Bitcoin Week: MtGox Bankrupt, Bitcoin Foundation, Winkdex, Ben Lawsky
Here are the top stories from this past week in Bitcoin, and we have something new! Watch @BitcoinLeah deliver the Bitcoin Week update in the video below.
It’s been a trying week for the Bitcoin community.
Mt. Gox is effectively dead and has now filed for bankruptcy protection.
As of February 24th, MtGox, The Japan-based Bitcoin exchange that once served 80% of the liquidity for Bitcoin, has disabled trading, taken its website offline, and rumors abound of insolvency.
A group of up and coming Bitcoin companies has issued a joint statement regarding MtGox. The memo was signed by Coinbase, Blockchain.info, Circle, Kraken, Bitstamp, and BTC China.
“This tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt.Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of bitcoin and the digital currency industry. There are hundreds of trustworthy and responsible companies involved in bitcoin. These companies will continue to build the future of money by making bitcoin more secure and easy to use for consumers and merchants.”
MtGox CEO has resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation board.
Erik Voorhees, a respected Bitcoin entrepreneur, who created SatoshiDice and now runs Coinapult, shared his views about the collapse of MtGox in an impassioned letter to the Bitcoin community.
“We are building a new financial order, and those of us building it, investing in it, and growing it, will pay the price of bringing it to the world. This is the harsh truth. We are building the channels, the bridges, and the towers of tomorrow’s finance, and we put ourselves at risk in doing so.”
Will O’Brien, CEO of BitGo, published a 2,000-word essay this week entitled “With MtGox Effectively Dead, Bitcoin Officially Enters Its Third Stage of Evolution” in which he described how “we are seeing the beginning of a new, more secure and more robust, future for digital currency” where the next generation of exchanges and companies will be built by veteran entrepreneurs and designed to scale.
In more positive Bitcoin news, eBay CEO hints that PayPal is building a digital wallet that will support Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The Bitcoin Foundation announced an election for a board seat following Charlie Shrem’s resignation.
The Winklevoss twins launched the Winkdex. The website states that the Winkdex is “a pioneering effort in the analysis and presentation of global bitcoin pricing and currently uses data from the most active qualified U.S. dollar denominated bitcoin exchanges.”
Finally, Ben Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services for the State of New York, did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit on how the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is doing on oversight rules for virtual currency firms. The discussion focused primarily on how to prevent money laundering while allowing room for innovation within the USA.
Lawksy stated, “My hope is that if we can get appropriate guardrails in place to prevent money laundering, we can take a deep breath and really focus on trying to ensure that virtual currency firms flourish and continue to develop and innovate. I’m very excited about what the future could hold for this very powerful technology.”
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