Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cryptocurrency Exchange Vircurex To Freeze Customer Accounts

Posted by timothy on from the experiencing-unusually-heavy-call-volume dept.

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."

6 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hmm, people out to make a quick buck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Repetitve comment, that.

  2. Tiny "Exchange" by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Vicurex is tiny. They only did US$30,822 of business in the past 30 days. The corner pawnbroker is probably a bigger business. The corner gas station definitely is.

    Bitcoin may be a future currency (though I doubt it is The Future of Currency). It may be a very bad high risk investment (though calling it a Ponzi scheme would be giving the players far too much credit). Whichever it is, or wherever in between, it is no more or less what it was in the (nearly imperceptible) wake of Vicurex's failure.

    --
    Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
  3. Bad Analogy by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Saying that an exchange like this going going bad means Bitcoin is failing, is like claiming a small corner bank failing means the end of the U.S. dollar is nigh.

    The exchanges dying is good for bitcoin, because the bad ones will be replaced by more solid and upright entities.

    Dogecoin started as a joke, remains a joke, and should be treated as a joke.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. Re:hmm, people out to make a quick buck by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And until a hundred years ago, cartels were legal, too. Two hundred years ago, the slave trade was going strong in parts of the USA.

    Just goes to show.

  5. The Exchanges Aren't Cryptocurrency by Baldrson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Seastead this.
  6. Re:hmm, people out to make a quick buck by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.