Supposedly Bitfloor only requires your ID, I have started this process so it is ready when I want/need it.  I will let you know how it goes.

From their site:

That much for technology making your life easier...

Thanks for your comment. We never said we were/are perfect, however we are working toward perfection (If perfection can be achieved). The Bitcoin community is very different from any other community. I have been handling for several years customers in one of my previous business and what while there had many special cases, I never expected to see that what was rare and unique in other business is actually pretty common with Bitcoin. This is challenging and while it could be frustrating from both parties I believe that overcoming this challenge will be beneficial for many and not only in the Bitcoin World (This could be used as a case study).

Bitcoin is a fantastic concept and a great experimental project. Please remember that Bitcoin is STILL an EXPERIMENT (Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. http://bitcoin.org/) and that EVERYONE here is working/moving in uncharted waters. With time we are all learning and improving.

Now yes Bitcoin and with what all it promised attracted two kind of people : Honest & Dishonest people. And what Dishonest people try to do is to blend in, make sure that they will not raise any flags, while at first these people used rather dumb way to conceal their behavior, Yeah I am talking to you, the 80 Years old Eastern European Lady with a brand news Passport that fully mastered the art of concealing IPs (True story by the way), these people started to be come, unfortunately, more clever.

Now the challenge that we face and that many other must has as well is that most if not all honest Bitcoin users are tech savvy or at least know better than the average person(s) about tech and these peoples are looking, for good reasons, to reduce as much as possible their digital footprint or in in many cases are young peoples/entrepreneurs that have yet gain full independence (There are of course other "profile").

Now as you can understand, it is easy for Dishonest people to blend in. After all what's wrong in willing to minimize you Digital footprint? There is nothing wrong in being a young adult trying to make a living and still having her/his parents supports? There is nothing wrong in having lost your job and have to move back with your parents/bothers/sisters or any relative in your adult live and not being able to offer a "utility Bill" as proof of residence add to that a layer of "Globalization" and you have a unique "honeypot" for Dishonest people to strive.

So yes we sometime seems unfair, sometimes we may ask you documents that can be difficult or expensive to get, but please understand that we are doing so in order to make sure that people using Mt.Gox are honest people that want to jump into this EXPERIMENT with the rest of us. We are working on making things easier or at least less painful but this take time and despite being the largest exchange we have financial and human limitations.

Cheers

Do you use an encrypted disk image?  I would.

I'm in the same situation, ID sent, regarded as suspicious, then funds locked.  No withdraw methods possible at all.  To be clear, not even Bitcoin withdraw of Bitcoins I kept depositing without being informed my account was locked.  I only found out after trying every withdraw on the site and getting the error "Your account is under review" and then filing a ticket.

This is one area where Mt. Gox needs to be very clear up front on their web interface.   They need to state exactly what formats they accept and do not accept (scans versus photographs).  They need to publish general guidelines on why documents are rejected (Names and addresses must be spelled identically on every document).  They need to state that there is a possibility that your account can be locked indefinitely if the verification process cannot be completed.  Then explain all the ways the process might fail.  Even if its in a big long Terms of Service like document that no one ever reads, I would have liked to have the chance to know what the situation was.

They should also explain that the process of getting a document notarized will vary depending on where you live.  Some places don't let notaries copy certify photographs.  Which means your ID can't be notarized without an affidavit on a separate page.  Then when you get the notarization authenticated by getting an Apostille, you will need to send them to your local goverment officials who will have their own rules you have to follow.  I've gone back and forth 3 times with my Secretary Of State so far try to get the Apostille.

To be fair, they've been responsive on their ticketing system and have maintained good communication on the issue.  But why an unverified account can do withdraws but an in process verification cannot I do not understand.  Especially if the amounts involved are below the unverified threshold.

I cannot explain or comment on why your ID has been flagged as fake, but better the quality of the ID scan/photo is the better it is. There is no "REASONABLE DOUBTS" here, every documents are checked one at a time by people (not a machine) and the slightest doubt will invalid a document. We accept documents up to 8MB (each) so do not hesitate to upload hi-resolution/clear files.


Try to see the bigger picture here. Our continuous effort in order to get things by the book is to make sure that we comply with the authorities and banks, if we don't we will have to shutdown. More Bitcoin companies comply with the basic laws quicker Bitcoin will be accepted and respected.

Understood.  However, the web interface showed no indication that my account was frozen.  I believe a frozen account should show a full page warning every time you login that the account is frozen for withdraw but that you can still trade and deposit.  That way a user can make an informed decision on where their mining deposits go.


These guides are much better.  The second image should also say that the name on the ID must be exactly the same as on the document.  My local water company puts "Current Owner" on the bill because they don't care who pays it.  I believe this is the one issue that made my documents "suspicious".

It also needs to say that you can't send additional documents once you are flagged as suspicious. The documents you pick are the ones you have to work with.  I could have picked two other utility bills that had my name on them.  I still could send them, but its apparently a one way trip once the process was started for legal reasons.  I would like to understand this better.


I understand.  You guys might want to setup a user edited wiki for users to describe the process for their region.  I'd be happy to write one for mine after having to deal with my local government.  Just finding the right form to submit the documents to the Secretary Of State took some digging, much less getting them to accept them.  None of the notaries I talked to even knew what an Apostille was (nor did I at the time).


I know the complexities of the federal legal system just in one country.  I imagine it is much more complex on an international scale.

Honestly, my initial reaction was to try and withdraw everything and close the account.  Now I suspect that every exchange will eventually have to implement a similar set of rules to what you have.   It is what it is I suppose.  I'm glad to see the improvements you have made so far.

We have debating this and still debate this as we speak, but think this way (and look what happen to Mat Honan from Wired): If we alert immediately that the account is lock we gave immediately a hint to a hacker/fraudster a clue on what triggered what. Such information for these persons are priceless and they will then immediately react to prevent such thing to happen again and send better counterfeit documents. We are working on adapting your response time and how we communicate, but we have to find the correct compromise.


This is indeed need to be improved.


This is worth checking... I will put this on our next internal meeting agenda.


Every exchange that wants to work in some area of the world will have to comply one way or another, also I would rather put my money on an exchange that follow AML/KYC procedure than one that does not follow them, the one that follow this procedure are on the safe side as far as the authorities and banks are concerned.