Quote from: Cassius on May 27, 2014, 02:36:18 PM

Quote from: JorgeStolfi on May 27, 2014, 02:33:35 PM

Quote from: gotmilk_ on May 27, 2014, 02:21:18 PM

From bitstamp FB:

Quote

Bitstamp BTC Proof of Reserves, May 2014
Dear Bitstamp clients,
To reassure clients, Bitstamp regularly performs a procedure to prove its BTC reserves.
On May 24th, 2014, Mike Hearn of Vinumeris GmbH, bitcoin core developer and prominent member of bitcoin community observed Bitstamps proof of reserves procedure. Reserves were proven by conducting a Bitcoin send-to-self transfer.
Details of the procedure are provided in the PDF linked here:
https://www.bitstamp.net/s/documents/Bitstamp_proof_of_reserves_statement.pdf
In summary, Bitstamp held 183,497 BTC its cold wallet fully covering both the clients funds held at Bitstamp and the clients funds on the Ripple network.
Additionally, a financial statement audit is in progress.
Best regards,
Bitstamp team

Cool

Yawn. Another "audit" that proves nothing, but reassures those who want to believe.

At least we know the sum of the balances of all Bitstamp client accounts (if we trust Bitstamp, that is). A useful datum, although useful to what I can't say at the moment.

Jorge, this is another example of you discarding information that doesn't meet your starting criterion of bitcoin = scam.
Confirmation bias doesn't do you any favours.

Actually, Jorge has a point - although the audit proves that they held X amount of BTC when this was carried out, the total being compared against is taken from their database, so may be incorrect, and would definitely be one of the first things to alter if someone was stealing BTC.. I'll be much happier when they implement a full (user verifiable) merkle tree proof of solvency as described here:

https://iwilcox.me.uk/2014/proving-bitcoin-reserves#merkle_top