Mt Gox is still to open up Bitcoin withdrawal and provide a convincing answer about the delay and extension of the self-imposed deadline.
It has been two weeks since Mt Gox suspended Bitcoin withdrawals citing technical issues as a result of the ‘transaction malleability’ bug in Bitcoin design.
The Japanese exchange revealed in a February 15 update that it has worked out a fix to address the bug and is imposing a “6-hour downtime on all bitcoin deposits and internal bitcoin transfers in addition to the current pause on bitcoin withdrawals.”
A couple of days later Mt Gox announced that it had successfully implemented the fix, but will not be resuming Bitcoin withdrawal till February 20 and will update its users about the status of same ASAP. An update did arrive as promised, but the exchange apparently had issues with its office building and had to shift to a new address.
“In addition to the technical issue, this week we have experienced some security problems, and as a result we had to relocate MtGox to our previous of?ce building in Shibuya”, noted Mt Gox.
“The move, combined with some other security and technical challenges, pushed back our progress.”
The two week hiatus of Bitcoin withdrawals on one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges has raised quite a few brows with Bitcoin community posing questions about the transparency of the exchange and how it is hoarding millions by not allowing for Bitcoin withdrawals.
Some even speculate that the exchange is profiting by selling off Bitcoin on other exchanges where the digital currency is garner higher prices as compared to the Japanese exchange. As of this writing the last transaction was carried out a $110.28/Bitcoin price.
Others are calling for action from the Bitcoin Foundation as they hold Mt Gox responsible for holding onto users’ Bitcoin and is knowingly pushing the prices down to a level when the CEO Mark Karpeles feels comfortable buying a boat load of Bitcoin for himself.
