Monthly Archives: October 2018

A Handful of Coins

BitCoinThe 2014 Mtgox saga has re-emerged after a lull of several years.

The Japanese administrators of Mtgox Exchange have invited customers to submit claims for BitCoins, other cyptocurrencies and fiat currency (money) lost.

https://www.mtgox.com/

Claims must be submitted either offline or online and reach the the Mtgox administrators no later than the 22nd of October 2018.

I think it pretty decent of the Japanese government to try and make reparations to customers of the Mtgox Exchange which was setup and run by a french national, Mr Karpeles.

This is in contrast to the american government which periodically undermines alternative currencies by using law enforcement instruments to grab hold of BitCoins. A good example of this is the BTC-e exchange. The US government (Government of the United States of America) claimed the owner of the BTC-e exchanged was involved in handling stolen BitCoins and money laundering among other crimes. While all of these maybe be true the US Government made no attempt to verify whether customers of the exchange had obtained their BitCoins legally and has made to attempt to return any of the impounded BitCoins or fiat currency to genuine customers of the BTC-e exchange. This as far as I am concerned is robbery by the State.

After having read this article → https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43291026

some of us night be returned BitCoins we already owned and then bought again. It's alleged that stolen Mtgox were traded on the BTC-e exchange. It maybe be wishful thinking but just maybe the US Government will give the Japanese government the impounded BitCoins so that the Mtgox clients get their BitCoins back , BitCoins for which they have paid twice 😀

Back to the Mtgox saga, the Japanese administrators are offering to refund customers either BitCoins or fiat currency when this becomes possible, however customers maybe not be able to dictate preference and ultimately will have to accept what is offered. It is interesting to note that the fiat currency (money) being offered is about a tenth of the current value of BitCoin but as they say - it is better than a poke in the eye with a proverbial sharp stick 🙂