Fool me once: Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox falls after third DDoS attack this month

For the third time this month, Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox fell to distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) today. Some people just aren’t down with alternative currencies, it seems.

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The company wrote on its Facebook:

This again appears to be another strong DDoS attack. We are working hard to overcome it and will update when possible. It’s currently 2am in Japan so please forgive us if our Facebook/Twitter updates are not as quick, though the team is certainly not taking any breaks.

Bitcoin is a decentralized Internet currency that has earned much more legitimacy in the last year. Mt. Gox acts as the main marketplace for Bitcoin, but the exchange has been known for its hiccups in times of heavy traffic. Indeed, Bitcoin’s price often fluctuates after Mt. Gox performance issues. Most recently Bitcoins fell 40 percent from $260 per Bitcoin when Mt. Gox went silent in a previous DDoS attack.

It seems the attacks started around 7:40 this morning Pacific time. The company says it is trying to implement stronger protections against these attacks. At the time of writing this post, Mt. Gox looks to be up and functional, though no further updates have come from the company.

Bitcoin’s relevancy may be more influenced by Mt. Gox than we think, says VentureBeat’s Sean Ludwig. Mt. Gox will need to get stronger and more reliable before Bitcoins can really make their place in the world.

hat tip The Next Web; Bitcoin image via zcopley/Flickr