Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Halts USD Withdrawals 173
hypnosec writes "World's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, has halted U.S. dollar withdrawals of customer funds in the U.S., citing a need for system improvements. According to Mt. Gox, the exchange has experienced a huge number of requests for deposits as well as withdrawals from both established markets and new markets, following which its bank hasn't been able to process transactions on time. This led to difficulties for its overseas clients, especially those in the U.S. The exchange said that the deposits in USD, transfers to Mt. Gox, and deposits and withdrawals in other currencies will remain unaffected during this period. Mt. Gox will be resuming the USD withdrawals for its U.S. clients once the improvement of its systems is complete."
Wired suggests the slowness may be due in part to reluctance from banks to get entwined with Bitcoin for a number of reasons. "The problem is that U.S. banks are afraid that doing business with Bitcoin companies might draw the attention of U.S. or state regulators ... This reluctance may be fed by the sense that Bitcoin poses a threat to the banking industry. Anyone can transfer Bitcoins anywhere for free and that could put a dent in some banking transaction processing fees."
Re:because some fees have an actual purpose? (Score:2, Informative)
requires a shit ton of people to do stuff?
With green eyeshades and large paper ledgers? Welcome to the 21st Century. We have computers and an Internet.
Re:"That's what you get for money laundering". (Score:5, Informative)
Do you know the definition of Ponzi scheme? Because I don't think that term means what you think it means.
Bitcoin is many things, but it is as much of a Ponzi scheme as gold, real estate, or stock speculations. ie. not a Ponzi scheme at all.
While one can argue that Bitcoin is a scam (and most definitely a bubble), it does not fit the formal definition of a ponzi scheme.
http://www.sec.gov/answers/ponzi.htm [sec.gov]
>>A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. In many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors and to use for personal expenses, instead of engaging in any legitimate investment activity.
The key point here is the "solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns" section. In a normal Ponzi Scheme, the previous investors would attempt to guarantee newcomers that profit is certain.
In comparison, Bitcoin promises no such thing. While it is true that the profit of previous investors (or speculators) do indeed come from newcomers, the newcomers are not promised anything beyond their belief that the price will continue to rise.
This key difference makes the Bitcoin phenomenal a 'Bubble', not a 'Ponzi Scheme'.
Re:thats what you get for being stupid (Score:5, Informative)
It would be nice if that were the truth. Yes, the Bush administration made it a priority to get people into homes.
The mortgage brokers cheated lenders with subprime mortgages. They got their commissions and people lost the houses they couldn't afford in the first place.
The lenders then sold bad loans to investors like Goldman Sachs.
When the bottom finally fell out, two financial instruments companies went down. The rest got their money back from the government.
To explain exactly how much cheating was going on, the utter trash that GS knew was trash, they sold to investors. They also took out insurance policies on it.
Then AIG collapsed because of those policies and the government paid their policies. GS took that money and used it to buy securities.
So, GS engaged in quasi-criminal behavior and fraud. They bought, packaged, and sold turds. Took out turd insurance and then used the insurance to buy money.
In case some can't follow along, the took the government bailout and loaned it back to the government with interest.
So, no, the crash of 2008 wasn't due to regulation, it was due to fraud. And no one went to jail.
Re: and when all of them have been mined? (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry to burst your bubble but you can't build a coinage on hold either, unless you can mine it at the same rate the economy is growing.
A stable monetary base over a growing economy leads to deflation, which discourages investment. The equilibrium state with a fixed-size monetary base is a stagnant economy that is ultimately zero-sum. And if you think a zero-sum economy looks like anything other than concentration of wealth in the hands of the powerful, I encourage you to study some history.