BITCOIN TOOK A hit in price as one of the digital currency’s largest traders, MtGox, was forced to halt all withdrawals because of a software bug.
The company has said it’s been forced to take this action due to the way bitcoin withdrawals were being processed, going from a MtGox wallet to an external bitcoin address.
The payment processor, which handles more than 80 per cent of all bitcoin transactions, says that the problem is being caused by “transaction malleability,” a bug in bitcoin software which makes it possible to use the network to alter transaction deals to make it seem like one didn’t occur when it did.
The problem experienced by MtGox could be part of a broader problem that would affect the wider bitcoin community.
The problem we have identified is not limited to MtGox, and affects all transactions where Bitcoins are being sent to a third party.We believe that the changes required for addressing this issue will be positive over the long term for the whole community. As a result we took the necessary action of suspending bitcoin withdrawals until this technical issue has been resolved.
Bitcoin itself has fallen in price since withdrawing bitcoins was halted. Back on 7th February, the price of one bitcoin was valued at $922 (€676), now it’s fallen to $615 (€451).
MtGox said it will resume bitcoin withdrawals to outside wallets once the issue has been properly resolved.
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