Mt. Gox finds 200,000 bitcoins in “old-format wallet”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Mt. Gox, the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy this month after it said it lost 750,000 of its users currency, just reported that it found 200,000 bitcoins that were found in an old-format wallet.
For you kids at home dealing in old school, E Pluribus Unum kinda legal tender, thats referring to a digital storage file kind of wallet, not the old leathery kind.
In a message posted Friday on the exchanges website, Mt. Goxs former chief executive, Mark Karpeles, said Mt. Gox Co., Ltd. had certain oldformat wallets which were used in the past and which, Mt. Gox thought no longer held any bitcoins.
But on March 7, Karpeles wrote, the exchange confirmed that an old format wallet which was used prior to June 2011 held a balance of approximately 200,000 BTC. That still doesnt account for all of the amount that was unaccounted for, plus another 100,000 of Mt. Goxs own bitcoin reserve. Total value at the time: $450 million. Based on current rates, it is worth about a quarter of that.
Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/03/21/mt-gox-finds-200000-bitcoins-in-old-format-wallet/
Curiouser and curiouser.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)brooklynite
(94,571 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)zonkers
(5,865 posts)DesertDiamond
(1,616 posts)OregonBlue
(7,754 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)in Bitcoin.
rocktivity
(44,576 posts)I was impressed by a news report about a bitcoin convention in Miami until I remembered that Miami is the drug money-laundering capital of the world.
rocktivity
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)I've got a box of those somewhere..
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Mt. Gox proves the point.
I suppose they're welcome to the 0.000000001 BTC that I have.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)and then misplaced it. They'll find their virtual keys in there for their Lightcycle, too.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)suffer no physical damage. However, I guess they can be scattered across the IT room
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)will they need the E-vet?
kentauros
(29,414 posts)So long as they steer clear of either Dr. Norton, or Dr. McAfee
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)jmowreader
(50,557 posts)For you kids at home dealing in new school digital terms, that's a drowning with a bathtub full of water and a dozen of his customers, not some sort of digital drowning.
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)I have no idea why anyone would have put their money there after that.
Even if you're going to use Bitcoins, why use one of these shady exchanges? I can understand being distrustful of banks, but how is trusting random people on the internet any better?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)That's the whole problem. Mt. Gox, for instance, began life as a trading site for game cards from "Magic: The Gathering" (which I used to play ) Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange.
paleotn
(17,913 posts)....virtual mason jar, buried out in their digital backyard? Maybe they need to check their virtual pants pockets before they toss them in the wash. Under the front seats of the car is sometimes a good place to find loose "coins."
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)can you exchange Linden bucks for Bitcoins by the way? What is THAT exchange rate?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)MindMover
(5,016 posts)Star Member MindMover (3,966 posts)
1. They found a misplaced file in there computer ... BFD ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4704234
icymist
(15,888 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I dont think any of us thought that MtGox was particularly well managed but the more we find out the worse it all seems to get. For today theyve announced that theyve just found 200,000 Bitcoins that had slipped down the back of the couch. No, really, someone running an exchange, offering a safekeeping and conversion facility, managed to just lose in their own systems over $115,000,000 at todays prices, and what was once worth $200,000,000. It was in an old wallet that they thought was empty you see:
Theres two implications of this announcement. The first being that the organisation wasnt, in fact, an organisation at all. It was a bunch of script kiddies having a lark. This isnt, perhaps, the greatest of surprises to anyone who has been following the story.
The second is that MtGox has clearly been trading insolvently since June 2011. For those not entirely current on accounting law (and why should you be? This is a most, most, boring area) this is one of those no-nos that every entrepreneur is warned about. Its OK to go bust: failure is how we learn. But dont cross over into fraud and deception which is what insolvent trading is.
Think through what is being said here. They found these Bitcoin in an old wallet that was used before June 2011. And theyve only just found them: therefore, between June 2011 and March 7 2014 they had a hole of 200,000 Bitcoin in their accounts. Yes, they were still there: but the management must have known that they didnt have them for it to be even possible for them to have just found them. At which point the management should have stopped trading. Because with that 200,000 hole theres no way that they could have met their accumulated financial obligations. This is what it means to trade insolvently. To pretend that youll be able to meet past, current and future financial obligations while knowing that youll not be able to do so.
http://pando.com/2014/03/21/mtgox-finds-200000-bitcoin-down-the-back-of-the-couch/