Bitcoin Bankrupt

[DrLeftover]

28 February 2014

The MtGox bitcoin exchange has filed for bankruptcy protection, reports say.

The application was made in Japan by lawyers acting on behalf of the exchange and comes only days after MtGox went offline.

On Tuesday, the exchange's boss said he was working hard to find a "solution to our recent issues".

Before going offline, technical troubles meant it prevented customers transferring digital cash to other exchanges on 7 February.

Details of the bankruptcy are scant but the application for protection has been accepted by a district court in Tokyo, reported AFP. At the court hearing, the company said it had outstanding debts of about 6.5bn yen (£38m).

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25233230


So, where did all of the Real Money go?

 

[Bluezone777]

Probably spent on something by those who accepted the legal tender in exchange for their "money". I think there is a reason why money is backed by a country as this would happen more often if our currency wasn't backed by any specific country. It guarantees safety in the monetary sense to the one who has it and the one who accepts it for goods and services. It's true that a country can fall and with it goes its currency but that's not likely to happen quite easily in most of the world as it could far more easily with a currency like bit coin.

I hope they figure out a way to settle this both for bringing justice to the creators of bit coin along with those who traded currency for bit coin and are now left with nothing out of no fault of their own as far as what happened to the bit coin currency itself.

 

[DrLeftover]

So. Blue. How much did you lose?


I had gotten an email wanting me to sell books and 'translate' the sales from bitcoin into dollars, for a handling fee that went to the bitcoin operator of course.

I deleted the email.

You can, if you wish, buy my work in Dollars or Euros or whatever, and I get paid without yet another hand in the till. And I'm OK with that.

 

[Evil Eye]

It might still survive... maybe.
I thought the idea was rather interesting at least. It's not like it's really any less real than the money banks deal in.

 

[DrLeftover]

Well, yes it is.

You cannot present a "bit coin" to the corner gas station and get ... well, anything. or take it to the First National Bank of West Bumfuzzle and get "legal tender" to do so.

You also could not take it to Bud's Currency Exchange at the airport and trade it for Yen or Kroner or Euros or anything else.

It was only meaningful to the bitcoin outfit and their cronies.

Yes, that was the original idea, and it was also its major weakness.

 

[Evil Eye]

Well sure, but it's not like banks don't trade most of their money digitally. They can trade something that exists as nothing more than a value on a number of computers, not so different I'd say.

"Real" currencies have no more intrinsic value than Bitcoins and things of that ilk. They're definitely more secure because, Bluezone already said it, they're linked to nation states which are at least somewhat real.

It was only meaningful to the bitcoin outfit and their cronies.

This is just as true for "real" currencies. The only meaningful difference being the number of "the outfit and their cronies" and the lack of any general oversight.


And yes, I'd still take "real" money over Bitcoins any day of the week.

 

[DrLeftover]

Feb. 28, 2014
Mt. Gox, once the dominant exchange for bitcoin trading, on Friday said more than $470 million of the virtual currency vanished from its digital coffers, kicking into high gear a search for the missing money by victims and cybersleuths.

Acting alone and in groups, the people stepped up their efforts after Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and confirmed rumors it had lost almost 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins, as well as roughly 100,000 of its own.

Mt. Gox Chief Executive Mark Karpelès said technical issues had opened the way for fraudulent withdrawals, though he didn't provide details.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303801304579410010379087576?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303801304579410010379087576.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

 

[DrLeftover]

March 05, 2014

It appears bitcoin’s recent turmoil has claimed its first life.

Autumn Ratke a 28-year-old American CEO of bitcoin exchange firm First Meta was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 28.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/03/05/bitcoin-firm-ceo-found-dead-in-suspected-suicide/