Karpeles blames lack of funding opportunity in Japan for security lapses, continues work at Tibanne

by Leon Pick
Karpeles blames lack of funding opportunity in Japan for security lapses, continues work at Tibanne

Former MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles has spoken again, this time to IDG News, according to PC World. Save for an interview with Wall Street Journal and some random Twitter activity, Karpeles has kept a low profile since his exchange collapsed.

He agreed to discuss only "in general terms what happened at the company, the police investigation into it and other litigation involving him."

It does appear that the reports of Karpeles running a web/server Hosting business have merit. His company Tibanne, the legal entity behind MtGox, is the business and has 13 employees. A subsidiary called Shade3D specializes in graphics editing software and has 10 employees.

Karpeles says that he's "been trying to keep Tibanne and Shade3D running well so we can maybe assist with the Mt. Gox bankruptcy."

He also argued that had his company been located in the US, he would have had access to far more capital to invest in vital security infrastructure. This would have made a catastrophic hacking less likely. He added that Japan's vague policies on digital currencies didn't help either.

He found the auditing of cold wallets to be risky: "Each time you want to check the balance of a cold wallet, you’re making it less cold."

As touched upon in his WSJ discussion, he's working on a best practices document on Bitcoin security which he would share with anyone willing to consider his ideas. Without significant investment in security, "most likely we’re going to see more companies getting hacked, or bitcoin being stolen."

He took it a step further, saying Bitcoin would benefit from a central bank of sorts organized by merchants accepting it. It would function as a Clearing House for transactions and implement secure storage.

Former MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles has spoken again, this time to IDG News, according to PC World. Save for an interview with Wall Street Journal and some random Twitter activity, Karpeles has kept a low profile since his exchange collapsed.

He agreed to discuss only "in general terms what happened at the company, the police investigation into it and other litigation involving him."

It does appear that the reports of Karpeles running a web/server Hosting business have merit. His company Tibanne, the legal entity behind MtGox, is the business and has 13 employees. A subsidiary called Shade3D specializes in graphics editing software and has 10 employees.

Karpeles says that he's "been trying to keep Tibanne and Shade3D running well so we can maybe assist with the Mt. Gox bankruptcy."

He also argued that had his company been located in the US, he would have had access to far more capital to invest in vital security infrastructure. This would have made a catastrophic hacking less likely. He added that Japan's vague policies on digital currencies didn't help either.

He found the auditing of cold wallets to be risky: "Each time you want to check the balance of a cold wallet, you’re making it less cold."

As touched upon in his WSJ discussion, he's working on a best practices document on Bitcoin security which he would share with anyone willing to consider his ideas. Without significant investment in security, "most likely we’re going to see more companies getting hacked, or bitcoin being stolen."

He took it a step further, saying Bitcoin would benefit from a central bank of sorts organized by merchants accepting it. It would function as a Clearing House for transactions and implement secure storage.

About the Author: Leon Pick
Leon  Pick
  • 1998 Articles
  • 5 Followers
About the Author: Leon Pick
  • 1998 Articles
  • 5 Followers

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