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> Mt. Gox . . . suffered the fate of all bitcoin exchanges, and had its bitcoins stolen. Wow. This is an embarrassing demonstration of the authors ignorance o

> Mt. Gox . . . suffered the fate of all bitcoin exchanges, and had its bitcoins stolen. Wow. This is an embarrassing demonstration of the authors ignorance of the current state of the cryptocurrency market. It is appalling that former CEO Mark Karpeles may benefit from the exchange collapse he caused through either incompetence or thievery. But it's hardly different from the rewards paid out to those who caused the US economic melt down in 2008.

skybrian 9y ago
That's a joke, not ignorance.
- jcoffland 9y ago
  It's an ignorant joke designed to deligitimize cryptocurrency in the eyes of the reader.
  - jff 9y ago
    Simply observing cryptocurrency users and exchanges in action does enough to delegitimize them, I'd think.
wakamoleguy 9y ago
Matt Levine has a history of ribbing on bitcoin exchanges. He doesn't really lay it out in this post, though, so here is a quote from an earlier one[1]: > The other reason not to trade bitcoin is that, as far as I can tell, the fate of any bitcoin exchange/wallet/bank/custodian is to be hacked. That is just how bitcoin works: You buy bitcoins on an exchange, and you store them at the exchange because it's a pain to keep your private key yourself, and then the exchange gets hacked and your bitcoins get stolen. ("There have been at least three dozen heists of cryptocurrency exchanges since 2011," Reuters noted[2] last week.) In general, his Money Stuff commentary tends to have a sort of sarcastic reductionist vibe to it. Whether the ignorance is true or feigned for effect really depends on the reader's perspective, I guess. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-03/bitcoin-traders-and-index-funds https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-03/bitcoin-t... [2] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/bitcoin-exchanges-risks/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/bitcoin-...
- jcoffland 9y ago
  It sounds like TV commentators mocking the Internet in 1994.
  - dmitrygr 9y ago
    Or sane people mocking Juicero and Theranos here on HN a year or two ago.
    - jcoffland 9y ago
      The existence of mockers is proof of nothing.
jandrese 9y ago
It is not unfair to say that the majority of Bitcoin exchanges to date have been either intentionally fraudulant or incompetently run. This includes MtGox. Here's a talk that discusses the financial situation at MtGox and the raging dumpster fire that its security system was when Mark Karpeles bought it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo It's hard to say if the poor security was due to a staggering level of inexperience and thoughtlessness, or if the previous owners had left it open so they could pilfer money as easily as possible before the whole house of cards collapsed. It's hard to imagine a financial services administrator leaving an unsecured Windows file share open to the Internet with all of the private keys on it, but somehow this was considered to be not a problem at MtGox.

skybrian 9y ago

That's a joke, not ignorance.

jcoffland 9y ago
It's an ignorant joke designed to deligitimize cryptocurrency in the eyes of the reader.
- jff 9y ago
  Simply observing cryptocurrency users and exchanges in action does enough to delegitimize them, I'd think.

wakamoleguy 9y ago

Matt Levine has a history of ribbing on bitcoin exchanges. He doesn't really lay it out in this post, though, so here is a quote from an earlier one[1]: > The other reason not to trade bitcoin is that, as far as I can tell, the fate of any bitcoin exchange/wallet/bank/custodian is to be hacked. That is just how bitcoin works: You buy bitcoins on an exchange, and you store them at the exchange because it's a pain to keep your private key yourself, and then the exchange gets hacked and your bitcoins get stolen. ("There have been at least three dozen heists of cryptocurrency exchanges since 2011," Reuters noted[2] last week.) In general, his Money Stuff commentary tends to have a sort of sarcastic reductionist vibe to it. Whether the ignorance is true or feigned for effect really depends on the reader's perspective, I guess. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-03/bitcoin-traders-and-index-funds https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-03/bitcoin-t... [2] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/bitcoin-exchanges-risks/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/bitcoin-...

jcoffland 9y ago
It sounds like TV commentators mocking the Internet in 1994.
- dmitrygr 9y ago
  Or sane people mocking Juicero and Theranos here on HN a year or two ago.
  - jcoffland 9y ago
    The existence of mockers is proof of nothing.

jandrese 9y ago

It is not unfair to say that the majority of Bitcoin exchanges to date have been either intentionally fraudulant or incompetently run. This includes MtGox. Here's a talk that discusses the financial situation at MtGox and the raging dumpster fire that its security system was when Mark Karpeles bought it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo It's hard to say if the poor security was due to a staggering level of inexperience and thoughtlessness, or if the previous owners had left it open so they could pilfer money as easily as possible before the whole house of cards collapsed. It's hard to imagine a financial services administrator leaving an unsecured Windows file share open to the Internet with all of the private keys on it, but somehow this was considered to be not a problem at MtGox.