It's Not Just Poloniex That Has STEEM Disabled Temporarily - Shapeshift Is Down Too Among Many Others

In an earlier post about the availability of STEEM for trading on Poloniex, someone made the comment that people should find a different exchange to do business with due to Polo's unreliability. I haven't personally had many issues with them over the past few years of doing most of my trades there, but last week I was fortunate enough to spot STEEM and SBD's being disabled before sending anything over there. I have this anal habit of always copying and pasting the memo and account right from their deposits and withdrawals page, even though that data is stored in my Chrome auto-fill function. Lucky I do it like this or I might have a deposit floating around in limbo like some have reported here on Steemit.

One of the sites that have been floated to use is Shapeshift, a direct cryptocurrency swapping service that is fairly popular. I've never used Shapeshift before, despite being a big fan of the site's design and cool look. They've been around for a while and I would use them if I there weren't any other options available. Bittrex came through for me last week as I've had an account there for longer than I've had one at Poloniex. Many moons ago, I was a big time Unobtanium accumulator via a now defunct pool that in the end, took a bunch of the UNO they owed me. In fact, I still have a little bit in there and should try and scare a little more up so I can trade it off for something else.

The problem with Shapeshift though, is that they currently have STEEM disabled as well, among many others. I guess it helps to have them all listed in one place to get an idea of just what is working currently and not. Polo does have STEEM back up and running, but I'm leery to give them any action till I get more feedback as to whether this is fully functional or not.

My opinion on all this is this: This is just part of doing business in the cryptocurrency world. The exchanges are simply covering their own asses when things like hard forks and wallet issues crop up. They are holding me back to some degree while they sort their own issues, but an exchange taking it in the shorts isn't really good for anyone's business, so I suppose we should just be patient while it gets worked out. hopefully, it wont take too long. STEEM is surging back though, which makes us all happy :)