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Department of Homeland Security Bans Dwolla Transfers To or From Mt. Gox (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)
58 points by dsimmons 4785 days ago
5 comments

Who here feels their homeland is more secure now?
No, but I'd feel more secure if DHS was shut down.
So the outcome looks something like this:

1. holders of dollars at MtGox will buy as many btc as possible and remove them from MtGox, because there's no other escape for their dollars

2. holders of btc at MtGox will presumably send them elsewhere because selling them for dollars doesn't make sense if you can't get the dollars (although perhaps it still makes sense for euros/pounds/yen etc)

3. There is a loss of liquidity at Gox from all the btc being pulled from there

4. The dollar price at other exchanges starts falling because they are still exit points for dollars

Most of the trading volume is in dollars at Gox if I'm not mistaken, so this might be the death blow for them. Although given their history of incompetence, it was kind of sad the network effect was protecting them. Perhaps a phoenix will rise from the ashes.

Dwolla started implementing some policy changes a few weeks ago regarding Mt.Gox which was a pretty good tell about something bigger coming along. I'm glad that I took the opportunity to move my funds away from Dwolla at the time and avoid this mess.
Doesn't something like this compel people to use bitcoin more rather than less?
Until BC is accepted as a maintstream exchange, you need a way to liquidate so that you can actually spend.

I think this dampers the movement, sadly. :(

Yes, the risk of losing your investment of real money and resources becomes more enticing when it's more likely to not work in your favor.
This is a big hit to US traders for sure, but there are other ways of transferring money (albeit not as convenient).
Dwolla was basically free and worked quite fast. International bank transfer took a bit longer but every transfer cost me about 50 dollars in fees. Luckily I got my money out before this. I feel sorry for the people way back in the queue.

I don't blame Dwolla for this at all, but I am tempted to close my account with them to telegraph that I want my financial tools to push back on these kinds of things.

Especially considering how much BTC-related money is flowing through Dwolla... it probably makes up a significant portion of their revenue. I have to imagine this is bad news for them as well.
What do you think Dwolla should do when given validly formed court orders?

Which particular Dwolla employee do you think should spend time in jail for contempt of court to satisfy your need for them to push back?

I want them to take their lobbyists, and go to Washington like they already do, and tell Congress to stop harassing their fucking customers.