Karpeles is as much at fault as his customers. I remember back in March 2013 there was some serious DDoSing happening to Mt. Gox (which they couldn't handle). I decided right then and there to take all of my funds out because I knew that if they were not competent enough to successfully stop a DDoS with the resources they had, then they clearly would fuck up at a later time. And the time has come.

Seriously... all of you people are acting like Bitcoin is the world reserve currency or something. This thing didn't even exist 4 years ago.

If you're gonna invest in something like Bitcoin, then you better know your shit; cause shit happens.

I'm with you on the first part, but I have a hard time believing that this was solely broken programming and ignorance. I think we are well into the territory of negligence, and I could well believe that we will eventually discover the sort of dubious behavior and/or outright fraud that accompany accidental ponzi schemes.

You may change your mind after reading some of his blog posts:

http://blog.magicaltux.net/2008/11/30/eve-online-pathfinder/

http://blog.magicaltux.net/2010/06/27/php-can-do-anything-wh...

Compelling evidence, but I'm not convinced yet. This could also be evidence for the sort of idiocy where people try to cover up for an accounting error though fraud.

> He deserves much worse than nasty internet comments.

Yeah, thanks for fanning the flames of a vigilante lynching in the making.

Don't be so melodramatic, nobody is literally being lynched.

Not yet (and because some people around here seem to be softer than melted butter, that's not a threat).

Now I'm usually a pretty cold-hearted bastard, and I'll admit that I had very little stake in MtGox (I never conducted any business there), but I sort of agree with the above. Yes, he probably deserves some Internet hate. The problem is that this Internet hate is not likely to be the full extent of the hate he'll get over this thing.

I, for one, hope that the dude hasn't fucked over the entire rest of his life.

Why would you assume violence? If he has covered up massive losses like this for a while but still taken deposits then he may be criminally liable.

That's too outcome oriented. Probably a less useful train of thought than focusing on the motivations, victories, and failures along the way to the outcome.

> There are plenty of entrepreneurs on HN alone who given the resources Gox had could manage to not (unknowingly) lose half a billion dollars due to broken programming in the timespan that Gox did.

Easy to say. Nobody sets out to fail.

... they didn't lose half a billion dollars.

Well, that's pretty cruel of you.