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Mt. Gox CEO Returns To Twitter, Enrages Burned Investors
An anonymous reader writes Mark Karpeles doesn't seem to understand how much anger and trouble the $400 million Mt. Gox fiasco caused his customers. According to Wired: "After a long absence, the Mt Gox CEO has returned to Twitter with a bizarre string of tone-deaf tweets that were either written by a Turing test chat bot, or by a man completely oblivious to the economic chaos he has wrought. His first message after losing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins? 'What would we do without busybox?'—a reference to a slimmed-down Linux operating system used on devices such as routers. He's also Tweeted about a noodle dish called yakisoba and Japanese transportation systems." Andreas Antonopoulos, the CSO with Blockchain says, "He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
We all know after any wrong doing, a person must offer up at least three goats to the Social Justice Warrior spirits in order to quench their bloodlust.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
Man who quite obviously ran an elaborate scam and legally (as far as I'm concerned) stole money from a bunch of morons and suckers is a narcissist and sociopath. Are we supposed to be surprised?
This guy is like people who rob little old ladies and see nothing wrong with it.
It's not an operating system.
What did he say about yakisoba? Does he like? Hate it? Get some on his shirt?
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
I mean, first thing I would have though is "that's not actually him".
I have to say, the responses to his tweets are the funniest thing I've read all week.
Jon Eaton @sketchy1poker 20m
@MagicalTux die you fat fuck
Angry Mofo @angrymofo Jun 18
@MagicalTux Where's my Bitcoins you cunt ?
Icecream @Bird8880 Jun 15 :)
@MagicalTux I hope you die in the next earthquake fat ass
OR.....the Twitter account could be compromised, and the attacker is trolling you. I mean, they don't exactly have a stellar security record.
Sounds like perfect large enterprise CEO material!
Quoting a guy named "The Arbitrageur (@FiatMoneyEnd)", complaining about how he had lost his money, was a particularly dry touch.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
"...he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
So you're saying he has what it takes to be a Fortune 100 CEO?
I'm pretty sure any sane lawyer in the world would absolutely forbid him from talking publicly about Mt. Gox or anything that happened during the meltdown. Is there not legal action pending? Perhaps we should let the discovery process do work as intended. This article seems to accomplish nothing and I don't think it qualifies as news.
"a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse"
I can see why he was attracted to Bittcoins
I would force him to drink a desert coffee beverage brewed with the tears of his own children as I burn their hands with a blow torch. Then I would get _really_ cruel on 'ol Fattums himself.... it would take him many days to finally expire, as his burned children watch his slow, slow torture.
Maybe it is just a guy who thought enough time had passed? He DID originally specialise inan exchange for magic cards. Either he is the best criminal master mind or just an average lucky joe.
"He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
Either that or his head is firmly planted in reality and he, unlike many of the Mt Gox users, recognizes that bitcoins are worthless. No one lost a dime. People lost bitcoins ferchrissakes.
So... He's pretty much like everyone else on Twitter?
"He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse." The only question is with qualifications like these does he pursue Wall Street or sub-prime lending?
That's no operating system!
He's also Tweeted about a noodle dish called yakisoba and Japanese transportation systems. Andreas Antonopoulos, the CSO with Blockchain says, "He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
Sounds to me like he's just using Twitter the same way everyone else uses Twitter. Why does tweeting about yakisoba make him a remorseless narcissist? He may be that, but regardless Twitter isn't the best venue for heartfelt apologies. I bet he also failed to take responsibility for Mt Gox last time he sent a text or wrote a sticky note.
it's called your own damn twitter feed
Miners steal electricity from their gullible idiot employers, schools, universities, parents, municipalities to generate bitcoins. It's fine because if they didn't want me using their power for PURE PROFIT, they should have turned it off.
Magic The Gathering Online eXchange overlord steals Chuck-e-cheese Tokens from gullible idiots. It's not fine because they totally said we could trust them.
Bitcoin.
I'd be happy enough to tweet about busybox too if I had $400M in the bank.
I'm evil incarnate and I'm about to punish myself on behalf of the Twitterverse
Ok... I'm cutting. I'm slicing my wrists right now
That was pretty deep. Blood everywhere. Hard to type
I'm so sorry. Your virtual money went to virtual money heaven and it's all my fault.
Getting dizzy now. cant..... focus
keyboard so sticky
i dndt thk that woold hepeen we tried too stipthem and it
i'm sorry
Bitcoin is not a place one goes to enjoy the protections of traditional state issued currency and state regulated banking. Twitter is not a place one goes to find sincerity. Slashdot is not the place to indulge your fake outrage.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
CEO == "He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
riojqwoieh38923hr9823hrj - I declare this sequence of characters to be worth $400 million, as long as nobody else uses it. Is it worth $400 million? What if at least one other person agrees with me? Is it worth $400 million now? If you take it and use it, do you owe me $400 million?
Copying bitcoins is no different from copying any other non-creative work - not protected at all by anything. At worst, he breached contract. Since only ponzi speculators invest in bitcoins, I'm not too bothered if their contract rights aren't protected - primacy of contract is overrated.
So basically he's just a Wall Street bankster, but with Bitcoins.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Libertarian hipsters
This reads like it should be an Onion article. He's using Twitter for what it is typically used for -- self-absorbed useless posts. Why is anyone surprised? If they were all about how awesome his new $400 million yacht is, then I could see the issues. This is just that he came back to Twitter, and started using it normally.
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
Little old ladies, in civilized countries, typically have a revenue stream that will sustain them until their death. Meaning, unlike many other classes of people, they can afford to be robbed. Many young people, due to the wealth gap, need the money far more than the ladies do (they cannot afford not to rob). Furthermore, precisely since they are old and near death, they don't really need the money anyway (whereas the young people have long lives ahead of them and hence need the money more). Lastly, little old ladies tend to spend the money on stupid stuff like cute outfits for their pets, whereas young people are far more likely to spend the money either on necessities or (if they have enough) in some kind of investment that might yield a better future income.
So, really, it is in society's best interest that little old ladies be robbed by the youth.
Robbing investors, as Gox did, is an entirely different story, as the money he stole was from people who were trying to engage in the economy in a mutually-beneficial way, and who were depending on the returns for their livelihood, and who would (in most cases) have put the returns to good use. This is a moral outrage by comparison.
"He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
Or in other words, perfect executive management material.
I can't believe twitter re-hired him.
Bitcoins want to be free.
Bitcoin libre!
Down with U$D!
Andreas Antonopoulos, the CSO with Blockchain says, "He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
Ironic comment is ironic.
"Guy runs company in the ground. Seen spending money at the supermarket enraging people."
And yet here he is, on the front page, exactly where he wants to be. Why do you people give so much attention to sociopaths? Talk about feeding trolls...! He's there because you reward him. What makes him any different from the average politicians you vote for? You're all weird...
Legally speaking, theft requires denial of use. When someone copies a movie or song, they are not denying the owner use, so it isn't stealing (but it is copyright infringement, which is still illegal). With this bit coin fiasco, people who had acquired exclusive use rights over virtual property (the bitcoin) were denied that use (they cannot now exchange the bitcoins for which they paid).
So, it is stealing for bitcoin, but not stealing (only copyright infringement, which is different) for movies/videos.
This should not be difficult to understand.
I'm sure that users of cash and other forms of currency do not get scammed, do not get tricked, do not suffer fraud and do not lose the value of their currency of choice. Nope, perfectly safe.
And I'm sure that there are no users of cash and other forms of currency who expressly intended to cheat on taxes and hide other criminal financial transactions. Nope, all perfectly law abiding.
Oh, wait...
Lets not go overboard with the hyperbole here. All forms of convertible currency is exposed to risk.
The news that not every tweet is an insightful font of wisdom is old news.
Not true. I seriously doubt you can find anyone who is/was willing to buy all those bitcoins for $400 million. I also doubt anyone is/was willing to accept all those bitcoins in exchange for $400 million worth of physical goods.
Lets say for example I take a slug of tin and stamp it into many coins of my own making. Nobody is willing to give me anything for the coins except for my best friend, who is willing to pay me $1 for 1 coin. The true value of my coins would still be zero. You can't argue that based on that one exception, the coins I made is each worth $1.
"He continues to be oblivious about his own failure and the pain he has caused others. He is confirming that he is a self-absorbed narcissist with an inflated sense of self-confidence who has no remorse."
Breaking news....
CEO acts like a CEO
Stay tuned for more updates to this continuing story...
Strictly speaking, it is embezzlement
In other jurisdictions, this may be known as misappropriation.
Usually the burden of proof lies on the person you entrusted the property to (especially if it is a paid service) to explain what happened to it. If he can't/won't, you can invite the court to draw an adverse inference against him. Proving where it went is his problem.
This is a riot. Andy Popatopolis, the charred black pot, pointing violently at the kettle? It is to laugh.
Linux is not a religion. It is a collection of logic. Stop being stupid.
It is Twitter, not the international apology bulletin board.
If you are following this guy hoping he will say sorry and wire you part payments of bitcoins, then you have sadly misunderstood what Twitter is used for.
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
For fuck's sake, BusyBox is not an operating system. It's a collection of command-line utilities linked together in one big executable.
time to kill Karpeless and his relatives/family
He didn't actually do anything different to what every OTHER banker does every day...
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
It's kind of the purpose of the whole corporate system that companies can keel over and the people behind it can continue living their lives.
If you don't like it, tough luck, it's the world we live in, we wanted it this way.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
An apology footer in each tweet?
bickerdyke
The funny, though rather predictable, thing about the bitcoin faithful is that this did nothing to shake their faith in it. The problem, according to them, wasn't the lack of tracking, regulation, oversight, or any of that, no it was clearly that MtGox "did it wrong" and that this "makes bitcoin stronger" and so on.
They see this an as anomaly, not an inherent risk of their chosen currency. They have a poor understanding of economics. Same reason why they think BTC's built in deflation is a GOOD thing.
You hand some stranger your money, and he says I'll pay you back.
Then you get all pissed off when he doesn't.
Why were you giving thousands of dollars to some stranger?
You think!?..
Luckily for me I never kept many coins on Mt. Gox, so I only end up loosing a few grand, but all my coins were bought at extremely low prices back in the day so really, it was like losing about tree fiddy. I shouldn't make light of it like that but if you're going to play the game prepare to be burned a little or a lot, but that all depends on you. Sure, it's more convenient to store them on Mt. Gox, but it's also fucking stupid considering their track record.
1. Don't store on exchange sites.
2. Keep your wallet backed up with multiple copies on clean devices.
3. A completely clean locked down device when accessing your wallet and there's no reason not to, you can buy a pc dirt cheap these days.
4. Use a man in the middle wallet. "No not an actual person lol" For example - I'd get on my clean device send my coins to my other wallet turn off my clean, go back to my pc and log on a virtual machine and sell my coins, if receiving I do it in reverse.
5. My clean device is on a separate connection with no router and has no wireless hardware.
Everything I do is done is to mitigate damage if faced with a worst case scenario. There is a lot of malware out there that specifically targets btc only to help it stay hidden. They attack on popular sites using hit and run ad services which makes them extremely hard to detect and more often than not by the time you find out it's too late.
I feel bad for the people that lost so much, but I do not feel bad for anyone who knew about their track record and still decided to store them there. Seriously, you'd have to be fucking insane.
Here is a list of BTC heist over the years, take note of how many times Mt. Gox was involved.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83794.0#post_toc_21
People gambled and lost... What's the issue?
For who? The Sheeple who farmed pretend money that other people will trade real money for and when they put it in the Mt. Gox (unregulated in any way) bank, and it disappeared, they got upset?
'Tards - all of em.
"Oh man, you're still going on about that? I said I'm sorry, okay? Now let's drop it and move on."
(More seriously, though, my sympathy with the people who put their life savings into Bitcoin approaches zero.)
Hous that greed powered "society" going guys?
Having nice things already?
Can you idiots stop calling it "Mt. Gox" like it's some digital equivalent of Ft. Knox? It's MAGIC THE GATHERING ONLINE EXCHANGE. And always will be. That should have been everyone's first clue that bitcon was a scam, but true to slashdot form everyone ran around with their hands in the air proclaiming an end to the Fed and how anyone pointing out that bitcon was a CON "just didn't get it." And even AFTER the big scam collapsed the same people ran around telling everyone that "bitcon is great and fine, you're all just doing it wrong."
Boom crash you lose.
In my experience, that's what it means to be a CEO.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Another is that he's just moving on with his life...
Common Sense (+1)
So much confusion around that term these days, "operating system".
This is like saying, what OS do you use? bash, ksh, zsh, csh, or busybox?
Whatever, there are no bitcoin investors. only speculators.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/bitcoin-is-evil/?_r=1
Personally, I welcome a new editor overlord to Slashdot.
Have gnu, will travel.
No one lambasted the heads of ANY of the banks that lead to the economic collapse in 2008-2009, those people actually GOT BONUSES. Yet you get one nerd who loses 400mil and you lambaste him? Because he lost the money of people dumb enough to invest in bitcoin? Its called market risk. you lost.
When I was living in Tokyo, I heard a coworker complain about Chinese immigrants who, in Japan, have a reputation for tending toward criminal activity. He said that for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars you could pay one of the Chinese to kill someone.
Hyperbole or not, even in Japan, with its low murder rate, someone this careless with that much of other people's money is not bound for a happy ending.
Any idiot who dabbles in Bitcoins, loses their shirt & then whines about it is obviously a moron.