Quote from: MatTheCat on February 12, 2014, 12:57:29 PM

Quote from: sraosha on February 12, 2014, 11:34:11 AM

could you elaborate why Bitfinex is on your personal blacklist?

Partially because I am very suspicious of the bots/entities that operate on Bitfinex. Since they stopped allowing orders to be routed through Bitstamp, I have seen some of my stop losses called in very suspicious circumstances........otherwise known as 'blatantly fkn farmed'.

But above all else, irrational fear, instinct, and recurring spooked out dreams about the exchange. I don't expect none of that to convince anyone else to avoid Bitfinex and neither it should. Had I stuck around on Bitfinex, I would have likely had a few more cracking short trades under my belt, but having seen the difference that a day can make in Bitcoin, I am sticking with what ever arrangements allows me to sleep the best.

I go to sleep one day, assured that the protocol 'double spend' attack is something affecting just Gox because of their system of not wating on blockchains confirmations, an then I wake up the next and find that even Bitstamp is affected, Bitstamp where I still have 10K USD. Things can move very suddenly in Bitcoin. It is like the stock market on steroids and on fast play.

We place an incredible amount of faith in the competence and integrity of those who maintain the Bitcoin protocol and all other related sites, ranging from blockchain.info, to all the exchanges. This presumption of competence and integrity is baked into the price. When these assumptions are violated, watch the price drop like a fucking stone. Why? Several reasons. The price is still driven primarily by speculators like us. Also, Bitcoin is backed by nothing. This could be a strength. It could be a weakness. But given this reality, it really has no minimum price .. it has no breakup value. It has no army behind it. No government. It's value is purely driven by psychology. Time will tell whether this is enough to function as a currency, let alone a store of wealth. I give cryptos in general a 50/50 shot. Bitcoin? Even less. But it's still worth a gamble.