, it really wasn't much of a crash. I'm back to the position I was in on, uh ... Monday? The climb from 150 to 265 was silly and I expected a correction. But that correction doesn't rule out that BTC will ultimately be worth 265, or much, much more later either. Mt Gox's API being a pile a crap didn't help matters. Doesn't change the fundamentals that Bitcoin is still a game-changing payment alternative that has legitimate uses. What was lost in the roller coaster ride was that at no point was the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network itself a problem. It was all the rinky-dink outfits on the network edge that couldn't handle a panic run that caused it to accelerate. Miners know what their costs are, and there was a firm wall at $100USD that the sellers couldn't break.
Hmm, I'm still quite perplexed over BitCoin. If indeed it is an alternative, and indeed it rivals the fiat currency system, wouldn't "they" want to meddle their hands in it? Especially since such a meteoric rise would've probably caught their attention. Pardon my ignorance/noob questions pls. Just trying to make sense of the sudden BitCoin mania going on.
And for whatever it's worth, while the Bitcoin ecosystem came tumbling down at around 3:00pm EDT, I was in the break-room at work for something we call "coffee club," sharing 3 lbs of the best baklava I've ever had, which I paid for with bitcoins. I took some profits this week. And I ate them.
Hopefully that dampens down excitement a bit and we get a much more gradual rise for awhile. I'm sure the excitement will build again eventually and we'll have another climax. First one was at 30, this one at 265, next one at...
I'm predicting $200 will become a real point of resistance in the short term, with trading around $150 - $190. Once $200 eventually breaks though, if it can clear $250 it will be all on again. Can't wait to see the market depth later on tonight when the US is awake, will give more of an indication.
Gotcha, thanks. Also to one of your other points, I was speaking with a guy at work today, and I mentioned bitcoin. His immediate response was: "One of my mates works for the AFP (federal police), and a lot of the importation drug busts they make, the money trail more often than not is bitcoin. This is in stark contrast to your example, where you are eating awesome baklava that was paid for with bitcoin. I think in the media, we hear about the first one, not the second one.
If big amounts of money can shift things easily then how is manipulation impossible - up or down ? Do you really think the criminal syndicates around the world would be just ignoring what is going on with bitcoin ? Bitcoins are not new to them - they've been using them for a while. There are plenty of hackers around the world on their payrolls. For all you know Mt Gox could be a front for the Yakuza. Or I'm just overly paranoid - who knows.
Thats the AFP's favourite scare tactic spouting that. If a person uses a mixing service correctly, the BTC trail is basically impossible to trace.
No, you're not. Well, Mt. Gox being a front for Yakuza would be a new theory, but BTC-e being a front for the Russian Federation is far more likely.
Or more likely, we have one persons POV from the AFP who may or may not have access to all/correct information. If a tool exists that makes a job easier or more efficient then you will likely use it. Necessity is the mother of invention and these dealers and importers are merely doing what they do and they do it well.
