3 ms·

Can someone explain to me what "MtGox BTC" is ?

by pavanky 13y ago

w1ntermute 13y ago
Exactly what it sounds like - BTC trapped in Mt Gox.
ghshephard 13y ago
It's a Bitcoin stored in your MtGox Account, as opposed to your own wallet or another exchange. MtGox make be experiencing solvency issues right now, and you are unable to freely transfer Bitcoins in and out of your account there. Some people believe that they might not actually exist, and the exchange will default, which is why those bitcoins are now worth less. About 2/3rds less. Previous to MtGox freezing transfers of Bitcoins in and out of your account, they had restrictions on the transfers of $USD in and out of your account - that resulted in the opposite situation, in which people who wanted to get their $USD out of the system, had to do so with bitcoins (which were, at that time, transferable) - they were therefore willing to pay MORE for bitcoins on MtGox, than other exchanges, just so they could somehow liquidate. This is why, historically, MtGox had a higher value for bitcoins - it was an artifact of customers betting that there was a solvency issue on the $USD in the system. Everything about MtGox is a train wreck right now. Useful (if expensive of some) lesson in the importance of how far you can trust a centralized exchange for this type of activity.
aestra 13y ago
BTC on MtGox are at a very low price right now because people are dumping them for (say) USD because they believe MtGox will go under and they have a better chance at getting USD from MtGox than BTC if that happens. Speculators are betting MtGox survives and buying up these discounted BTC (that perhaps could be worthless...) in the hope that MtGox eventually fixes their problems and allows withdraws so they sell them for a higher price. These BTC might or might not exist since a bug caused some double spending on MtGox. That's how I understand it. http://www.pfhub.com/speculators-purchasing-rights-to-mtgox-accounts-amid-price-decline-389/ http://www.pfhub.com/speculators-purchasing-rights-to-mtgox-...
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  has gox admitted any losses yet?
  - nwh 13y ago
    Nope, just speculation.
- yohanatan 13y ago
  Which is a pretty stupid move really as getting USD out of Gox has been vastly more difficult than getting BTC out of them. I don't think Gox could have lost too many BTC to the recent 'transaction malleability' attacks (and even if they did I'm sure they have a ton of USD in the bank and would gladly buy back enough BTC to cover the losses at the ridiculously depressed current going price).
aqme28 13y ago
There are no bitcoin withdrawals on MtGox right now. It's a closed-system.
TacticalCoder 13y ago
It's not unlike what a "Full Tilt dollar" was back when Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars (and others) where raided by the FBI/DoJ and had their .com seized and sited unavailable for some time. Full Tilt didn't come back up for weeks... Them months. People on big poker forums would sell / buy "Full Tilt dollars" at a lower price than the real dollar price. People try to determine what's the probability that accounts will be able to unlock their funds: if you're thinking there's a p = 0.3 that Full Tilt will pay back their users (or that there's a 100% probability that they would pay back at $0.30 per Full Tilt dollar), then it makes lots of sense to buy other people's Full Tilt dollar / accounts at, say, $0.20 per "Full Tilt Dollar". A MtGox BTC is just that: it's a BTC that may or may not be real, that may or not be paid back or that may be paid back, but not in full. You even now have people buying MtGox BTC from other users at a lower price than the "real" BTC price (of course there's a issue of trust involved between users buying/selling MtGox BTC but that is another topic). Regarding Full Tilt: all the players ended up getting paid in full. So people who bought Full Tilt dollar for way less than $1 per dollar made a very good deal. For the little story (if I'm not mistaken) Full Tilt has now been bought by PokerStars and is operating again (but not in the U.S.). MtGox has both "MtGox BTC" and "MtGox $". We'll see in a while if they turn out to be equivalent to 100% BTC / $ or 0% BTC / 0$ or something anywhere in between.
rasz_pl 13y ago
its a fake fake digital money, as opposed to real fake digital money

Can someone explain to me what "MtGox BTC" is ?

by pavanky 13y ago

Can someone explain to me what "MtGox BTC" is ?

w1ntermute 13y ago

Exactly what it sounds like - BTC trapped in Mt Gox.

ghshephard 13y ago

It's a Bitcoin stored in your MtGox Account, as opposed to your own wallet or another exchange. MtGox make be experiencing solvency issues right now, and you are unable to freely transfer Bitcoins in and out of your account there. Some people believe that they might not actually exist, and the exchange will default, which is why those bitcoins are now worth less. About 2/3rds less. Previous to MtGox freezing transfers of Bitcoins in and out of your account, they had restrictions on the transfers of $USD in and out of your account - that resulted in the opposite situation, in which people who wanted to get their $USD out of the system, had to do so with bitcoins (which were, at that time, transferable) - they were therefore willing to pay MORE for bitcoins on MtGox, than other exchanges, just so they could somehow liquidate. This is why, historically, MtGox had a higher value for bitcoins - it was an artifact of customers betting that there was a solvency issue on the $USD in the system. Everything about MtGox is a train wreck right now. Useful (if expensive of some) lesson in the importance of how far you can trust a centralized exchange for this type of activity.

aestra 13y ago

BTC on MtGox are at a very low price right now because people are dumping them for (say) USD because they believe MtGox will go under and they have a better chance at getting USD from MtGox than BTC if that happens. Speculators are betting MtGox survives and buying up these discounted BTC (that perhaps could be worthless...) in the hope that MtGox eventually fixes their problems and allows withdraws so they sell them for a higher price. These BTC might or might not exist since a bug caused some double spending on MtGox. That's how I understand it. http://www.pfhub.com/speculators-purchasing-rights-to-mtgox-accounts-amid-price-decline-389/ http://www.pfhub.com/speculators-purchasing-rights-to-mtgox-...

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
has gox admitted any losses yet?
- nwh 13y ago
  Nope, just speculation.
yohanatan 13y ago
Which is a pretty stupid move really as getting USD out of Gox has been vastly more difficult than getting BTC out of them. I don't think Gox could have lost too many BTC to the recent 'transaction malleability' attacks (and even if they did I'm sure they have a ton of USD in the bank and would gladly buy back enough BTC to cover the losses at the ridiculously depressed current going price).

aqme28 13y ago

There are no bitcoin withdrawals on MtGox right now. It's a closed-system.

TacticalCoder 13y ago

It's not unlike what a "Full Tilt dollar" was back when Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars (and others) where raided by the FBI/DoJ and had their .com seized and sited unavailable for some time. Full Tilt didn't come back up for weeks... Them months. People on big poker forums would sell / buy "Full Tilt dollars" at a lower price than the real dollar price. People try to determine what's the probability that accounts will be able to unlock their funds: if you're thinking there's a p = 0.3 that Full Tilt will pay back their users (or that there's a 100% probability that they would pay back at $0.30 per Full Tilt dollar), then it makes lots of sense to buy other people's Full Tilt dollar / accounts at, say, $0.20 per "Full Tilt Dollar". A MtGox BTC is just that: it's a BTC that may or may not be real, that may or not be paid back or that may be paid back, but not in full. You even now have people buying MtGox BTC from other users at a lower price than the "real" BTC price (of course there's a issue of trust involved between users buying/selling MtGox BTC but that is another topic). Regarding Full Tilt: all the players ended up getting paid in full. So people who bought Full Tilt dollar for way less than $1 per dollar made a very good deal. For the little story (if I'm not mistaken) Full Tilt has now been bought by PokerStars and is operating again (but not in the U.S.). MtGox has both "MtGox BTC" and "MtGox $". We'll see in a while if they turn out to be equivalent to 100% BTC / $ or 0% BTC / 0$ or something anywhere in between.

rasz_pl 13y ago

its a fake fake digital money, as opposed to real fake digital money