Zim Bitcoin exchange, Golix, goes down for hours

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Golix, Zimbabwe’s only cryptocurrencies exchange went down for several hours today. It was down since early hours today (we found out at 5AM) and has just been restored.

We’ve reached out to Golix CEO, Tawanda Kembo and he’s told us they were having an issue with their hosting provider. “We were offline  because we had a problem with our hosting provider earlier but it’s now resolved now.”

Kembo added:

In a startup with a fail-fast culture such as ourselves, disruptions will happen here and there. Some of our customers will note that this is not the first disruption, but the time it takes to come back online is getting shorter each time. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there.

The platform has suffered a few service disruptions the past several weeks, with majors ones (lasting several hours) around 7 December and 23 January.

Golix recently disclosed it now has some 45,000 customers. The platform so far enables customers to trade USD with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash and Ethereum (as well as trading cryptos with cryptos).

The current price of Bitcoin on Golix is $14,000 a decent rise from around $11,000 two weeks ago. Internationally, the Bitcoin price is currently about $10,000, also on a recovery trend.

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11 comments

  1. Papa P

    Why is the Bitcoin price so high in Zimbabwe?

    1. Gail

      the price of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general is high in Zimbabwe because of a lot of things, but the main reason why the price is set higher that anywhere else in the world is because of the liquidity problems in Zimbabwe. Bitcoin tends to be lower in markets where there is more liquidity and higher in markets where there is less liquidity.

    2. Garikai Dzoma

      The major reason is because the price is really not in USD despite the suggestion. This is the RTGS/Ecocash price. Onlyan idiot would use real USD to buy Bitcoin on Golix

  2. kilotango

    no wonder they had 2000 email support tickets in the last two weeks, as they bragged in the last article (which has now been removed)

    1. Shady

      I saw that too, that article has been removed. Something amiss?

    2. L.S.M Kabweza

      Hey guys, The angle of the article gave an incorrect impression. We decided it made more sense to just remove it. The author is still undergoing training and sometimes mistakes slip through. We’re sorry.
      If you still need to read it, you can access it here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.techzim.co.zw/2018/02/interest-cryptocurrencies-still-growing-zim-golix-reaches-milestone/

  3. G

    On the price of bitcoin on zim and the rest of the world, does that mean that if i send my 1 bitcoin i bought for $10k on luno to a golix wallet i can technically sell it for $14k on golix and make a profit of $4k

    1. L.S.M Kabweza

      No. See @Garikai Dzoma’s explanation above:

      “The major reason is that the price is really not in USD despite the suggestion.”

      So essentially, you’re not getting your 14k in USD. You getting it in Bond Notes at best. At worst, it’s going to be stuck in a bank account.

  4. M Chara

    I opened an account, tried to pay the money, but had problems. I contacted Golix but never received any help. Why?

    1. duh i dunno

      maybe they gangsters? sup with the devil ?! maybe ?

    2. tinm@n

      All they need is some competition.

      They are indifferent, too relaxed and lazy when it comes to customer support and care….that can all change with the intro of another exchange that does not do customer service the “Golix Way”

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