<p>Mt Gox is large enough to attract regular hackers. I had my account liquidated recently by a thief. Whereas I think some of their extra security apps might be beneficial (e.g. Yubikey) I thought a $25 investment to protect a $50 account was silly. Now I'm $50 lighter, so maybe it was not as unwarranted as I first thought.</p>

<p>Bottom line: Mind your security. My password was not traditionally weak, but it was used to log-in and liquidate my account with 3 transactions happening in about 25 seconds. Therefore I'd not use them for wallet services without a bit more than 1 password between me and all my assets being pulled by an automated system.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-22T19:11:31.580Z
I'm sorry for you :( It's worth mentioning they now support Google Authenticator, which is free.
o0'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-24T16:46:40.410Z
Good deal that! I may pursue that again. I am having a hard time going back though. They are a big target with lots of people looking to break in. Happens to be they got through me once. Though it remains, there are not really other options. Thinking of playing with yubikey for lastpass and paypal as a fun experiment. Though maybe I'll play with Google Authenticator first. Just saw a reference to it about 5 minutes before coming back here. Providence is trying to tell me something!
EFH
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-20T18:33:35.173Z
2013-07-02T22:49:19.697Z
2013-07-02T22:49:19.697Z
EFH
<p>Mt. Gox operates a hosted (shared) EWallet.  That means that the bitcoin address provided to you for making deposits is <strong>not your address</strong>, it is instead Mt. Gox's address that they will monitor and credit your account for for any coins received at that address.</p>

<p>But to withdraw, you are entirely at Mt. Gox's mercy.</p>

<p>Their terms of service, shown when you first sign up, include verbiage that justifies nearly any action they take with your funds.</p>

<p>Now they have, for the most part, been fair in their dealings, but why oh why would you want to place your bitcoins, those units of digital currency you worked so very hard to acquire, into the hands of someone else who insists on a usage policy that gives them all the power and you none?</p>

<p>When you use a hybrid EWallet  (e.g., Blockchain.info/wallet or Strongcoin.com ) or an SPV client (e.g., Electrum, Bitcoin Spinner for Android) then your Bitcoin address is yours.  Blockchain.info only stores and encrypted copy of your wallet on their servers, so they don't even have access to your coins.   Bitcoin Spinner stores the private key that all your bitcoin addresses derives, and the back end server that it connects to does not have access to that key.</p>

<p>That those are the reasons against using Mt. Gox as an EWallet.</p>

<p>The reasons why you might include convenience.  Mt. Gox's hosted (shared) EWallet offers security and convenience:</p>

<ul>
<li>The ability to import private keys and sweep them to your Mt. Gox account.  This is a useful feature.</li>
<li>Multi-factor authentication.  You can limit access so that even from a compromised computer you can likely use Mt. Gox E-Wallet without loss of funds.  (The corner case is where the compromise is specifically targeted and uses the one-time password to trick the user into authorizing a different transaction than is presented by the website).</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-30T05:06:47.803Z
I was asked to provide an example of the corner case.  Site presents the withdrawal page and asks for your Yubikey.  But the attacker blocks the  compromised computer from submitting the OTP entered and instead composes a separate withdrawal and enters the OTP from the aborted form.
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-20T19:05:49.677Z
2012-08-20T19:05:49.677Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>This will be the first site to get under attack by the governments when they start their attack on Bitcoin and you will lose all your deposits. :(</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-29T16:02:29.423Z
2012-08-29T16:02:29.423Z
Sebastian Castro
<p>MtGox can <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26333661" rel="nofollow">disappear</a> temporarily or permanently and take all your e-wallet bitcoins with it.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Mt. Gox has been severely hacked, with a massive reserve of its bitcoins stolen. ... a massive hack that has stolen as many as 744,000 bitcoins, fully 6% of all bitcoins in existence. ... "MtGox can go bankrupt at any moment".</p>
</blockquote>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/02/25/bitcoins-price-plummets-as-mt-gox-goes-dark-with-massive-hack-rumored/" rel="nofollow">Forbes 2/25/2014 </a></li>
</ul>

<p>I don't know of this is irresponsible journalism and exaggeration but the possibility of it being true (of any similar business) is a factor I would take into account when deciding whether to place bitcoins in a MtGox eWallet.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T17:10:24.663Z
Yes but this does not anything to what has already been said...
o0'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T17:14:51.643Z
@Lohoris: I may have missed where this was already said. Which answer points out that MtGox can be forced out of business (other than by govt action) or to withdraw it's service indefinitely without refunding your e-wallet bitcoins first?
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-28T18:17:35.733Z
I'm sorry, I meant "...this does not ADD anothing...", somehow the "add" word has been lost and it might have been difficult to understand what I tried to say.
o0'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-25T17:07:46.163Z
2014-02-25T17:27:04.350Z
2014-02-25T17:27:04.350Z
RedGrittyBrick
<ul>
<li>Support for multiple accounts</li>
<li>Being able to trace your coins on Block Explorer</li>
<li>Tighter control (if eWallet allows for data encryption)</li>
<li>Other bonus features that might be offered (email notifications, vanity address, etc.).</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-25T13:30:46.337Z
2012-01-25T13:30:46.337Z
ThePiachu
<p>Mt. Gox obviously allows you to send bitcoins to it, and to receive them to an address of your choice; hence I'm wondering if there is any reason <em>not</em> to use it as an e-wallet.</p>

<p>Unless I'm mistaken, it's much bigger (by far) than any other bitcoin exchange, bank or proper e-wallet, so we can reasonably expect it being more secure, supported and safe.</p>

<p>Why should I use a specialised e-wallet instead?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-28T18:14:23.573Z
You won't hear back from them again.
m33lky
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-28T18:15:50.180Z
@m33lky given that his comment is from 10 months ago and his account has been deleted...
o0'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-08T09:15:11.667Z
This question could be generalized to cover most exchanges, as the problem is a general one and not specific to Mt.Gox.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-08T09:19:14.497Z
@Murch back then, Mt. Gox was very big, while now nobody has a near-monopoly, so the problem is slightly different.
o0'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-08T09:20:53.053Z
When I read it, I reduced it to "why you shouldn't use exchanges as wallets", but you're right it falls short of a proper representation of the question.
Murch
<mtgox><e-wallet>
Pros and cons of using Mt. Gox as an e-wallet
o0'.
# Pros and cons of using Mt. Gox as an e-wallet

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-25)

Mt. Gox obviously allows you to send bitcoins to it, and to receive them to an address of your choice; hence I'm wondering if there is any reason *not* to use it as an e-wallet.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's much bigger (by far) than any other bitcoin exchange, bank or proper e-wallet, so we can reasonably expect it being more secure, supported and safe.

Why should I use a specialised e-wallet instead?

**Tags:** mtgox, e-wallet

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You won't hear back from them again.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 given that his comment is from 10 months ago and his account has been deleted...  
> **username_2**: This question could be generalized to cover most exchanges, as the problem is a general one and not specific to Mt.Gox.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 back then, Mt. Gox was very big, while now nobody has a near-monopoly, so the problem is slightly different.  
> **username_2**: When I read it, I reduced it to "why you shouldn't use exchanges as wallets", but you're right it falls short of a proper representation of the question.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-08-20. Score: 6

Mt Gox is large enough to attract regular hackers. I had my account liquidated recently by a thief. Whereas I think some of their extra security apps might be beneficial (e.g. Yubikey) I thought a $25 investment to protect a $50 account was silly. Now I'm $50 lighter, so maybe it was not as unwarranted as I first thought.

Bottom line: Mind your security. My password was not traditionally weak, but it was used to log-in and liquidate my account with 3 transactions happening in about 25 seconds. Therefore I'd not use them for wallet services without a bit more than 1 password between me and all my assets being pulled by an automated system.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I'm sorry for you :( It's worth mentioning they now support Google Authenticator, which is free.  
> **username_3**: Good deal that! I may pursue that again. I am having a hard time going back though. They are a big target with lots of people looking to break in. Happens to be they got through me once. Though it remains, there are not really other options. Thinking of playing with yubikey for lastpass and paypal as a fun experiment. Though maybe I'll play with Google Authenticator first. Just saw a reference to it about 5 minutes before coming back here. Providence is trying to tell me something!  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2012-08-20. Score: 6

Mt. Gox operates a hosted (shared) EWallet. That means that the bitcoin address provided to you for making deposits is **not your address**, it is instead Mt. Gox's address that they will monitor and credit your account for for any coins received at that address.

But to withdraw, you are entirely at Mt. Gox's mercy.

Their terms of service, shown when you first sign up, include verbiage that justifies nearly any action they take with your funds.

Now they have, for the most part, been fair in their dealings, but why oh why would you want to place your bitcoins, those units of digital currency you worked so very hard to acquire, into the hands of someone else who insists on a usage policy that gives them all the power and you none?

When you use a hybrid EWallet (e.g., Blockchain.info/wallet or Strongcoin.com ) or an SPV client (e.g., Electrum, Bitcoin Spinner for Android) then your Bitcoin address is yours. Blockchain.info only stores and encrypted copy of your wallet on their servers, so they don't even have access to your coins. Bitcoin Spinner stores the private key that all your bitcoin addresses derives, and the back end server that it connects to does not have access to that key.

That those are the reasons against using Mt. Gox as an EWallet.

The reasons why you might include convenience. Mt. Gox's hosted (shared) EWallet offers security and convenience:

* The ability to import private keys and sweep them to your Mt. Gox account. This is a useful feature.
* Multi-factor authentication. You can limit access so that even from a compromised computer you can likely use Mt. Gox E-Wallet without loss of funds. (The corner case is where the compromise is specifically targeted and uses the one-time password to trick the user into authorizing a different transaction than is presented by the website).

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: I was asked to provide an example of the corner case.  Site presents the withdrawal page and asks for your Yubikey.  But the attacker blocks the  compromised computer from submitting the OTP entered and instead composes a separate withdrawal and enters the OTP from the aborted form.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-08-29. Score: 4

This will be the first site to get under attack by the governments when they start their attack on Bitcoin and you will lose all your deposits. :(


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-02-25. Score: 3

MtGox can [disappear](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26333661) temporarily or permanently and take all your e-wallet bitcoins with it.

> Mt. Gox has been severely hacked, with a massive reserve of its bitcoins stolen. ... a massive hack that has stolen as many as 744,000 bitcoins, fully 6% of all bitcoins in existence. ... "MtGox can go bankrupt at any moment".

* [Forbes 2/25/2014](http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/02/25/bitcoins-price-plummets-as-mt-gox-goes-dark-with-massive-hack-rumored/)

I don't know of this is irresponsible journalism and exaggeration but the possibility of it being true (of any similar business) is a factor I would take into account when deciding whether to place bitcoins in a MtGox eWallet.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yes but this does not anything to what has already been said...  
> **username_6**: @Lohoris: I may have missed where this was already said. Which answer points out that MtGox can be forced out of business (other than by govt action) or to withdraw it's service indefinitely without refunding your e-wallet bitcoins first?  
> **username_0**: I'm sorry, I meant "...this does not ADD anothing...", somehow the "add" word has been lost and it might have been difficult to understand what I tried to say.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2012-01-25. Score: 2

* Support for multiple accounts
* Being able to trace your coins on Block Explorer
* Tighter control (if eWallet allows for data encryption)
* Other bonus features that might be offered (email notifications, vanity address, etc.).


---

