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I'm fluent in Japanese. I listened to the beginning of the recording and it's legit. One of the voices is almost certainly Mark Karpeles' (based on hearing his
by gklitt 13y ago
I'm fluent in Japanese. I listened to the beginning of the recording and it's legit. One of the voices is almost certainly Mark Karpeles' (based on hearing his voice in his recent public apology -- his Japanese is broken but reasonably proficient). It seems to be a recording of a Jan 30 2014 meeting where bankers from Mizuho Bank are asking Karpeles various questions about Bitcoin, the nature of his business, his partnerships in different countries, connections to underground activity, etc. Definitely not something that's meant to be publicly released.
EDIT: Listening to snippets from the rest of the recording, it seems that Mizuho is explaining that they want to cancel Mt Gox's accounts with the bank. Karpeles seems to be protesting and asking why the accounts are being shut down. The guy from Mizuho explains (at 28:00 for Japanese speakers out there) that it's a combination of a lot of factors, including recent technical issues, which make the bank uncomfortable dealing with Mt Gox. Karpeles also mentions following the orders of the Financial Services Agency (金融庁）
EDIT2: 15:00~16:10: Mizuho guy explains that the Mt Gox bank accounts will have to be shut down eventually. Karpeles says that he understands that position, but he thinks that the bank has been rude about trying to force the closure, and would appreciate a more cooperative approach.
EDIT3: 18:00~19:00: An awkward discussion of Karpeles' Japanese. The Mizuho person seems to be offended by Karpeles' rude Japanese, which frequently lacks the correct honorifics that would be expected in a business setting. A woman (I think she's on the Gox team?) explains that Karpeles' first language is French and that he means no offense.
I can work on a fuller description of the call, but just wanted to get a quick verification of its authenticity out there, along with some snippets of the contents.
- sillysaurus3 13y agoPlease consider typing out a full English translation. If you post your bitcoin address here, then I'm sure plenty of people here will pay you some coin for your effort.
- zoba 13y agoAwesome, thank you for this.
- pmorici 13y agoThere are additional comments about this call in this reddit thread... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zepgt/mark_apparently_leaked_conversation_with_a_bank/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zepgt/mark_apparen...
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y agoKarpeles making mistakes with honorifics? That's odd, even though it would he incorrect, surely he could just -san suffix everyone and be done with it?
- sdrothrock 13y agoI don't know about honorifics, but he was using "ore," according to Reddit. If he wrote the letter on the front page of Mt Gox, there are some weird/offputting polite language mistakes, too. (I can't listen to the recording right now and wouldn't get much out of it even if I could, since I can't hear well enough. :-/)
- nwh 13y agoFor those (like me) who don't know anything about Japanese, referring to yourself as "ore" seems to be inappropriate and likely unintended by Mark. > Frequently used by men. It can be seen as rude depending on the context. Establishes a sense of masculinity. Emphasizes one's own status when used with peers and with those who are younger or who have less status. Among close friends or family, its use is a sign of familiarity rather than of masculinity or of superiority. It was used by both genders until the late Edo period and still is in some dialects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns#List_of_Japanese_personal_pronouns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns#List_of_Japa...
- gklitt 13y agoYes, he was saying "ore", which is an incredibly rude and amateur mistake. In English, that would be like be entering an important business meeting with a bank and saying, "Yo dude, wassup?"
- atmosx 13y agoThanks for that.