With all the wild theories running around about some of the personalities tangentially involved in the Mt. Gox story, sight is being completely lost of the fact that the company's depositors admittedly no longer have access to:
- 650,000 BTC
- $27,000,000 in bank deposits
That amounts to a value of a few trillion Japanese Yen.Since bitcoin is relatively new and is operated by a decentralized authority, unlike government issued currencies, there are no established forums in order to demand restitution from those responsible for causing this problem. None of the stories about the transaction malleability bug in Gox's software or any "weakness in the system" seem very convincing upon close examination. The most credible explanations are theft by an insider and/or seizure and gag order by some unknown government agency (possibly U.S. or Japanese).
The Japanese bankruptcy court seems poised to do little more than liquidate whatever Mt. Gox assets can be easily located.
Anyone can file a motion with a court, or a law suit demanding an accounting of their funds. This would be a great opportunity for one or more lawyers to step forward and provide a fill-in-the-forms motion, or complaint, or whatever legal form is appropriate, and help the public obtain the return of their funds. Should enough people pile on and demand some action through the legal system, perhaps there will be a lot less stone-walling. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!
