Interesting. It looks like MTGox (the exchange) was hacked specifically, and not the bitcoin itself.

Misleading title.

Yeah, and even then it wasn't "hacked" as such. Read about it here: https://support.mtgox.com/entries/20208066-huge-bitcoin-sell-off-due-to-a-compromised-account-rollback

>> ^blankfist:

Interesting. It looks like MTGox (the exchange) was hacked specifically, and not the bitcoin itself.
Misleading title.


fixed it.

Lesson learned: don't use MTGox. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Bitcoin because of this.

Fun side note: MTGox stands for Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange.

So did the entire market take a hit because one exchange as compromised?

On another note, is now the time to buy bitcoins?

Hope this isn't tied into some kind of internet security war.

>> ^KnivesOut:

So did the entire market take a hit because one exchange as compromised?
On another note, is now the time to buy bitcoins?


Yes, but not much.

Mt.Gox is was the primary exchange with >95% of all BTC/USD trades taking place there. So it going down means:

1) All the active balances in USD & BTC are locked in Mt.Gox database until they reactivate.
2) If Mt.Gox decides that they can't cover their accounts they may go bankrupt, which means all the money in point #1 goes into legal limbo.
3) All trading has to move to a different exchange, probably tradehill.
4) Liquidity just disappeared for about 24hrs, which happens at least once a week in most markets, but BTC is accustomed to 24/7

Tradehill is already hopping, right now it's back at 15USD/BTC

Can someone explain what we are watching happen. I know nothing about what Bitcoin is.

>> ^Sagemind:

Can someone explain what we are watching happen. I know nothing about what Bitcoin is.


http://videosift.com/video/Bitcoin-Economy-The-Very-First-Digital-Currency

A libertarian's wet dream.

>> ^Sagemind:

Can someone explain what we are watching happen. I know nothing about what Bitcoin is.


Bitcoins are a decentralized cryptographic digital cash system. The specifics are complicated, but in practice it is non-counterfeitable, low transaction cost, online money.

The website Mt.Gox was the first and largest place to trade bitcoins for dollars.

Mt.Gox got too big too fast, and never bothered to properly security audit their site, as a result there were a number of compromised accounts. This allowed a hacker to go in and sell bitcoins from the compromised accounts at $0.01 each, thereby driving down the price, and allowing the hacker, and anybody else who was paying attention, to buy them up at $0.01, when they are functionally worth between $10-20.

We are watching a live feed of these hacker sell off transactions taking place on the exchange, which is basically an almost unregulated stock market that only trades in bitcoins(BTC).