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Topic: [2014-02-17] Why Mt. Gox May Be Headed for Bankruptcy (Read 2576 times)

member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
Nah, they'll never recover to the position they once held.
hero member
Activity: 994
Merit: 1000
It's just incompetency.
full member
Activity: 150
Merit: 100
There are a lot of people who tell that "MtGox is out of business and is going bankrupt". I have a hope that they won't go bankrupt and a few months later they will again lead the market.
member
Activity: 65
Merit: 10
Its not the first time MTGox are simulating the market. I don´t think they have big problems
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
I just understand software development.  When you have been around the longest, you have the most legacy code to maintain.  It's a difficult job being the biggest kid on the block, adapting old technologies to problems you didn't plan for.  People need to stop freaking out and be patient enough to see what happens.

A one-time query of the transaction database does not need to go through a development process.

Disabling a feature (automatic "did not receive" complaints) should not be that difficult.

Now, implementing an automated work around, that could take time. But, that would be Step 2. Step 1 is getting the system working again for most customers. They don't seem to care, which raises a lot of red flags.
global moderator
Activity: 4046
Merit: 2732
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People need to stop freaking out and be patient enough to see what happens.

But people make money by making others freak out ...

Some lose it too.
member
Activity: 93
Merit: 10
Software Engineer
But people make money by making others freak out ...
True indeed.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
People need to stop freaking out and be patient enough to see what happens.

But people make money by making others freak out ...
member
Activity: 93
Merit: 10
Software Engineer
I just understand software development.  When you have been around the longest, you have the most legacy code to maintain.  It's a difficult job being the biggest kid on the block, adapting old technologies to problems you didn't plan for.  People need to stop freaking out and be patient enough to see what happens.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
You make it sound so easy.

If BTC-E and Bitstamp can figure it out ...

Where there is a will, there is a way. Obviously there is no will.

One explanation for no will is: They have lost, spent, embezzled, etc. a huge amount of customers BTC, and there is no way they can resume withdrawals.

Occam's razor: The simplest answer is likely to be the correct one.
member
Activity: 93
Merit: 10
Software Engineer
If MtGox wanted to remain an on-going concern, high on their priority list is maintaining their brand name. Resuming withdrawals would be high on the ToDo list.

Yes, transaction malleability is real, but it is an accounting problem (transaction hash changes), not a problem in the transfer itself (btc did not transfer).

#1 - sort out who got double paid, and what is the loss. It should not take more than a few days to run a query through the transaction database.

#2 - Resume withdrawals, manually process "did not receive" complaints.


You make it sound so easy.
full member
Activity: 140
Merit: 100
I hope they do not recover back to no.1. exchange again. Let them have 5% of the market for laggards and historical value, other 95% should go elsewhere. We had enough pain caused by the one and only dr. Gox.


Exactly.
Once upon a time they also a huge amount of volume which damaged the decentralized nature of bitcoin. Hopefully bitstamp, kraken, btc-e and other good exchanges will take their marketshare.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
If MtGox wanted to remain an on-going concern, high on their priority list is maintaining their brand name. Resuming withdrawals would be high on the ToDo list.

Yes, transaction malleability is real, but it is an accounting problem (transaction hash changes), not a problem in the transfer itself (btc did not transfer).

#1 - sort out who got double paid, and what is the loss. It should not take more than a few days to run a query through the transaction database.

#2 - Resume withdrawals, manually process "did not receive" complaints.

It would not take much to resume withdrawals and maintain their brand name. Since they have not (especially since other exchanges have), it appears their actions speak louder than their words. They are short a huge amount of BTC (and probably $ USD too, since they have been having $ USD problems for a while too). Initially when $ USD was frozen and BTC was not, the price of BTC was high since people wanted to get out. Now, the value of BTC on MtGox has plunged. People are hoping that they will recover more in bankruptcy with a $ USD claim than a BTC claim.

member
Activity: 93
Merit: 10
Software Engineer
MtGox is doing huge volumes of sales right now.  It more than makes up for the lower trading price in my estimation.  Whether it's enough to make up for their other problems, only time can tell.  I guess we'll know more on Thursday.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
really bad article in the way that all it does is compare to poker sites as their frame of reference for making predictions.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1014
In Satoshi I Trust
I hope they do not recover back to no.1. exchange again. Let them have 5% of the market for laggards and historical value, other 95% should go elsewhere. We had enough pain caused by the one and only dr. Gox.


thats also my hope.
donator
Activity: 674
Merit: 523
I hope they do not recover back to no.1. exchange again. Let them have 5% of the market for laggards and historical value, other 95% should go elsewhere. We had enough pain caused by the one and only dr. Gox.
hero member
Activity: 533
Merit: 500
Great article, OP.  Lots of good information and yeah, guess we'll see where it goes.
member
Activity: 111
Merit: 10
Excuse me for my ignorance.

If we must.

People need to realize that MtGox is one of the few exchanges that actually have a known office. They are operated in a country with a rather traditional banking system and they have been in the public eye the longest. They also charge by far the highest transaction fees and profit from currency conversion.

It may just be that they got burned and are now overly cautious. Just because everyone is yelling bankruptcy does not make it true. Then again, it also does not make it false.

I think the take away from this whole situation is, this company should no longer be operating (bankruptcy or not). If they do fix their problems, it's not going to make things ok. The wonderful thing about bitcoin is choosing who gets the "power" and the BTC community needs to pull their funds out (hopefully this will all go smoothly this week) and step away from mtgox. They deserve nothing from the way they have handled this fiasco.

I understand that this is the first time we have ran into such a unique problem and of course, it is part of the growing pains. This will be a great and unfortunate example of how to improve for the future.

In the end, I hope this whole chapter can be closed as clean as possible.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
Excuse me for my ignorance.

If we must.

People need to realize that MtGox is one of the few exchanges that actually have a known office. They are operated in a country with a rather traditional banking system and they have been in the public eye the longest. They also charge by far the highest transaction fees and profit from currency conversion.

It may just be that they got burned and are now overly cautious. Just because everyone is yelling bankruptcy does not make it true. Then again, it also does not make it false.
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