Bter hacked. PTS, bitassets withdrawal successful. Share you experience.

[Frodo]

Updates from @btercom:

CNY and USD withdrawals will be enabled first in these days and the crypto-coins (NXT etc)will be handled later when we make sure it's safe.

We are seeking all ways to compensate our users including selling http://BTER.com  (Debits & funds not included): admin@mail.bter.com

[hightower]

From bitcointalk:

Seems like they're gonna allow withdrawals for altcoins after Chinese Newyear, they just posted this on their Weibo (Google translated):

最近让用户担心了，我们将在春节后首先安排人民币以及美元的提现工作，届时用户可以登录验证后提取账户中的余额。其他虚拟币的提现工作将在确保数字钱包安全的情况下陆续开通。首批开通提现的虚拟币将包括NXT，XCP，XTC等。

"Recently allows users worry, we will first arrange withdrawals work renminbi and the dollar after the Spring Festival, then the user can log on after the extraction verify account balances. Withdraw the work of other virtual currency will be opened in ensuring the safety of the digital wallet. The first opening of a virtual currency withdrawals will include NXT, XCP, XTC, etc."

Are they releasing bts soon? I keep my bts in bter.

[btswildpig]

The www.bter.com page has been updated now with links to their twitter/weibo status updates where they provide no updates... Ok I'm getting impatient now, this is taking much longer than I anticipated.

They have several updates on weibo 2hrs ago.

I didn't see any updates worth anything for people interested in this though. 

As for a "bailout"/"buyout" I have no clue why people even care what others choose to do.  To be honest, to Klosure I say you reach out to BTER and see what they think about the idea.  After this, I personally have no funds available for actually helping to buy them out, but some people might find it a very valuable idea.  Heck we might even see people from other cryptocurrency communities download the BTS wallet just to participate in the crowdsale!

If it means getting BTER recapitalized enough to continue business long enough to break even, then maybe it is worth it.  Not that it matters though!.  If people don't want to invest, they won't invest!  If they do want to take that risk, then they will.  This thread is now becoming a bit of a sideshow imho...so this is my last post on it and I hope we will all consider spending out time doing something more productive.

  crowd fund to help them get on with their feet and to lose another 7K BTC again ? I don't know ....

[Frodo]

From bitcointalk:

Seems like they're gonna allow withdrawals for altcoins after Chinese Newyear, they just posted this on their Weibo (Google translated):

最近让用户担心了，我们将在春节后首先安排人民币以及美元的提现工作，届时用户可以登录验证后提取账户中的余额。其他虚拟币的提现工作将在确保数字钱包安全的情况下陆续开通。首批开通提现的虚拟币将包括NXT，XCP，XTC等。

"Recently allows users worry, we will first arrange withdrawals work renminbi and the dollar after the Spring Festival, then the user can log on after the extraction verify account balances. Withdraw the work of other virtual currency will be opened in ensuring the safety of the digital wallet. The first opening of a virtual currency withdrawals will include NXT, XCP, XTC, etc."

[fuzzy]

The www.bter.com page has been updated now with links to their twitter/weibo status updates where they provide no updates... Ok I'm getting impatient now, this is taking much longer than I anticipated.

They have several updates on weibo 2hrs ago.

I didn't see any updates worth anything for people interested in this though. 

As for a "bailout"/"buyout" I have no clue why people even care what others choose to do.  To be honest, to Klosure I say you reach out to BTER and see what they think about the idea.  After this, I personally have no funds available for actually helping to buy them out, but some people might find it a very valuable idea.  Heck we might even see people from other cryptocurrency communities download the BTS wallet just to participate in the crowdsale!

If it means getting BTER recapitalized enough to continue business long enough to break even, then maybe it is worth it.  Not that it matters though!.  If people don't want to invest, they won't invest!  If they do want to take that risk, then they will.  This thread is now becoming a bit of a sideshow imho...so this is my last post on it and I hope we will all consider spending out time doing something more productive. 

[merlin0113]

The www.bter.com page has been updated now with links to their twitter/weibo status updates where they provide no updates... Ok I'm getting impatient now, this is taking much longer than I anticipated.

They have several updates on weibo 2hrs ago.

[LRENZ]

The www.bter.com page has been updated now with links to their twitter/weibo status updates where they provide no updates... Ok I'm getting impatient now, this is taking much longer than I anticipated.

[cube]

At times it is difficult to know whether we are investing in bter or simply bailing it out.  We can take a leaf from the investment expert -

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/02/1-thing-to-know-about-warren-buffetts-investment-i.aspx

I think we have a good case of a rare investment opportunity presented to us.

[Helikopterben]

Let bter fail.  It would be counterproductive to even attempt to bail them out.  Trading needs to migrate to decentralized exchanges.  It may be painful now, but the crypto economy will emerge much more powerful because of it over the long term.

You are right, we should let BTER fail and cripple BitShares so that other gen 2 cryptos can prevail. Survival of the fitest for the sake of mankind, nevermind your personal investments.

Interesting how people will acclaim ground-sounding idealism without realizing it doesn't do anything to address practical issues.

To people who rail or reject the idea of a bailout but only provide general libertarian rethoric as a counter argument, will you please stop blowing hot air and propose an action plan to address the very real and practical fact that Bitshares is going to lose its main gateway and fall behind in a major way?

Would you rather bter fail now or fail when bitshares is 100x bigger with 100x more assets exposed on the failed exchange.  Of course that would be AFTER giving them 7000 btc.  Bitshares (and other 2.0 projects) will be stronger long term with a bter closure. 

I have no idea why this ideology perists of giving other people full control of your money and then when you inevitably get screwed, you start talking about bailouts.  Crypto has many tools to solve this problem.  Bitshares is proving to be one of them, but it won't succeed by bailing out centralized exchanges, the very problem it is intended to solve.

[hpenvy2]

Speculation is a complete waste of time and energy. When we know the entire situation, we can make appropriate moves.

[klosure]

Let bter fail.  It would be counterproductive to even attempt to bail them out.  Trading needs to migrate to decentralized exchanges.  It may be painful now, but the crypto economy will emerge much more powerful because of it over the long term.

You are right, we should let BTER fail and cripple BitShares so that other gen 2 cryptos can prevail. Survival of the fitest for the sake of mankind, nevermind your personal investments.

Interesting how people will acclaim ground-sounding idealism without realizing it doesn't do anything to address practical issues.

To people who rail or reject the idea of a bailout but only provide general libertarian rethoric as a counter argument, will you please stop blowing hot air and propose an action plan to address the very real and practical fact that Bitshares is going to lose its main gateway and fall behind in a major way?

[liondani]

I can't believe a buyout bailout is even being discussed.  Bter has proven their incompetency twice now.  First with the stolen nxt and now with stolen btc.  Until proven otherwise, we shall assume that what they have done is criminal.  They were entrusted with other people's money and now it has disappeared.  For all we know, the owner of the exchange could have stolen the money.  If you want to socialize losses, use fiat. 

This entire crypto bear market has coincided with many exchange failures, which is a good thing.  Slowly but surely, all weak links in the system are being disposed of.  We have precedent for this.  During the great depression in the US, over 9000 banks failed and most markets crashed.  Bailouts and debasement of the USD did not occur on a large scale.  What resulted over the next several decades was one of the strongest economies the world had ever seen (1940-2000), and this was on the back of a government issued currency and centralized, government controlled points of exchange.  The key ingredient then was that weak links such as poorly run banks were allowed to fail, instead of bailed out.  Fast forward to today.  We have a legacy economy fraught with bailouts and currency debasement which has resulted in a an unstoppable cancer that has spread so far and wide that it cannot be cured.  At the same time, we have an emerging crypo economy in the depths of a crypto depression.  This depression is necessary to weed out all weak links, such as incompetent and criminal exchanges and ponzi schemes.  I believe once this process is finished, we will see the strongest economy the world has ever seen because for the first time in history, we have the tools to solve many problems that were previously unsolvable (decentralized money, decentralized exchange, ect, ect, ect).  The timing is impeccable.  As the fiat system is beginning to crumble (Greek and Eurozone crisis, fiat currency volatility picking up), the crypto economy is getting stronger and stronger by the day.  We may soon see an unprecedented shift in global wealth... and if you blink you may miss it.  The next decade should be very interesting and I believe we are on the right side of it. 

Let bter fail.  It would be counterproductive to even attempt to bail them out.  Trading needs to migrate to decentralized exchanges.  It may be painful now, but the crypto economy will emerge much more powerful because of it over the long term.

make sense,   

[Akado]

I don't like the idea of bailing them out too. It sounds too much like what the governments do with banks nowadays and I don't support that. In this case, bter failed due to lack of security. The fault is entirely on their hands. What's worst in this case is that this is not the first time it happens. Sure they have been useful and cooperative with us, but their failure is not on our hands. Let thins follow their path. If it recovers, fine, if not, then so be it.

Other exchanges will absorb their volume and users. That kind of thing happens all the time. New exchanges will come and fill the void left by bter if this doesn't recover. On top of that, it's a new chance for our bridges and gateways. People might just give them a try because after bter and btc38, they're probably the most 'trustable' resources to get bts or bitassets. Just give them time. If our gateways on top of going btc-bitassets, go alts-bitassets, in the future our own gateways can replace these exchanges for the people who only pretend to escape from volatility.

While the idea of taking over bter sounds awesome and makes us seem powerful, we can't let our ego go over our heads. I understand the value of their userbase but they will just spread and other exchange will fill the void like it has always happened.

I believe people won't stop trading bts or bitassets because bter failed, because the ones who do, believe in the concept behind it. If it was just another copy/pasted alt I would understand but people won't quit on bts because of that.

[fluxer555]

I can't believe a buyout bailout is even being discussed.  Bter has proven their incompetency twice now.  First with the stolen nxt and now with stolen btc.  Until proven otherwise, we shall assume that what they have done is criminal.  They were entrusted with other people's money and now it has disappeared.  For all we know, the owner of the exchange could have stolen the money.  If you want to socialize losses, use fiat. 

This entire crypto bear market has coincided with many exchange failures, which is a good thing.  Slowly but surely, all weak links in the system are being disposed of.  We have precedent for this.  During the great depression in the US, over 9000 banks failed and most markets crashed.  Bailouts and debasement of the USD did not occur on a large scale.  What resulted over the next several decades was one of the strongest economies the world had ever seen (1940-2000), and this was on the back of a government issued currency and centralized, government controlled points of exchange.  The key ingredient then was that weak links such as poorly run banks were allowed to fail, instead of bailed out.  Fast forward to today.  We have a legacy economy fraught with bailouts and currency debasement which has resulted in a an unstoppable cancer that has spread so far and wide that it cannot be cured.  At the same time, we have an emerging crypo economy in the depths of a crypto depression.  This depression is necessary to weed out all weak links, such as incompetent and criminal exchanges and ponzi schemes.  I believe once this process is finished, we will see the strongest economy the world has ever seen because for the first time in history, we have the tools to solve many problems that were previously unsolvable (decentralized money, decentralized exchange, ect, ect, ect).  The timing is impeccable.  As the fiat system is beginning to crumble (Greek and Eurozone crisis, fiat currency volatility picking up), the crypto economy is getting stronger and stronger by the day.  We may soon see an unprecedented shift in global wealth... and if you blink you may miss it.  The next decade should be very interesting and I believe we are on the right side of it. 

Let bter fail.  It would be counterproductive to even attempt to bail them out.  Trading needs to migrate to decentralized exchanges.  It may be painful now, but the crypto economy will emerge much more powerful because of it over the long term.

[Helikopterben]

I can't believe a buyout bailout is even being discussed.  Bter has proven their incompetency twice now.  First with the stolen nxt and now with stolen btc.  Until proven otherwise, we shall assume that what they have done is criminal.  They were entrusted with other people's money and now it has disappeared.  For all we know, the owner of the exchange could have stolen the money.  If you want to socialize losses, use fiat. 

This entire crypto bear market has coincided with many exchange failures, which is a good thing.  Slowly but surely, all weak links in the system are being disposed of.  We have precedent for this.  During the great depression in the US, over 9000 banks failed and most markets crashed.  Bailouts and debasement of the USD did not occur on a large scale.  What resulted over the next several decades was one of the strongest economies the world had ever seen (1940-2000), and this was on the back of a government issued currency and centralized, government controlled points of exchange.  The key ingredient then was that weak links such as poorly run banks were allowed to fail, instead of bailed out.  Fast forward to today.  We have a legacy economy fraught with bailouts and currency debasement which has resulted in a an unstoppable cancer that has spread so far and wide that it cannot be cured.  At the same time, we have an emerging crypo economy in the depths of a crypto depression.  This depression is necessary to weed out all weak links, such as incompetent and criminal exchanges and ponzi schemes.  I believe once this process is finished, we will see the strongest economy the world has ever seen because for the first time in history, we have the tools to solve many problems that were previously unsolvable (decentralized money, decentralized exchange, ect, ect, ect).  The timing is impeccable.  As the fiat system is beginning to crumble (Greek and Eurozone crisis, fiat currency volatility picking up), the crypto economy is getting stronger and stronger by the day.  We may soon see an unprecedented shift in global wealth... and if you blink you may miss it.  The next decade should be very interesting and I believe we are on the right side of it. 

Let bter fail.  It would be counterproductive to even attempt to bail them out.  Trading needs to migrate to decentralized exchanges.  It may be painful now, but the crypto economy will emerge much more powerful because of it over the long term.