Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Goes Offline, Joint Statement Issued

The famed Bitcoin exchange site known as Mt. Gox went AWOL (absent without leave). Trouble had been brewing for some time and as the story goes the site just vanished without a word from cyberspace.

The level of fraud and injustice to the users is simply unthinkable. Already there were signs all over the place. Bitcoin and Mt. Gox had been partners in crime and the full-fledged scandal erupted recently. 

Mt. Gox along with all its accoutrements just left behind a blank in the place of their website. While not all those concerned are guilty of this bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, it does seem that some are guiltier than others. In a joint statement given by several companies, to clear their name, the point was reiterated. 

The lost credibility will hardly get mended in a short span of time. It will take a lot of amends to gather the sympathies of the people again. The fact that there are bad apples among the rest of the normal variety and they spoil the whole bunch cannot be emphasized enough. 

The inside story remains just that…information known to insiders. There has been talk of a major theft that took place at Mt. Gox. The cyber-thieves siphoned off huge funds from the Bitcoin treasury stored away at the Mt. Gox exchange. This triggered the obvious problem of insolvency. 

“In order to re-establish the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox, responsible bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of bitcoin and the security of all customer funds,” according to a join statement on the Coinbase blog.

Now all this does not mean that there aren’t decent and responsible parties among the whole mix. That is the reason why these few companies issued the joint statement to clear their names from the list of the guilty. Among the ethically clean companies are included: Coinbase, Kraken, BitStamp, Circle and BTC China. 

The transparency of functioning that will be required means that Bitcoin dealers and possessors will have to show some critical custodial skills. The reparation process /4/take some time but that does not mean that it is an impossible task. Since Bitcoin is still in its nascent phase, it has a long way to go. 

The crises it must face along the journey are a natural yet difficult and ugly truth. As for the disappearance of 750,000 Bitcoins from the coffers of Mt. Gox, it is a problematic issue alright. Yet it is not exactly insurmountable since the culprits could be caught with a little effort on the part of the authorities.

Source: Matt Vukas, Coinbase Blog