Apa yang sebenarnya menyebabkan exchanger besar seperti MtGox tutup ?

Banyak spekulasi berita yang beredar seputar mengapa mtxgox ini tutup.
dimulai dari isu perbankan, pelarian dana, ataupun bahkan spekulasi penjualan bitcoin dalam jumlah besar.

ternyata bukan itu permasalahannya.

Permasalahan sebenarnya adalah dari kesalahan pemrograman software exchange yang digunakan oleh mtgox tersebut.

akibat dari kesalahan pemrograman tersebut, banyak user yang menerima kiriman uang hingga berdobel-dobel, dan ada pula yang tidak menerimanya. dan akhirnya membuat mtgox merugi banyak karena kacaunya software pengiriman exchangenya.

kesalahan pemrograman ini terutama terletak pada metode confirm dan unconfirmed yang biasa terjadi pada saat transaksi bitcoin di ewalletnya. Kesalahan kecil ini sangat fatal akibatnya dan bisa menyebabkan kekeliruan transfer apabila jumlah pelanggan dan jumlah transaksinya bergerak dengan volume yang tinggi dan software mtgox tidak dapat mengatasi hal tersebut.

berikut adalah petikan wawancara dengan developer pembuat program mtxgox tersebut oleh wartawan berita cryptocurrency.

Mt. Gox Blames Bitcoin – Core Developer Greg Maxwell Responds

Mt. Gox have just released their official statement regarding their recent decision to halt all Bitcoin withdrawals.

Essentially, they are claiming they can’t release customers’ funds until a known bug in the Bitcoin protocol is resolved.

Greg Maxwell Responds
I spoke with Bitcoin core developer, Greg Maxwell, about this highly technical issue. Greg Maxwell and Peter Wuille are the core developers in consultation with Mt. Gox, as per their press release.

<gmaxwell> The Gox press release seems a little ‘spun’ to me. They portray characteristics of the Bitcoin system well known since at least 2011 (which even have their own wiki page) as something new.

These characteristics are annoying but don’t inhibit basic operation. They are slowly being fixed – but fixing them completely will likely take years as they require changing all wallet software. Correctly-written wallet software can cope with the consequences, and I cannot understand why they would gate their withdraws on external changes.

<GG>Andreas Antonopolous has examined Gox’s code to some degree, and remarked that they are using a strange“hodgepodge of technologies that are really not suitable for running an exchange.”Do you believe the problem lies in their code rather than the Bitcoin protocol?

<gmaxwell>Oh there is a “problem” in the Bitcoin protocol, known since at least 2011 (see the link I gave). But for normal applications, not involving unconfirmed transactions, it shouldn’t cause any severe problems because wallets can handle it locally.

Basically, third parties can change the transaction IDs of transactions. This means what wallet software must be written to accomodate that and still recognize them when that happens.

What the press release talks about is adding a second kind of transaction ID, which is robust against changes, which would be helpful for tech support purposes. Though it doesn’t resolve all of the issues that being able to modify transactions presents.

<GG>So in other words, Gox should be able to account for this known problem by modifying their internal systems?

<gmaxwell>Yes, internal only changes should account for it. The only remaining issue for Mt. Gox’s application would be some tech support problems, where if a user’s transaction is mutated by a malicious party the txid ["transaction ID"] Mt. Gox told them to expect wouldn’t be the one that ultimately showed up in the blockchain.

<GG>It seems the market is reacting very negatively to the news. What advice would you give to the average Bitcoiner regarding this situation?

<gmaxwell> The challenge for me in offering something here is that this isn’t news to me – for years – and it’s never been a particularly large concern. This wouldn’t make the top ten list of dangers in the Bitcoin technology.

<GG>Thanks for your comments.

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Update:as of 13:35 GMT+2, the market has retraced about 60% of the recent loss as the news is digested.