How many times has Poloniex failed us?
Every time there are gains to be had. Well, so it seems.
I've not used it in around 6 weeks after there was a backlog of withdrawals and the Trollbox was overwhelmed. But I continue to read about how Polo is failing it's users. About how they have suspended the Trollbox in lieu of better support for it's users, but which has obviously failed to materialize.
The danger of course, is that the biggest exchange out there has a great deal of say in prices, and any movement on Poloniex is realised on every smaller centralized exchange. If Bitcoin increases in price on Poloniex, Bittrex will quickly follow as people take advantage of that.
This of course leads to accusations of conspiracy, price fixing, blocking withdrawals to keep money in the exchange, and indeed these things are possible, but unproven.
However one has to ask the question as to how a $52,000,000 a year profit maker can't employ 3 or 4 NEETs to deal with support tickets, or spend the money required to have stable servers? It does seem suspicious.
Exchanges, unregulated, uncontrolled, no recompense if something vanishes into the night.
We have to be careful and raise an eyebrow, when a market can collapse overnight due to the volatile nature of our burgeoning industry, everyone must be vigilant. There is always the potential that somebody will run away with our coins, and cash them out before we even know they're gone. This is what it means to hold on an exchange.
Mt. Gox, it should never be forgotten, it was a lesson to us, a lesson that we always keep anything we truly value in a separate wallet, never on an exchange. Most altcoins will transfer in seconds if you want to sell, but if you don't why risk them to a guy on the street who you've never met and never will?
The coming few months will tell us whether Poloniex is a trustworthy place to exchange crypto, either they will run off with everyone's coins, or they will stay and prove the naysayers wrong. But as for me, until I see dodgy signs from Bittrex, I will use them, but do I trust them with my money? NO
Either Polo is running out of money, or they're manipulating markets to make more money for themselves via proxy users, When a coin gets too big for its boots (steem) they cut off deposits and withdrawals leaving money in limbo, meaning you can only sell into other currencies. Polo is like this big giant monster that is trying to control the markets and leaving massive destruction in it's wake.
My $0.02
Thanks for reading