7 ms·

Mt. Gox – Business Plan 2014-2017 [pdf]

67 points by julespitt 13y ago

newbrict 13y ago
It looks like they won't die without a fight. I don't think they're coming back from this one though. Unless they repay everyone and have a good explanation as to what the past week is all about I'm pretty sure Mt.Gox has ruined it's image ( if it had one haha..).
- pmorici 13y ago
  It's looking like the document was meant to sucker in new investment so they could continue to hide their insolvency and keep the ponzi scheme going.
- serf 13y ago
  hard to say when no one really knows what 'this one' even is. of course this whole thing creates a loss of faith in the exchange, but if they somehow restored all the accounts I bet people would be willing to forget about it pretty quickly.. I, however, believe that to be unlikely given their response to the situation.
jheimark 13y ago
How many employees did Mt. Gox have? This seems pretty polished for a company that I thought had ~10 employees.
- flycaliguy 13y ago
  According to Roger Vin's hostage video, there were "dozens" by July 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP1YsMlrfF0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP1YsMlrfF0
- mattm 13y ago
  It seems they only have 1 (maybe 2) based on salary expenses. Everyone else is a contractor.
- PMan74 13y ago
  >This seems pretty polished Hmmmm, it looks like a standard MS Word template, nothing especially polished, nothing anyone with a proficiency in Word could not knock out.
  - pistle 13y ago
    This business plan looks more like a college kid in an ill-fitting suit and badly tied tie going for their first job interviews.
- greenmountin 13y ago
  I hadn't realized how much equity the CEO retained, 82%?. Am I interpreting this number wrong? This seems like as good of a reason as any to suspect either his team was grossly incompetent or significantly underpaid. Karpeles doesn't strike me as being a Zuckerberg, and you don't get to Mt. Gox market cap without giving up a little share to your collaborators.
meowface 13y ago
>Strengths >Technical expertise of Mark Karpeles, CEO of Mtgox, as a leader in network security, systems development, and cryptocurrency. Clearly. >Mark is a young technopreneur with more than 15 years experience ins oftware development, network administration and entrepreneurship. Mark is well-versed in multiple programming languages, has a strong background in network security, and is well-known in the tech community. That last part is certainly true now.
PhasmaFelis 13y ago
Farewell, Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange. With your passing, the Bitcoin world has lost its greatest and most hilarious punching bag.
- skore 13y ago
  At the very least, maybe this overly clever joke of showing off that you know the original name of the service will finally die with it.
  - baddox 13y ago
    The best part about that joke is there is no remotely convincing evidence that the site ever actually was a playing card exchange.
    - davejk 13y ago
      Assuming a (presumably incomplete) scraping by archive.org is "convincing evidence", it was originally an exchange for virtual trading cards. https://web.archive.org/web/20070525044536/http://mtgox.com/gwt/mtgox.php https://web.archive.org/web/20070525044536/http://mtgox.com/...
      - Anderkent 13y ago
        Which is 'in beta' and never had anything else on that home page. It's just a placeholder text.
      - eterm 13y ago
        Of course they were virtual cards, that's what a "Magic: The Gathering Online" Exchange would be. (But actually MTGO has it's own de-facto virtual currency - tix - which are regularly traded for cards through the MTGO interface.
        dragonwriter 13y ago
        > Of course they were virtual cards, that's what a "Magic: The Gathering Online" Exchange would be. I think the confusion is that some people parse it incorrectly as "Magic: The Gathering" + "Online Exchange" rather than as "Magic: The Gathering Online" + "Exchange", so think that it was (planned to be) an exchange for physical rather than virtual cards.
pistle 13y ago
"We are use the Yayoi Kaikei accounting system." Outside of that hilarity, this thing seriously is either fake or a scary indictment of the lack of acumen and precision demanded by an organization of this type. How often does a grunting, surly herd of "male 20-40 year olds, with a deep distrust for established financial systems", organize on your tiny Japanese farm and crap gold nuggets towards each other? Bitcoin, the Napster of cryptocurrency.
- xsmasher 13y ago
  I'll contend that Mt.Gox::Bitcoin as Napster::MP3. MP3 was "good enough" to revolutionize the way we buy and pirate music. Napster was enabled by MP3 tech, but flamed out spectacularly. MP3 survived though, and now more music is sold online than in record stores.
eik3_de 13y ago
Gems: > 2.6 Key to Success > Security: MtGox has a solid IT infrastructure, protected from DDOS attacks and hackers by a number of security providers and we continue to develop several customized security features for customers in order to protect their account. > Speed: MtGox runs an highly efficient trading engine that will compete enormously against the capabilities of our competitors. We will also develop more efficient fund transfer infrastructures to ensure that customers can send or receive money to/from their MtGox accounts within 3 business days.
- swalsh 13y ago
  This is about the only thing that comes to mind when I read things written by Mt Gox about their software, and IT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umbFOLztAw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umbFOLztAw
downandout 13y ago
This is a fantasy. Mark is quite likely going to jail for a very long time, along with at least some of his fellow staff members. At market value they are something like $400 million in debt. This ridiculous idea that the world can't live without Mt. Gox, which has been clearly communicated in both this document and the previously leaked crisis memo, shows signs of serious narcissism in whomever is behind them. Whatever PR/political damage their crisis has inflicted upon Bitcoin has already been done and could not be reversed even if they were saved. These executives should spend more time trying to find non-extradition countries that will take them and less time living in fantasy land.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  You can't go to jail for losing $400 million, you can go to jail for stealing it. You are implying that he has committed a some real crime beyond incompetence?
  - whywhywhy5 13y ago
    You can't for incompetence, but you sure as hell can for fraud.
    - colinbartlett 13y ago
      Incompetence that borders on negligence can certainly be prosecuted.
      - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
        Negligence that leads to bodily harm, ya; but negligence that leads to monetary losses is probably a civil rather than criminal matter. It depends on the jurisdiction for sure, some developing world countries might see it as criminal.
  - meddlepal 13y ago
    Depends on which theory or report we accept as truth at the moment, but it also sounds like there could be negligence involved - and that can be prosecuted. I'm sure there are some AG's and Prosecutors frothing at the mouth right now to get there hands on Mr. Karpeles. Edit: Even if the judicial system doesn't get MK... his life is probably ruined at this point if he cannot recover the funds - either because of reputation or personal safety. Bitcoin is the Wild West and there seem to quite a few shady and nefarious actors within the community.
Zweihander 13y ago
Someone needs to run them through the difference between Weaknesses and Threats. They've got plenty of threats even if they make it through this and ignoring them in the SWOT is laughable.
ck2 13y ago
Who on earth would be foolish enough to ever give those involved another dollar/transaction? They are going to try to use this to peddle security devices? Seriously?
danielweber 13y ago
Oh, God, an Arm and Hammer cat litter flash ad popped up while I was scrolling through this site, playing sound automatically. And I see no way to silence it or close it.
- goldenkey 13y ago
  Try not to use God in vain when you're on a public forum. It's just a daft popup mate.
  - lotsofmangos 13y ago
    If you tried to cope with everyone's varying view of blasphemy on a public forum, there isn't much you could say. Also, you can only really take a gods name in vain if you happen to believe in that god, otherwise it is merely a culturally acquired exclamation. If I say "By Zeus, that bathwater is hot.", I am not being blasphemous unless I believe that Zeus exists.
    - goldenkey 13y ago
      It's not about blasphemy. It's about referring to the source of the universe (belief respective) over a popup, just a bit daft is all, mate.
      - lotsofmangos 13y ago
        "It's not about blasphemy." "Try not to use God in vain when you're on a public forum." I seem to remember there is something in one of those books about bearing false witness.
        goldenkey 13y ago
        Ahahaha. That's all I have to say, because your point is so pedantic and wrong, that your aspergers might have infected your whole frontal cortex.

67 points by julespitt 13y ago

It looks like they won't die without a fight. I don't think they're coming back from this one though. Unless they repay everyone and have a good explanation as to what the past week is all about I'm pretty sure Mt.Gox has ruined it's image ( if it had one haha..).

pmorici 13y ago
It's looking like the document was meant to sucker in new investment so they could continue to hide their insolvency and keep the ponzi scheme going.
serf 13y ago
hard to say when no one really knows what 'this one' even is. of course this whole thing creates a loss of faith in the exchange, but if they somehow restored all the accounts I bet people would be willing to forget about it pretty quickly.. I, however, believe that to be unlikely given their response to the situation.

jheimark 13y ago

How many employees did Mt. Gox have? This seems pretty polished for a company that I thought had ~10 employees.

flycaliguy 13y ago
According to Roger Vin's hostage video, there were "dozens" by July 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP1YsMlrfF0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP1YsMlrfF0
mattm 13y ago
It seems they only have 1 (maybe 2) based on salary expenses. Everyone else is a contractor.
PMan74 13y ago
>This seems pretty polished Hmmmm, it looks like a standard MS Word template, nothing especially polished, nothing anyone with a proficiency in Word could not knock out.
- pistle 13y ago
  This business plan looks more like a college kid in an ill-fitting suit and badly tied tie going for their first job interviews.
greenmountin 13y ago
I hadn't realized how much equity the CEO retained, 82%?. Am I interpreting this number wrong? This seems like as good of a reason as any to suspect either his team was grossly incompetent or significantly underpaid. Karpeles doesn't strike me as being a Zuckerberg, and you don't get to Mt. Gox market cap without giving up a little share to your collaborators.

meowface 13y ago

>Strengths >Technical expertise of Mark Karpeles, CEO of Mtgox, as a leader in network security, systems development, and cryptocurrency. Clearly. >Mark is a young technopreneur with more than 15 years experience ins oftware development, network administration and entrepreneurship. Mark is well-versed in multiple programming languages, has a strong background in network security, and is well-known in the tech community. That last part is certainly true now.

PhasmaFelis 13y ago

Farewell, Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange. With your passing, the Bitcoin world has lost its greatest and most hilarious punching bag.

skore 13y ago
At the very least, maybe this overly clever joke of showing off that you know the original name of the service will finally die with it.
- baddox 13y ago
  The best part about that joke is there is no remotely convincing evidence that the site ever actually was a playing card exchange.
  - davejk 13y ago
    Assuming a (presumably incomplete) scraping by archive.org is "convincing evidence", it was originally an exchange for virtual trading cards. https://web.archive.org/web/20070525044536/http://mtgox.com/gwt/mtgox.php https://web.archive.org/web/20070525044536/http://mtgox.com/...
    - Anderkent 13y ago
      Which is 'in beta' and never had anything else on that home page. It's just a placeholder text.
    - eterm 13y ago
      Of course they were virtual cards, that's what a "Magic: The Gathering Online" Exchange would be. (But actually MTGO has it's own de-facto virtual currency - tix - which are regularly traded for cards through the MTGO interface.
      - dragonwriter 13y ago
        > Of course they were virtual cards, that's what a "Magic: The Gathering Online" Exchange would be. I think the confusion is that some people parse it incorrectly as "Magic: The Gathering" + "Online Exchange" rather than as "Magic: The Gathering Online" + "Exchange", so think that it was (planned to be) an exchange for physical rather than virtual cards.

pistle 13y ago

"We are use the Yayoi Kaikei accounting system." Outside of that hilarity, this thing seriously is either fake or a scary indictment of the lack of acumen and precision demanded by an organization of this type. How often does a grunting, surly herd of "male 20-40 year olds, with a deep distrust for established financial systems", organize on your tiny Japanese farm and crap gold nuggets towards each other? Bitcoin, the Napster of cryptocurrency.

xsmasher 13y ago
I'll contend that Mt.Gox::Bitcoin as Napster::MP3. MP3 was "good enough" to revolutionize the way we buy and pirate music. Napster was enabled by MP3 tech, but flamed out spectacularly. MP3 survived though, and now more music is sold online than in record stores.

eik3_de 13y ago

Gems: > 2.6 Key to Success > Security: MtGox has a solid IT infrastructure, protected from DDOS attacks and hackers by a number of security providers and we continue to develop several customized security features for customers in order to protect their account. > Speed: MtGox runs an highly efficient trading engine that will compete enormously against the capabilities of our competitors. We will also develop more efficient fund transfer infrastructures to ensure that customers can send or receive money to/from their MtGox accounts within 3 business days.

swalsh 13y ago
This is about the only thing that comes to mind when I read things written by Mt Gox about their software, and IT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umbFOLztAw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umbFOLztAw

downandout 13y ago

This is a fantasy. Mark is quite likely going to jail for a very long time, along with at least some of his fellow staff members. At market value they are something like $400 million in debt. This ridiculous idea that the world can't live without Mt. Gox, which has been clearly communicated in both this document and the previously leaked crisis memo, shows signs of serious narcissism in whomever is behind them. Whatever PR/political damage their crisis has inflicted upon Bitcoin has already been done and could not be reversed even if they were saved. These executives should spend more time trying to find non-extradition countries that will take them and less time living in fantasy land.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
You can't go to jail for losing $400 million, you can go to jail for stealing it. You are implying that he has committed a some real crime beyond incompetence?
- whywhywhy5 13y ago
  You can't for incompetence, but you sure as hell can for fraud.
  - colinbartlett 13y ago
    Incompetence that borders on negligence can certainly be prosecuted.
    - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
      Negligence that leads to bodily harm, ya; but negligence that leads to monetary losses is probably a civil rather than criminal matter. It depends on the jurisdiction for sure, some developing world countries might see it as criminal.
- meddlepal 13y ago
  Depends on which theory or report we accept as truth at the moment, but it also sounds like there could be negligence involved - and that can be prosecuted. I'm sure there are some AG's and Prosecutors frothing at the mouth right now to get there hands on Mr. Karpeles. Edit: Even if the judicial system doesn't get MK... his life is probably ruined at this point if he cannot recover the funds - either because of reputation or personal safety. Bitcoin is the Wild West and there seem to quite a few shady and nefarious actors within the community.

Zweihander 13y ago

Someone needs to run them through the difference between Weaknesses and Threats. They've got plenty of threats even if they make it through this and ignoring them in the SWOT is laughable.

ck2 13y ago

Who on earth would be foolish enough to ever give those involved another dollar/transaction? They are going to try to use this to peddle security devices? Seriously?

danielweber 13y ago

Oh, God, an Arm and Hammer cat litter flash ad popped up while I was scrolling through this site, playing sound automatically. And I see no way to silence it or close it.

goldenkey 13y ago
Try not to use God in vain when you're on a public forum. It's just a daft popup mate.
- lotsofmangos 13y ago
  If you tried to cope with everyone's varying view of blasphemy on a public forum, there isn't much you could say. Also, you can only really take a gods name in vain if you happen to believe in that god, otherwise it is merely a culturally acquired exclamation. If I say "By Zeus, that bathwater is hot.", I am not being blasphemous unless I believe that Zeus exists.
  - goldenkey 13y ago
    It's not about blasphemy. It's about referring to the source of the universe (belief respective) over a popup, just a bit daft is all, mate.
    - lotsofmangos 13y ago
      "It's not about blasphemy." "Try not to use God in vain when you're on a public forum." I seem to remember there is something in one of those books about bearing false witness.
      - goldenkey 13y ago
        Ahahaha. That's all I have to say, because your point is so pedantic and wrong, that your aspergers might have infected your whole frontal cortex.