Cryptocurrency Exchange Vircurex To Freeze Customer Accounts

Powercntrl (458442) writes "Vircurex, an online exchange for Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies is freezing customer accounts as it battles insolvency. While opinions differ on whether cryptocurrency is the future of cash, a Dutch tulip bubble, a Ponzi scheme, or some varying mixture of all three, the news of yet another exchange in turmoil does not bode well for those banking on the success of Bitcoin or its altcoin brethren, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin."

Comments

The Exchanges Aren't Cryptocurrency

[Baldrson]

Cryptocurrency is a platform and the exchanges are an app built on the platform. The security problems have been with the apps built on the platform. The peer to peer architecture is not what is being exploited. Its reckless abandonment of P2P for client server.

Re:hmm, people out to make a quick buck

[dbIII]

They made money by squeezing inefficiencies out of the system

Nice euphemism for a timing based man in the middle attack.
Alice asks for shares. Bob has shares for sale. Speedy buys shares from Bob and sells them to Alice before Bob can get the message that Alice is buying and before Alice can get the message that Bob is selling. Of course it can be argued that it's just a "sharp" business practice, the "American Way you commie" or whatever and that a man in the middle attack that adds zero value to the market is perfectly fine.