RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: The inside story behind the rise and fall of Mark Karpeles' Mt Gox bitcoin exchange Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:57 pm | |
| In June 2011, when customers of now-bankrupt bitcoin exchange Mt Gox agitated for proof that the Tokyo-based firm was still solvent after a hacking attack, chief executive officer Mark Karpeles turned to the comedy science fiction novel The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
During an online chat, Karpeles moved the equivalent of $US170 million in bitcoin at today's market rates - the virtual equivalent of a bank manager flashing a wad of cash in a wallet to establish credit. The gesture - with a sly wink to the "geek" culture Karpeles believed he shared with many of his 50,000 customers at the time, including an interest in coding, Japanese manga comics and science fiction - succeeded.
By moving 424,242 bitcoins, Karpeles, then 26, evoked the random number, 42, described as the "meaning of life" in Douglas Adams' sci-fi novel. "Don't come after me claiming we have no coins," Karpeles said, according to a transcript of that online discussion. "42 is the answer."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-inside-story-behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-mark-karpeles-mt-gox-bitcoin-exchange-20140421-36ztk.html#ixzz2zZn8mNTl |
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