The China-based digital currency exchange platform Bter is back online after more than 24 hours offline. It cites DNS error issue.
What happened
According to Is It Down Right Now?, Bter has been down for a day and 16 hours as at May 19, 2016 at 2:45 pm (GMT+1).
The website posted that Bter has not been responding to its pings in a post which says: "Bter.com is DOWN for everyone’ citing 17 May 2016 at 20:22 Pacific Time (UTC/GMT 0) as its last response time with a Ping Time of 7.14 ms."
An email query to their admin section on May 19 was confirmed but has yet to be replied. However, three separate tweets on the Exchange’s page attribute the offline to DNS error issue (please note a 9-hour difference PT and GMT+1 zones) and only to other countries outside China:
We are having a DNS resolving issue outside of China and we are working with the DNS service provider to solve it.
— Bter.com Exchange (@btercom) May 19, 2016
We have added more DNS servers for https://t.co/nsX4sStHiR. Hopefully the DNS resolving will be back to normal in most countries.
— Bter.com Exchange (@btercom) May 19, 2016
It's confirmed that the https://t.co/nsX4sSc6rj DNS resolving issue is solved in most countries.
— Bter.com Exchange (@btercom) May 19, 2016
While down, there was no news anywhere, including Twitter. The message on the landing page says:
"This site can’t be reached. The webpage at bter.com/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address. Search Google for bter. ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED."
Its last tweet on Bter Exchange handle @btercom on May 16 leads its almost 7,000 followers to a headline post which says: BTER's users can invest into the DAO on BTER with the official price now adding this weblink.
Happened before
It is not the first time the Bter site has been down. It happened when Bter announced that it has lost 7,170 bitcoins, or roughly US$1.75 million in an apparent hack on its cold wallet system in February 2015. That was after it reportedly had US$1.65 Million stolen from its exchange six months earlier in August 2014.
So far, there hasn’t been any report of a breach.
The Executive Director of Strength in Numbers Foundation, David V Duccini, writes via email on what going offline portends for a Bitcoin exchange platform like BTER.com:
“I think what this points out is what many, including me have been saying for a long time: “Exchanges are not wallets or banks." In fact I designed 2GIVE — to reward stakeholders for keeping coins in their personal wallets with 5% interest per annum. It’s meant to change behavior in a subtle way. Furthermore, the exchanges have agreed to disable the staking so if you leave your coins there, you’re not earning the interest. Never send more than you can afford to lose — regardless of where you’re sending them — there’s no “do over button” in crypto.”