Bitcoin? Mt.Gox in Serious Trouble

"You folks who think that Bitcon can somehow "replace" national currencies without the consent of the nations involved have rocks in your head." - Karl Denninger

This came to my mailbox a few hours ago from the grapevine:

[*** NEWSFLASH: In another demonstration that the United States is no longer the Land of the Free, the Department of Homeland Security has just seized the US bank accounts belonging to Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange. This certainly underscores the importance, once again, of diversifying internationally. ***]

This confirms the story:

Homeland Security seizes account of largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox

".......The warrant that DHS used to seize the funds in Mt. Gox’s Dwolla account has just been published, and it points to a significant problem with the service. As Ars Technica details, when Mt. Gox owner Mark Karpeles opened the Mutum Sigilum account with Wells Fargo, he was asked if Mutum Sigilum LLC was a business engaged in monetary services. From the warrant: 

The application asks several questions; to include, “Do you deal in or exchange currency for your customer?” and “Does your business accept funds from customers and send the funds based on customers’ instructions (Money Transmitter)?” Karpeles answered these questions “no,” indicating that Mutum Sigilum LLC does not deal in or exchange money, and that it does not send funds based on customer instructions. Money transmitting businesses are required by 31 USC section 5330 to register as such with FinCEN. According to FinCEN records on May 6, 2013, neither Mt. Gox nor the subsidiary, Mutum Sigilum LLC, is registered as a Money Service Business. 

Whoops."

Read the rest.

Oh, and please don't send me emails telling me that I don't understand how currencies work. It seems that the folks at Mt.Gox are the ones who need to study up in that area. (Disclaimer: I know that Mt.Gox is NOT Bitcoin, they are merely the biggest Bitcoin dealer in the world, handling 80% of all trades).

As Karl Denninger writes:

So you as a merchant want to take Bitcon, er, "Bitcoin", right? You want to put your money into this "currency" -- right? 

Um, you might want to think about that again: The Department of Homeland Security appears to have shut down the ability to use Dwolla, a mobile payment service, to withdraw and deposit money into Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin trading platform. A Dwolla representative confirmed the move to Betabeat. Chris Coyne, cofounder of OKCupid, posted a screenshot of an email he received from Dwolla, stating that due to recent orders from the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla cannot complete the bank transfer to Mt. Gox. 

Or FROM Mt. Gox. And by the way, this is not something that only the US govenrment can pull. Any government can and will do this as soon as it decides to. Without notice or recourse. Don't like it? That's nice. What do you intend to do about it? Whine on a mailing list or forum?...

...FACT: The only "rights" you have are those that you are willing to enforce by whatever means are necessary in favor of every citizen equally.  

Everything else is a privilege and privileges can be withdrawn at any time by the entity that granted them. Since the list of those rights that you, the sheeple, are willing to enforce is in fact the empty set because at best you demand claimed "rights" for yourself but you refuse to enforce them for everyone or even worse, you demand that government prohibit for others the same freedoms you demand for yourself, you in fact ownnothing, all the way up to and including your own body. 

That, by the way, includes so-called "money" you claim you "invested" in Bitcon. 

And..... it's gone.