Do you remember Cryptsy? It’s a name that hovers like a ghost at a blockchain banquet of virtual currencies. Cryptsy launched onto the crypto exchange list in 2013, and rapidly turned out to be the “local diner” for altcoin trading. Everyone had arrived with random cryptocurrencies, awaiting to trade, jest and guess. The UI was like a Craigslist post had a baby with a spreadsheet, but people loved it — or at least tolerated it — from all the coins nobody else was willing to list. important site
At one time, Cryptsy has hundreds of trade pairings, which was ludicrous. You can pull out everything from Peercoin to Darkcoin and for sure there is one other degenerate that wants to do business. They say that if you squinted hard enough, you could see Dogecoin charts that resembled EKG readouts following three espressos. It was like the Wild West, thrilling and lawless, until it wasn’t.
By early 2016, things had gone sour. Withdrawals became jammed. Support tickets collected digital dust. The bankruptcy rumors grew so loud that the operator, Paul Vernon, screamed “hacker!” and that was it. There were lawsuits and investigations and a hole worth millions of dollars. People wound up with dead dashboards and forming angry tweetstorms. The loss was the equivalent of more than $9 million of client money.
It’s insane that people saw warning signs. One trader I know described dealing with Cryptsy customer service as throwing notes in bottles into the ocean, I guess they might send you a picture of a palm tree, but you would never hear anything back from them. Back then people trusted exchanges still, because they were hoping to get rich and not be left out, and not because of fancy audits or conformity to arbitrary rules. The Wild West has a way of biting people in the end.
Jay — what’s up with all this ancient history? Because every rug tug or dodgy move today has a whiff of Cryptsy. The take-away is Questions are invited. Take care with any changes in address or trading halt. Perhaps you should not store your life savings in an exchange that advertises the moon but is unable to process withdrawals? If the push-button whirls, it may be a sign that a storm is on its way.
And you don’t want to put all your eggs in one nameless basket, either. Not your keys, not your funds. Self-custody is like home cooking: more work, but the taste lingers. And remember, when something smells fishy, it might not only be the altcoins. stay salty, stay critical, don’t let history delude you once more.