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“The website where I traded was very unstable and I often couldn’t sell my bitcoins, so I withdrew because I was worried about the risks.” A senior bitcoin investor told a reporter from China Securities Journal that she never invested in bitcoin again after that withdrawal.
Although Bitcoin is theoretically perfect, most transactions need to be completed through trading platforms, and the security of the platform has become the "shortcoming" of the Bitcoin system. In the past two days, many investors have complained that the trading platform is "very slow", and some investors have said that they have not been able to confirm the receipt of their deposits after recharging on the platform.
While many investors are complaining about the instability of Bitcoin trading platforms, BTC China, China's largest Bitcoin trading platform, announced on the 18th that it has received a round A investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with a total financing of US$5 million. BTC China CEO Li Qiyuan said that in addition to continuing to build a safe and efficient trading platform, BTC China will also launch some new Bitcoin-related products and services in the future.
Trading platform becomes a weak point
On the day when BTCChina announced that it had received a total of $5 million in Series A investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, BTCChina's trading volume exceeded 100,000 bitcoins. According to statistics from Bitcoinity.org, BTCChina's trading volume has recently surpassed Mt.Gox and BitStamp, becoming the world's largest bitcoin trading platform.
Investors told China Securities Journal reporters that the new financing for Bitcoin platforms has brought great benefits. No matter how perfect Bitcoin is in theory, the trading platform is always a "weakness" of Bitcoin.
On October 26, the Bitcoin futures trading platform "GBL (Global Bond Limited)" that allows 10x leverage suddenly became unavailable, and investors were cleared out of the GBL official QQ group, and investors were unable to withdraw cash. Statistics from the rights protection QQ group set up by GBL investors show that the amount of losses registered has reached 4.6 million yuan, and some people estimate that the funds involved in GBL may exceed 20 million yuan.
In addition to being unable to withdraw cash, the platform's security also makes investors uneasy. As early as last year, Bitcoinica, a Bitcoin trading platform, was robbed of Bitcoin worth $230,000. In September this year, the Bitfloor platform also announced that hackers had "robbed" Bitcoin worth $250,000. In November, the Czech platform Bitcash.cz announced that hackers had stolen an unknown amount of Bitcoin stored by users there.
These events suggest that the risks of storing and trading Bitcoin may be greater than those of traditional currencies, which could become an obstacle to Bitcoin’s popularity among the general public.
In fact, in addition to the above extreme phenomena, some normally operating platforms also have problems. Recently, some investors reported that the platform page was very stuck, and some investors pointed out that the deposits were not received after a long time. The reporter learned that the emergence of these problems will reduce investors' trust in Bitcoin transactions, and some investors have directly withdrawn from the ranks of investors.
In an interview with the media, Bitcoin China CEO Li Qiyuan said that after receiving the capital injection, in addition to continuing to build a safe and efficient trading platform, BTC China will also launch some new Bitcoin-related products and services in the future.
Lightspeed Venture Partners managing director Cao Darong said that Bitcoin's technology and ideas may be the biggest innovation in the Internet industry in the past decade. Although it is still in the early stages of Bitcoin's development, with the continuous emergence of Bitcoin-related applications, it is believed that Bitcoin will be accepted and used by the public at a rapid pace.
What can you buy with Bitcoin?
There has been much controversy over the value of Bitcoin. As the New York government prepares to study the regulation of Bitcoin, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently said that like any online payment system, Bitcoin may have a long-term future and is expected to promote the formation of a faster, safer and more efficient payment system.
From a trend perspective, Bitcoin is entering the daily lives of the public. In April this year, One Foundation began accepting Bitcoin donations. On Taobao, some merchants have begun to accept Bitcoin for settlement. If customers hold Bitcoin, they can purchase online store products at the current price. Recently, a real estate project under Shanda named "Shanda Qingchunli" announced that it would accept Bitcoin payments. In foreign countries, Bitcoin can currently be used for consumption in coffee shops and fast food restaurants. Recently, ATMs that can exchange Bitcoin have also appeared on the streets of foreign countries.
However, many investors who hold Bitcoin told China Securities Journal reporters that they have not purchased anything with Bitcoin, and that paying with Bitcoin is not more convenient than paying with traditional currency. Many merchants said that accepting Bitcoin may just be a publicity gimmick. |
