Anyone have experience with the bitcoin software Armory?
Haven't used it, but it seems to have a really good reputation. The only downside is it supposedly hogs a ton of resources on your machine, but I keep hearing that a more svelte update is in the works, which I would like to try.
Another suspicious thing and a reason I never considered using Mt.Gox was that the BTC price on Gox has been consistently higher then all other exchanges for months. Usually about $100 or so higher, around 10%. One would think that would be a perfect opportunity for arbitrage which would then close that gap.
I don't know that it's suspicious, but the fact that the gap never closed points to the problems Gox had getting dollars off the exchange for their customers, people would pay more for the bitcoin and take those instead. I agree, in a smooth market where fiat and BTC flowed without any friction, arbitrage would have quickly closed that gap.
If Gox isn't somehow part of a government operation then how come they aren't closed down, charges pending now that peoples money have gone missing twice? There were many complaints that people could not withdraw money from Gox in a timely manner or at all and that customer service was terrible.
I don't know what Japan's attitude is toward bitcoin or Mt. Gox, but that's the jurisdiction that will have to settle any legal matters. The US has gone after them hard, they seized $5 million held in their US-based Dwolla account, which I think could be argued to have been the beginning of the latest crisis for Gox. That's a significant amount of money to lose when you need to be growing your business. I believe they were forced to start making some tough choices at that point and have progressively backed themselves into a corner since then.
I am skeptical they will survive, but it sounds like blockchain.info is heavily involved with assisting in correcting their transaction malleability issue and getting them back online, which seems like a positive sign to me. I don't think you'd see a transparent organization like that helping a crooked member of the bitcoin flock. Gox might be able to squeeze out another recovery after all.