Okay, wait a minute...this was supposed to be a stabilized, non-governmentally manipulated truly free-market perfect alternative to the nasty old $. Here it just behaves like all the other barter systems. Oops.
... that originate in Belarus.
you MUST use what we tell you to use
Oops.
http://www.vocativ.com/02-2014/bad-day-bitcoin-price-crashes-mt-gox-halts-withdrawals/
“The withdrawal issues are not the end of Bitcoin, of course. Trading will likely resume on Monday, and the price will jump back up. But for Bitcoin to ever gain real legitimacy—both from the public and the government—these types of exchange issues simply cannot happen. There are more 150,000 Bitcoin accounts, so shutdowns like this aren’t trivial. Imagine, for a moment, walking into a bank and being told by the teller that the bank can’t handle your request for $100 because their computers weren’t working. That’s essentially what Mt. Gox is saying.
Even the usually ebullient Bitcoin hivemind is taking a moment to pause and recognize the ramifications of systems errors like these. ”This a reminder that while Bitcoin may be an interesting technological achievement, as a tradable asset it is still basically a toy,” writes one commenter on Hacker News. “Crappy exchange technology combined with low liquidity is a perfect recipe for this kind of volatility.” “