What are your thoughts on BitCoin?

[Kaitzilla]

So apparently someone has figured out how to milk people on Mt. Gox, where 80% of bitcoin trades take place, out of real money using DDoS attacks as part of their trading strategy.

From April 4th:

https://mtgox.com/press_release_20130404.html

It's been an epic few days: What happened?

TOKYO - JAPAN - April 04, 2013

Dear Mt.Gox users and Bitcoiners, It’s been an epic few days on Bitcoin, with prices going up as high as $142 per BTC. We all hope that this is just the beginning! However, there are many who will try to take advantage of the system. The past few days were a reminder of this sad truth. Mt.Gox has been suffering from its worst trading lag ever, 502 errors, and at one point some users were not able to log in their account. The culprit is a major DDoS attack against Mt.Gox. Since yesterday, we are continuing to experience a DDoS attack like we have never seen. While we are being protected by companies like Prolexic, the sheer volume of this DDoS left us scrambling to fine-tune the system every few hours to make sure that things don’t go beyond a few 502 error pages and trading lag

Why has Mt.Gox become the target of a DDoS attack?

It is not yet clear who is behind this DDoS and we may never know, but these actions seem to have two major purposes:
• Destabilize Bitcoin in general.
It is not a secret Mt.Gox is the largest Bitcoin exchange with more than 80% of all USD trades and more than 70% of all currencies. Mt.Gox is an easy target for anyone that wants to hurt Bitcoin in general.
• Abuse the system for profit.
Attackers wait until the price of Bitcoins reaches a certain value, sell, destabilize the exchange, wait for everybody to panic-sell their Bitcoins, wait for the price to drop to a certain amount, then stop the attack and start buying as much as they can. Repeat this two or three times like we saw over the past few days and they profit.

What can be done?

Believe it or not, there is pretty much nothing that can be done. Large companies are frequently victims of these kinds of attacks. Even though we are using one of the best companies to help us fight against these DDoS attacks, we are still being affected. There are a few things that we can implement to help fight the attacks, such as disconnecting the trade engine backend from the Internet. By separating the data center from the Mt.Gox website, we will continue to be able to trade...

It seems even 6 days ago they had a very serious problem. Maybe today it is more of the same? Or maybe things are simply working perfectly.

 

[useless]

I'm taking actual, physical pleasure watching this whole bitcoin debacle. It's like these libertarians have never heard of a "bubble" before or are so stubborn they can't even see it forming infront of them and then popping.

 

[Farm Boy]

I'm taking actual, physical pleasure watching this whole bitcoin debacle. It's like these libertarians have never heard of a "bubble" before or are so stubborn they can't even see it forming infront of them and then popping.

Sort of like watching uppity folks get water cannoned I suppose.

 

[useless]

Gotta make money today with dose buttcoins

 

[Kaitzilla]

It went all the way down to $105, now it is skyrocketing back up to $190.

My neck hurts!


Did we just go through Mise's Bull trap?

I can't imagine the blow off phase lasting only a few hours. It takes days for psychology to play out, even in the digital era.

 

[JohannaK]

This is so friggin ridiculous. Someone's making alotta money right there.

 

[Leoreth]

The Mt Gox DDoS attacks only show that even when you try to minimize trust, you still have to put trust in something. Why the Bitcoin community first goes to such painstaking lengths to decentralize their currency and then trade it in a very centralized marketplace is also a little confusing.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Mmm, $190, back down to $135, then back up to $160.

Not gonna lie, pretty awestruck at the volatility. Just another day in the life of Bitcoin I guess.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Expect lots of people to start going "well, it was still a good idea, because it went from $30 to $100".

(Except you can't even liquidate it, because MtGox has something like a $1000 transaction limit for withdrawals per day lol)

 

[ace99]

This sounds like an excellent currency to adopt.

 

[Crezth]

The Mt Gox DDoS attacks only show that even when you try to minimize trust, you still have to put trust in something. Why the Bitcoin community first goes to such painstaking lengths to decentralize their currency and then trade it in a very centralized marketplace is also a little confusing.

It's just the way the cookie crumbled. There were other traders/markets but a lot of them were run by crooks and thieves, who also made off with some ill-gotten gains.

Mt. Gox became the de facto central bank, minus the power of controlled inflation, because it is run by ideologues who - bless their heart - believe more in libertarianism than making a quick buck. (Note: controlling all the volume of a currency and enjoying the spoils thereof notwithstanding.)

Anywho, the funny thing about it is after the first Bitcoin bubble "popped" due to somebody massively playing the markets I guess back in '10 or '11, Mt. Gox called the market shift "inorganic" and manually reset the prices back to their then-high. The irony of this type of artificial manipulation happening to a supposedly decentralized currency was. sadly, lost on the Bitcoin community.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Um, the free market still wins, as the traders have voted with their wallet.dats and are still using MtGOX!

 

[Leoreth]

Mt. Gox became the de facto central bank, minus the power of controlled inflation, because it is run by ideologues who - bless their heart - believe more in libertarianism than making a quick buck. (Note: controlling all the volume of a currency and enjoying the spoils thereof notwithstanding.)

Anywho, the funny thing about it is after the first Bitcoin bubble "popped" due to somebody massively playing the markets I guess back in '10 or '11, Mt. Gox called the market shift "inorganic" and manually reset the prices back to their then-high. The irony of this type of artificial manipulation happening to a supposedly decentralized currency was. sadly, lost on the Bitcoin community.

This is exactly why I initially said that Bitcoin is a good case study of the clash between libertarian ideology and reality.

 

[Antilogic]

So, I haven't been in this thread for weeks until I saw an article on the bubble popping. Glad there is already some more reading material here.

 

[Dachs]

This is exactly why I initially said that Bitcoin is a good case study of the clash between libertarian ideology and reality.

That's what I've said in literally every discussion of buttcoins on CFC ever.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY FREE MARKET

 

[ace99]

This just confirms everything we already knew.

 

[FriendlyFire]

This is exactly why I initially said that Bitcoin is a good case study of the clash between libertarian ideology and reality.

As if two stock market crashes and two great depressions were not evidence enough.

 

[Quintillus]

From what I've read, they fluctuate in value rather heavily.

I agree with my former self. Even more so given their fluctuation in value in the past month. My prediction is that their current price will prove to be a bubble, and the price will soon collapse.

It is tempting to perhaps short sell a bitcoin or two. But really, I see investing in bitcoins as no more secure than gambling at a casino, and less so if you are a good poker player.

If given the choice, I'd rather invest in Cypriot banks than bitcoins. At least there I probably won't lose all my money, especially since I have less than 100,000 Euros.

 

[Leoreth]

As if two stock market crashes and two great depressions were not evidence enough.

But then they could always blame government interference and imperfect markets etc. to keep up the rhetoric.