"I had a job interview with MtGox a couple of weeks ago for a frontend developer position. After talking about their technical environment I declined the position. Contemplated publicizing my story, but I have zero proof that the interview took place. But fuck me is their environment fucked up.
Either way, I have been recommending to my friends to move any BTC away from Gox as soon as possible, and regret not bringing this advice into the open. I'm a Tokyoite, so if you want to talk to me about the job Interview, or just drink a beer, send me a DM."
"I was told that up until a few weeks [at time of the interview] ago, there was hardly any development environment to test changes. Most changes were done straight on the production environment. Typing this made me throw up in my mouth.
The guy who interviewed me was very friendly, but I felt like a psychiatrist more than a job candidate. The dude went on about how shitty the atmosphere is at the offices, and what he told me about Mark seems to be spot on from what OP has said.
Interview guy, if you read this, sorry yo."
I've talked to a backend developer at Coinbase, he said their codebase is a mess and that he wouldn't hold any in their system. Also I submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7169114 a couple of days ago based on what I found on Reddit. And this is Coinbase, the good guy. MtGox has always been a clusterfuck.
This feels like the internet used to feel like. Back when you just used to assume that a credit card transaction wouldn't go through. Why? "Because internet". Bitcoin is so young and immature.
Consider this a reminder that while Bitcoin may be an interesting technological achievement, as a tradable asset it is still basically a toy. Crappy exchange technology combined with low liquidity is a perfect recipe for this kind of volatility.
While I am in no position to predict the future of bitcoins, all new markets have these problems. At an early point in their history, stocks also had low liquidity and crappy technology. Both of these conditions will improve as an asset becomes more popular. It is a chicken-and-egg problem.
This is more about a crappy exchange that has been crappy for most of its existence than about Bitcoin itself. The sky is not falling. MtGox may fall after this, but IMO that would be a good thing.
The interesting thing about bitcoin is that you can just trade your friends for some p2p, you don't need a central exchange. You don't need a bank account to send someone bitcoins or to get some. You can just hand someone $20 and your address and they can send it to you p2p. No banking infrastructure involved.
That boggles the mind. It is impossible for bitcoin to become fully illiquid as long as people believe it has value, because there is no infrastructure to approve transactions. The approval happens p2p.
I'd sooner consider your comment a reminder that people will apply whatever possible interpretation to the facts is necessary in order to appear right. It's hard to even understand what it is you think you're contributing to the conversation. A dad-from-Growing-Pains-style chat on where to put our money? Reminding us that Mtgox -- which has a story on HN about them every other day -- is a clunky Rube Goldberg machine?
This comment really seems like poorly disguised crowing and nothing more. Not a reminder, certainly. Maybe a reminder of your great prognosticatory abilities -- you took the default position on 99% of new technologies, products and innovations. Where do you find the courage?
I think all of us veteran Bitcoin users saw this coming for awhile now. It's all the new users (<1 year) that are affected. They tend to disregard our advice to steer clear of Mt. Gox (and holding their BTC in an exchange like a bank). They're probably the same people who keep supporting scammers like BFL.
I bought some Jalapeños from BFL after my January order was not shipped until August, in the Black Friday sale.
The sale was advertised as "units in stock, ready for immediate delivery"
When they came (something like a full month later) they were approximately double the spec of the devices I thought I had ordered, but still for the same price. Thanks, I guess?
I can't say if they're shipping any faster now, but if the trend of decreasing wait times has continued, I'd expect that by now, they'll be competition for Amazon's rumored new "ship before you order" practices.
Honestly for the new customers, if their ASIC parts were actually delivered in less than two weeks, I would have to say you're not getting the full BFL experience anymore, and you should probably ask for a refund.
Are you just as bitter that you missed Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Priceline, Intuitive Surgical or CNR?
Point being, these opportunities are everywhere, always. You're surrounded by them right now, they're just not obvious. But neither was BitCoin. And with the above you're actually buying into a real company, rather than speculating on a price change.
so the question of the day I guess is will Dogecoin do the same thing? (it's "cheap" now)
I almost think that it will... in other words a bitcoin-like bubble will happen again, but maybe just once, and then not again (because there are so many people like me who feel like they missed out the "first time" on bitcoin)
Short term the price will drop even more dramatically, but once recovered, it should increase more, as main exchanges will get more busy. Or is there a flaw in my logic?
Is it just me, or does MTGox seem to be the BTC site that has the most problems? Maybe its just because of their size, but in comparison Coinbase and Blockchain have few problems.
MtGox badly needs a financial audit. It's easy to fund operations from deposits and, by having limited withdrawals, hide the fact that you are insolvent.
This is exactly why regulations exist. MtGox should need to register as a Money Service Business (MSB) in the US and as a Money Transmitter in each state that they support. That needs to happen even if they're not a US company. The same applies to the EU, Australia, Canada, and many other countries that have regulations around this kind of activity.
The purpose of the regulations are to protect consumers for companies that are either malicious or incompetent.
The problem is that the licensing process is expensive, painful, and long. There should be better ways. Nonetheless, there's a reason why the exist.
I've been using http://www.kraken.com of late and it's been great - no problem wiring money to/from my bank account, easy to convert between LTC and BTC and market orders close immediately.
I've only been trading in small BTC amounts though so not sure if you'd hit liquidity problems if trying to trade large amounts (kraken's volume is quite a lot smaller than the bigger established players like bitstamp)
I started using bitfinex recently. Other exchanges I've used have had miriads of downtime, and I just moved off campbx because their site is so slow (and their market cap has shrunk huge). The other plus is that their fees are often half of other exchanges, I went from a .5% comission on cbx for sales to a .15%.
Bitstamp is also good, I hear, but I just went with finex because their fees are lower =P.
I think it is important to use an exchange outside the US though, because I expect the fed to start going Orwell on any bitcoin company soon.
There's also the Canadian https://www.vaultofsatoshi.com/, which seems to be top notch as far as the tech (multiple 2FA options, OpenPGP cryptography for email, etc.).
2 bad news day in a row, and BTC is sensibly at the same price level... This resilience is making me more skeptical of a upcoming crash event. Price stability is sinequanone for acceptance as a currency.
It seems a technical issue, they are saying they won't process BTC transactions not that they wont process fiat withdrawals, although those have been slow for months anyway.
MtGox is one of the biggest and most well known. As I understand each exchange basically sets there own price - but if one exchange lowers there buy price (they buy bitcoins for less dollars) then the others can do too?
This is great for MtGox, all buy transactions pending just lost a $100 of the cost to fulfil. Surely then they wait for the bottom, initiate all transactions possible.
Price rises and they can take in more dollars per bitcoin sold, speculating, that may be all that enables them to actually deposit the amounts on the transactions they "fulfilled" in order to make the price bounce.
When you freeze billions of assets markets react. People can't move their Gox btc out, they can't cash out, so a double digit percentage of the market just froze.
davedx|12 years ago
"I had a job interview with MtGox a couple of weeks ago for a frontend developer position. After talking about their technical environment I declined the position. Contemplated publicizing my story, but I have zero proof that the interview took place. But fuck me is their environment fucked up. Either way, I have been recommending to my friends to move any BTC away from Gox as soon as possible, and regret not bringing this advice into the open. I'm a Tokyoite, so if you want to talk to me about the job Interview, or just drink a beer, send me a DM."
"I was told that up until a few weeks [at time of the interview] ago, there was hardly any development environment to test changes. Most changes were done straight on the production environment. Typing this made me throw up in my mouth. The guy who interviewed me was very friendly, but I felt like a psychiatrist more than a job candidate. The dude went on about how shitty the atmosphere is at the offices, and what he told me about Mark seems to be spot on from what OP has said. Interview guy, if you read this, sorry yo."
3pt14159|12 years ago
I've talked to a backend developer at Coinbase, he said their codebase is a mess and that he wouldn't hold any in their system. Also I submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7169114 a couple of days ago based on what I found on Reddit. And this is Coinbase, the good guy. MtGox has always been a clusterfuck.
This feels like the internet used to feel like. Back when you just used to assume that a credit card transaction wouldn't go through. Why? "Because internet". Bitcoin is so young and immature.
nils--|12 years ago
Would be willing to share my story, with proof, but sadly I'm not a good writer. :(
But I can confirm that it is as screwed up as the commentor on Reddit wrote. Not even the developers would trust their money or BTC to Gox.
jessedhillon|12 years ago
minimax|12 years ago
koliber|12 years ago
downandout|12 years ago
kyleblarson|12 years ago
logicallee|12 years ago
That boggles the mind. It is impossible for bitcoin to become fully illiquid as long as people believe it has value, because there is no infrastructure to approve transactions. The approval happens p2p.
jessedhillon|12 years ago
This comment really seems like poorly disguised crowing and nothing more. Not a reminder, certainly. Maybe a reminder of your great prognosticatory abilities -- you took the default position on 99% of new technologies, products and innovations. Where do you find the courage?
Xdes|12 years ago
yebyen|12 years ago
The sale was advertised as "units in stock, ready for immediate delivery"
When they came (something like a full month later) they were approximately double the spec of the devices I thought I had ordered, but still for the same price. Thanks, I guess?
I can't say if they're shipping any faster now, but if the trend of decreasing wait times has continued, I'd expect that by now, they'll be competition for Amazon's rumored new "ship before you order" practices.
Honestly for the new customers, if their ASIC parts were actually delivered in less than two weeks, I would have to say you're not getting the full BFL experience anymore, and you should probably ask for a refund.
I will probably not order from them again.
dsjoerg|12 years ago
Torn|12 years ago
The fact they can't spin up a new MtGox environment with cloned data stores is troubling.
willis77|12 years ago
plg|12 years ago
:|
hnnewguy|12 years ago
Are you just as bitter that you missed Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Priceline, Intuitive Surgical or CNR?
Point being, these opportunities are everywhere, always. You're surrounded by them right now, they're just not obvious. But neither was BitCoin. And with the above you're actually buying into a real company, rather than speculating on a price change.
weavie|12 years ago
yebyen|12 years ago
popctrl|12 years ago
plg|12 years ago
I almost think that it will... in other words a bitcoin-like bubble will happen again, but maybe just once, and then not again (because there are so many people like me who feel like they missed out the "first time" on bitcoin)
grahamburger|12 years ago
pistle|12 years ago
lectrick|12 years ago
http://www.bitcoinpulse.com/
dzhiurgis|12 years ago
Short term the price will drop even more dramatically, but once recovered, it should increase more, as main exchanges will get more busy. Or is there a flaw in my logic?
mason55|12 years ago
maxerickson|12 years ago
aw3c2|12 years ago
JonSkeptic|12 years ago
iamjustin|12 years ago
tibbon|12 years ago
foobarqux|12 years ago
zende|12 years ago
The purpose of the regulations are to protect consumers for companies that are either malicious or incompetent.
The problem is that the licensing process is expensive, painful, and long. There should be better ways. Nonetheless, there's a reason why the exist.
patrickg_zill|12 years ago
canvia|12 years ago
If you buy only one single (bitcoin|oz of gold) now, one day you could be rich beyond imagination!
The potential future price of (bicoin|gold) is over $100,000.
There are only xxx (bitcoin|oz of gold) produced per year so it must be scarce and valuable!
I'm in (bitcoin|gold) for the long haul! Buy and hold! Keep on stacking!
The price of (bitcoin|gold) is manipulated downward. Buy now while it's cheap.
The global economy is going to crash soon! Buy (bitcoin|gold) now or you will die when the crash happens!
kirk21|12 years ago
corford|12 years ago
I've only been trading in small BTC amounts though so not sure if you'd hit liquidity problems if trying to trade large amounts (kraken's volume is quite a lot smaller than the bigger established players like bitstamp)
x3ro|12 years ago
zanny|12 years ago
Bitstamp is also good, I hear, but I just went with finex because their fees are lower =P.
I think it is important to use an exchange outside the US though, because I expect the fed to start going Orwell on any bitcoin company soon.
jcfrei|12 years ago
geoka9|12 years ago
There's also the Canadian https://www.vaultofsatoshi.com/, which seems to be top notch as far as the tech (multiple 2FA options, OpenPGP cryptography for email, etc.).
vtempest|12 years ago
headgsaket|12 years ago
Gracana|12 years ago
Spooky23|12 years ago
gabriel34|12 years ago
quattrofan|12 years ago
ck2|12 years ago
pbhjpbhj|12 years ago
This is great for MtGox, all buy transactions pending just lost a $100 of the cost to fulfil. Surely then they wait for the bottom, initiate all transactions possible.
Price rises and they can take in more dollars per bitcoin sold, speculating, that may be all that enables them to actually deposit the amounts on the transactions they "fulfilled" in order to make the price bounce.
Crazy business.
zanny|12 years ago