“I don’t want this” says Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles in Surprise ‘Ask-Me-Anything’

On April 4, 2018, the notorious former CEO of the now defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox started an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) post on the Reddit forum /r/bitcoin. Mark Karpeles (AKA Magical Tux) explained that he’s willing to answer questions concerning the controversial bankruptcy process that’s taking place in Japan within the Tokyo court system. Karpeles writes that he doesn’t want the remaining funds to be distributed to the Mt Gox company at all, but unfortunately due to bankruptcy laws in Japan, the exchange and its owners may end up with a large portion of the money.

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Mark Karpeles Wants Closure for Himself and Everyone Involved with the Mt Gox Fiasco

Mark Karpeles has reached out to the bitcoin community to let them know that he isn’t pleased with the way the Mt Gox bankruptcy is going. Essentially Karpeles explains that the way the process works is the shareholders will get paid the amount agreed upon by the courts which is less than $500 per BTC, and Mt Gox could walk away with over a billion dollars. The former Mt Gox CEO details that he doesn’t want the money and he hopes this case can come to a close soon.      

“The fact that today this is a possibility is an aberration and I believe it is my responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen — One of the ways to do this would be civil rehabilitation, and as it seems most creditors agree with this, I am doing my best to help make it happen,” explains Karpeles during the evening hours in Japan.

I do not want to become instantly rich — I do not ask for forgiveness — I just want to see this end as soon as possible with everyone receiving their share of what they had on MtGox so everyone, myself included, can get some closure.

Karpeles Thinks That Maybe He Should Have Had Some Help Running Mt Gox

During the discussion, one commenter gets upset with Mark about the trustee who is selling thousands of BTC and BCH on the open market at the court’s discretion. Karpeles details that the trustee was appointed by the court and he has no control over that process. “I only wish to see bitcoins returned to all MtGox creditors as soon as possible,” the former exchange operator reveals. Moreover, Karpeles explains the industry was so nascent at the time of the hack, and he was a young “techie” that he maybe should have used business advisors while running the Mt Gox trading platform.  

“When buying MtGox I should have had people around me to advise me and help with the management starting with the MtGox transfer contract — I’m a tech guy, and bitcoin was a tech thing at the time. In April 2011 there was an article in Forbes which changed Bitcoin forever, and I found myself managing emergencies every day without any time to do the work that’d need to be actually done,” Karpeles explains in his AMA.

How Karpeles Found the Paper Wallet Containing 200,000 BTC

Then Karpeles details how he found the paper wallet containing the 200,000 BTC that is now being sold for fiat and will be distributed among shareholders. In total 800,000 BTC was lost in the Mt Gox scandal and after the exchange went underwater, Karpeles found the cold storage wallet with the remaining coins.

“When MtGox filed for bankruptcy we evaluated the company as being bankrupt. Between its first trade in July 2010 and the bankruptcy in February 2014, MtGox accumulated a lot of history, including various attempts at implementing secure cold wallets back in 2011,” Karpeles emphasizes.

Despite being less secure that actual paper wallet, that cold wallet, a aes encrypted wallet.dat file, still contained almost 200,000 BTC. Upon discovery the BTC were moved to a safer environment and lawyers worked on how to announce this to the court. An announcement was made after those BTC were moved to a new paper-based cold wallet with approval of the court.

Unable to Control the Final Outcome

Throughout the conversation, it seems Mark Karpeles wants to do the community right, and most of all help the people who lost funds when Mt Gox fell apart. However, it doesn’t seem like he has any control over the court’s rulings and the trustee’s distribution process. For the first hour, Karpeles answered a variety of questions but has since left the post he created and has not responded to any questions since.

What do you think about Mark Karpeles’ random AMA post today? Let us know in the comments below.

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