Bitcoin scolded, laughed at her, they arrogantly tried not to notice her, but until now it all happened in private, so to speak. Officials have never intervened in the fate of the first cryptocurrency.. Last week this day has come. United States took the initiative, arresting the accounts of the American branch of the largest exchange office in the bitcoin space, MtGox.
Call MtGox a Currency Exchange or Simple Exchanger, the essence is the same: this is a trading platform, visitors to which exchange bitcoins for dollars, euros, rubles and other currencies, and back at a free rate. Its popularity is so great, that almost two thirds of all daily transactions in the Bitcoin world are generated here, on MtGox. Founded in 2010 year and registered as a legal business in Japan (under the name Tibanne Ltd.), MtGox survived all sorts of things: there were break-ins, and technical difficulties, and stops for a "smoke break" due to excessive rate jumps, there were even legal claims from competing partners. But there has never been a problem with the authorities. And here it is. 17 May it became known, that in the American payment system Dwolla and Wells Fargo bank accounts belonging to MtGox were arrested.
Mark Karpels, CEO and President of MtGox. He rarely poses in front of the camera. (here: frame from an interview with Reuters), so relatively little is known about him. Talented - and, what is more important, practitioner - programmer, businessman, hard worker. Pay attention to the shape of the chairs: the trick of such a workplace is, что задремать на нём невозможно.
The operation was carried out by employees of the Department of Homeland Security (a kind of roof for the security services in the United States), arguing that MtGox did not have proper permission. Simply put, in MtGox (and, more precisely, its American unit, Dumb Seal LLC.) there is no license to provide a money transfer service. Unexpected interest of Vnubez (MtGox has been doing business in the USA for over a year) explained simply: a couple of months ago by a decision of another government agency, combating money laundering (FinCEN), digital currency exchange offices were included in the "money transmitters" category (предприятия, remittances), and this in turn imposes on them the obligation to obtain several appropriate licenses from federal and local authorities. Mutum Sigillum not only did not attend to registration, but worse than that, its owner, Mark Karpels (he is also the CEO and president of MtGox), was caught lying while signing an agreement with a bank (pier, I have nothing to do with the business of sending money). So now he faces five years in prison.
Карпельс — гражданин мира — едва ли напуган перспективой оказаться в американской тюрьме: his main business in Japan, he lives in Paris, and the States is visiting, seem to be, just out of interest. But for MtGox, everything is not so simple. As far as is known now, MtGox used Dwolla and Wells Fargo accounts for more than just US customers, but in general for all dollar activity on its site. As a result, deposit / withdrawal of funds in US dollars with MtGox is impossible or difficult for the second week already. (different information comes in).
It can be assumed, what to leave America (the most or one of the most active regions for MtGox) Karpels will not dare, which means it is not difficult to assume the further course of events. MtGox will receive the necessary licenses, после чего станет платить taxes и обеспечит прозрачность для правоохранительных органов, as a list access (at least) dollar transactions and mandatory disclosure of the identity of customers. Thus, the largest Bitcoin participant in the near future may greatly lose in attractiveness..
After a terrible jump in early spring, the Bitcoin exchange rate settled at the level 120 Dollars.
No panic happened, evidenced by the relatively stable exchange rate of BTC to the dollar. Let MtGox even leave the game altogether, other exchangers will take its place. Besides, even assuming, that the United States will put pressure on every BTC exchanger within its reach, we are still talking only about the prosecution for the transfer of dollars. Bitcoins are still not considered money even in the USA! Consequently, buying / paying for goods and services for bitcoins is completely legal, including in the USA. And in their related Canada and Great Britain, financial regulators even bothered to give explanations, that they do not intend to follow the example of their American colleagues and persuade bitcoin exchange offices to obtain licenses for operations with money.
What happened in the United States could even benefit Bitcoin. Ведь так же, how she made enemies among American lawmakers (someone has already called the cryptocurrency "online laundry for banknotes"), she must acquire and supporters. Business lobbyists will help lawmakers and ordinary people understand the benefits of Bitcoin, will push for the development of legal instruments for the legal connection of the uncontrolled bitcoin space and classic business instruments.
well, but for now the court is the case, found another candidate for the role of Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of the Bitcoin founder is no less a mystery, than the technical aspects of the cryptocurrency itself. Satoshi, as he called himself, brought together the knowledge accumulated over the past twenty years on cryptography and Internet money, wrote the engine of the first decentralized digital currency, launched it, donated the source code to the community and for some time participated in discussions with enthusiasts who joined the project. And then it evaporated, "Switching to other problems". But who is he?
Знакомьтесь: Motizuki Sinichi.
According to the last guess, это японец Мотизуки Синичи, professor of mathematics at Kyoto University, winner of several prestigious scientific awards and author of many works, it is not possible to translate the meaning of which into simple human language (it's only clear, that they somehow border on cryptography).
«Уличил» Мотизуки американец Теодор Нельсон — автор легендарного Проекта Xanaduи термина «гипертекст», which he conceived already in the 60s of the last century. As a matter of fact, Nelson's authority is the only, which gives weight to his guess about Mochizuki, because there is no direct evidence, and the arguments boil down to the fact that: and) Motizuki is a genius, b) tends to publish brilliant works on the web instead of scientific journals and does not require an award, in) strong in English. Well,, Motizuki doesn't know about his happiness yet, but, honestly, at least one other person meets the Nelson criteria.
