
Popcorn
It's becoming clear that this story's going to keep us entertained for a long while to come.
Staff at fallen Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox in Japan have claimed that they raised alarms about how the company was handling client funds as long ago as 2012, according to Reuters. In this report, the unnamed “current and former employees” of Mt Gox were concerned that “customer funds were diverted to cover operating costs” of the …
It is not buckingham palace mate, it is reality: cost of office, national insurance, company pension contributions, medical, employee insurance, etc. The overhead is nearly 50% before accounting for office space. If you take that into account ~ 60% is not an unfair guesstimate. That is ~ 100K per annum salary which is fairly average for the higher level IT in finance.
Assuming he meant gross instead of net that works out to $547,500/year if they're running with no holidays. Half for normal business costs gets you to $273,750. Whack another 20% for taxes and you're down to $219,000. If all you're doing is paying 2 employees, that's $109,500 gross per year. So well off but not millionaire either.
So far, I've generally felt that Bitcoin might just succeed. However, with these latest revelations I'm beginning to wonder if the apparent success of Bitcoin wasn't held up and fueled by false reports from Mt Gox. If that is indeed the case, we'll see a fall.
Still, there will be other cryptocurrencies to take it's place. My hopes are still up that eventually one of them will succeed.
MtGox isn't the be all and end all of Bitcoin, yes the value has dropped as a result of the shenanigans, but it was also dropping after the speculation bubble resulting from the US Senate hearings in early December. Bitcoin is still (for now) worth more than the peak this time last year from people trying to get their money out of Cyprus. Re:Next, there's probably in excess of 200 cryptocurrencies that have launched now, and around 50-60 are quite active (in terms of trading and mining), using half a dozen different algorithms, mainly to try and restrict the processing power arms race that Bitcoin (SHA-256) and scrypt-based coins are inspiring.
Other exchanges are available(TM), and you can get cash in or out of them in USD, roubles, euros and a few other currencies. Getting GBP out of Bitcoin is still a PITA though, if you've got serious money to move then you can afford the fees (€100+) and make a SEPA transaction to a UK bank (if you can find one that knows what SEPA is), otherwise you're better off finding a UK/EU merchant that takes BitPay or another PayPal-esque service, and buying physical goods with the currency.
Alternatively just hold onto your funds and see where it goes later in the year and into next year. Once a true use for one or another cryptocurrency is found, beyond the current limited market of speculation and mining for profit, then it may take off in a very real manner. Google and Facebook were non-entities 15 years ago, what will we say about cryptocurrencies in another 15 years.
>customer money was not being used to fund the business
Ponzi : new investors cover returns to previous investors.
This sounds like $s didn't even make it that far and stopped at flash cars for the CEO :)
Shipping souped-up Hondas from the UK to Japan - aren't they Japanese to begin with???
The Civic was discontinued in Japan recently, they weren't selling. Everyone there wanted a smaller Fit or more practical Honda Stream (which is a station wagon/van hybrid thing). They build Civics in at least two places that I know of, the hatchback version is built in Swindon in the the UK and the sedan is built in Alliston Canada. I think they also build them in Ohio and Brazil.
But, if you're in Japan you'd definitely want the UK version. They're both right-hand drive countries.
i sold 2000 or so bitcoins through gox between Feb and June 2012. the trading itself was kushti but there were some nerve-shredding delays when it came to wiring GBP back to the UK. it always turned up in the end but I remember on at least two occasions the delays and lack of explanation lead me to believe my money had gone missing.