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> After accounting for smaller amounts of nonbitcoin assets and liabilities, Mt. Gox has a surplus on paper of ¥111 billion, or $977 million, that could go to i
by runeks 9y ago
> After accounting for smaller amounts of nonbitcoin assets and liabilities, Mt. Gox has a surplus on paper of ¥111 billion, or $977 million, that could go to its shareholders, according to a calculation by The Wall Street Journal.
So the shareholders of an incompletely run company should have dibs on the capital gains of assets they failed to secure properly? To me, this seems neither fair nor societally beneficial.
If someone lends a company their property, after which the company loses it, and the price of this property goes up, it just implies that the creditors need more money to get back the property that belongs to them - regardless of whether we’re talking about bitcoins, gold or lambs wool. Surely, the goal of bankruptcy must be to make creditors whole, not enrich shareholders of the company that failed to live up to its promises.
- jstanley 9y agoAgreed. The only reason MtGox has that paper $1b is because they didn't allow anyone to access their money. They lost a bunch of everyone's money, then kept hold of what they had left and waited for the Bitcoin price to rise. Surely they don't get to keep the extra. It wasn't even theirs in the first place!
- otoburb 9y agoIf anybody wants the full sordid history from an investigative standpoint, check out Kim Nilsson's great writeups[1][2] and presentation[3]. [1] http://blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/breaking-open-mtgox-1.html http://blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/breaking-open-mtgox-1.html [2] http://blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/comments-on-mark-karpeles-trial.html http://blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/comments-on-mark-karpeles-tria... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo
- modeless 9y agoIt's not theirs anymore either. It is now overseen by the bankruptcy court, and the bankruptcy court is deciding what to do with it according to Japanese bankruptcy law. Unfortunately the law is extremely slow, strict, and conservative. They may not reach a resolution for many years, during which time the value of Bitcoin could spike 10x or crash to zero. The resolution eventually reached may or may not make any rational sense. It's a fascinating situation from the outside, though surely maddening for anyone involved.