Japan probing bitcoin exchange after huge reported theft

As the article states not only japan is probing. I would be more afraid of the FBI than anything in Japan.

MtGox finally shut its doors. An event that was surely overdue. Claiming to have lost more than 744,000 BTC over a period of several years and not taking any notice until their holdings reached a low of 2,000 coins is irrational. It proves not only the stunning incompetence of their management, but a complete lack of transparency, accountability and auditing - if it is true.

Ponzi was here

The theives probably run the company

There must be a lot of government officials in two nations to suddendly have investigations plaved on it for the governments do not have any control over it as it is not legal money.

You're left with bits of coins.

Welldone AFP for using the dumbest picture you could find.

Yeah.... "Once they have full knowledge".... come on, you could explain BitCoin to these ancient politicians a hundred times and they would still not understand it.

The first of many more trials for BC. Nice Idea but its only for MLs & Nerds.

Why, oh why. I'd much rather keep stuffing money under a mattress, or futon, than throw it out into a virtual space. I prefer money I can actually see or feel.

The theives probably run the company

They always do....

Undercapitalized bucketshop broker shuts up shop. ... probably destroyed by a competant currency trader.

Probie

Yes, he looks a bit like ET

Thus ends the experiment.

"...you could explain BitCoin to these ancient politicians a hundred times and they would still not understand it."

dana: You might be correct, but that still doesn't make Bitcoin the next greatest thing. The smartest guys (so called tech "geniuses") on wall street have screwed up big time on numerous occasions. Now it's possible Bitcoin has a viable future and the technology hasn't developed quickly enough. But right now it doesn't seem ready for prime time.

Maybe I am just an optimist, but I don't think this was a Ponzi scheme or a scam operation, just a risky one considering the amount of money involved.

And I also don't know how anyone trading bitcoins on other exchanges could feel sure that a similar thing couldn't play out there.

Bit coin is surely going to below $200 soon, if only I could short it somehow!

Bitcoin is doing quite well considering its once largest exchange has failed.

MtGox appears to be one of the worst run companies in history, Karpeles twitter handle was MagicalTux but everyone will remember him as an incompetent fux.

Bitcoin has already survived this. The only issue in buying for me is a moral one, in that it is a known fact that a fair percentage of the bitcoin in circulation has been stolen. But then you could say the same of other currencies I suppose.

It seems that Mt Gox's failure to keep their software up to date allowed villains to rob them of their Bitcoins. Other exchanges are also facing similar risks.

A currency free of government control is a good idea in theory, but there is no-one to bail you out when something like this happens.

Others note that the anonymity it offers is attractive to underworld figures and cite its use to buy drugs and guns on the underground Silk Road website

This nonsense is often trotted out as a reason why Bitcoin should be banned/regulated by government. Drug dealers and crooks the world over are happy to accept dollars, euros, yen etc., yet nobody calls for those currencies to be banned.

A currency free of government control is a good idea in theory, but there is no-one to bail you out when something like this happens.

Which of course is a good thing. If these people had stored their bitcoin themselves safely and securely they wouldn't have lost them. Who would want them to be bailed out?

Anyway, who bails you out if you're holding other currencies? You've got deposit insurance but governments can't guarantee that the money will actually be worth anything when they give it you back. This happened to some extent during the financial crisis of 2008.

What most people commenting negatively here about bitcoin don't know: you can make quite a lot of money quick and easy with it. Not without the risk that a market suddenly disappears obviously. But every kind of stock trading has it's risk, too.

CGB Spender

What most people commenting negatively here about bitcoin don't know: you can make quite a lot of money quick and easy with it. Not without the risk that a market suddenly disappears obviously. But every kind of stock trading has it's risk, too.

Well seems to me you can loose bitcoin just as quickly if not quicker, and there is sweet fanny adams chance of getting any of it back.

Cant touch it don't trust it.

Like, go ahead and invest in an easily manipulable exchange.

Bitcoin sure is volatile, 10% in a day was nothing for it at MtGox so far as I had been able to tell.

But if volatility is your thing, you could trade a commodities futures contract on margin or trade forex with leverage, and have far better probability of getting your money back should you be good enough to make some dosh out of it. These days in Japan at least the FSA is pretty solid on regulating these operators, and requires them to hold customer funds in segregated trust accounts and so forth. This wasn't the case with MtGox I take it.

Liquidity of these standard financial instruments is better than bitcoins too, especially MtGox ones :)