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.

I Must Be Bitcoin's Bad Luck Charm!

I guess I must be bad luck for Bitcoin and MtGox, Bitcoin's biggest dealer...

Anytime I have anything to do with Bitcoin, the next day, they get bad luck.

I wrote an article for Lew Rockwell on April 9th (that was posted on April 11th at 9pm Pacific Time) entitled The Bashful Bitcoin Numismatist and guess what?  Bitcoin crashed late that next day on April 12th, falling about 70%! Please refer to: So, Bitcoin Crashed. Now What?

Well, the other day, I was offered another US TV news interview and asked to discuss Bitcoin and gold. Of course, being a media-hog, I said, "Yes! I wanna be on TV!" and jumped on the chance.

My Bitcoin

So, being a diligent reporter, I figured that I'd get the scoop on Bitcoin; and since MtGox is only 25 minutes or so from my house, door-to-door, I thought I'd mosey on over there and have a chat. So, I sent them an email. 

Here is what my email said:

From: Mike in Tokyo Rogers, May 06 14:38 (Japan Standard Time): (This is May 5th, Sunday in the USA - Mike)

Hi Folks, 
My name is Mike (I go by Mike in Tokyo Rogers) and I have been a regular columnist for Lew Rockwell since 2004. I also sometimes do TV interviews with stations all over the world and on this Thursday at 4 am Japan time, I will be interviewed for WHDT TV with Gary Franchi host (Watch this station for free online here: http://usmediavault.com/stream.php). We would like to discuss Bitcoin and gold. I'd like to come by your offices for a 30 minute chat if you have time. Maybe take some photos. 

Be forewarned I am a sort of skeptic (but Lew Rockwell is not, as you know)... Trust I don't come there to grill you guys, I am a humorist at heart and would just like to report more or less about what the commotion is all about. I do not want to damage, nor promote your business. 

I am hoping that you guys can convince me to convince the viewers how great of a thing Bitcoin can be. Anyway, to be fair, I did write a humorous article about Bitcoin that Lew ran a few weeks ago: http://lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers259.html After that, Lew ran a blog post that was very supportive of Bitcoin. That was a good influence on me. 

I'm not sold, but I'm not against. Anything that gets people off the state grid is fine by me. As a true Anarchist (and humorist) I am happy to have people use whatever medium of exchange they wish. Far be it from me to decide what people should or should not do. 

Whaddya say? Give me 30 minutes and show me around your business? I hope so. I have time tomorrow (Tues) or Wed. I live in Futakotamagawa. - Best! Mike

To this, the good folks at MtGox wrote back to me:

From: Marcus, May 06 14:57 (JST): Hi,  Thank you for your email. We have forwarded this to PR team for consideration and our PR team will contact you.  Thanks,  MtGox.com Team

Well, that was yesterday... And, like I said, I must be bad luck for these folks. For one, they haven't bothered to call me. You'd think that if they truly were believers in their Bitcoin, they'd be happy to promote and tell the world about it on TV and on Lew Rockwell, but I guess not. 

Or maybe they have their hands full with a ship that could be sinking... Why do I say this? Well, this morning I saw this news and I'm sure this is terrible for MtGox:

CoinLab Files $75 Million Lawsuit Against MtGox

Last week, CoinLab, a US based startup that got attention last month for being the first venture funded Bitcoin firm, announced that they were suing MtGox for $75 million due to breach of contact. The lawsuit stems back to a partnership that was agreed between the two firms in February. Under the terms of the deal, MtGox, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, which accounts for over 70% of total daily volumes being conducted through its trading venue, had granted CoinLab as its exclusive partner in the US and Canada. In its case against MtGox, CoinLab is claiming that the exchange failed to provide data in regards to existing clients. Additionally, they accuse MtGox of continuing to market in the US and Canada, and failing to abide by their revenue share agreement; thereby breaching the partnership agreement between the two firms. According to CoinLab CEO, Peter Vessenes in his statement to clients, “what tipped us into filing the lawsuit was our complete inability to get MtGox to deliver on the few simple things left that were needed for customers to move over en-masse; we were often left just apologizing to our alpha customers while their own businesses suffered. I’m just not willing to put any of our customers in that position – if we can’t do a good job for you, I won’t promise that we can.”

See? If I even think about Bitcoin, something bad happens to them the next day! I guess the sh*t is hitting the fan right now at MtGox and if they (allegedly) can't even keep their promises to their strategic partners, I guess calling back Mike Rogers is asking a lot. Especially since, as I mentioned, I am a skeptic and an interview with me might be risky business and just asking to be railed on.... In a humorous way, of course.