Official Gox / CoinLab Integration and Transition FAQ

[tvbcof]

i have a concern.

it has to do with CoinLab acting as an exchange AND as a broker for moneyed interests.  namely the Wall St guys who want to buy $1M blocks of BTC.

seems to me there might be a conflict of interest in buying that amount of BTC for big clients who might be willing to slip in a higher fee either on top of the table or under the table to obtain the very best price perhaps gotten thru an orchestrated dip? 

this would come at the expense of the smaller free marketing buyers and sellers who can't or won't pay the extra fee to do so.  or they might not even understand that that's an option.

'Free Market' bee-otch.  If you cannot stand the heat then stay out of the kitchen

[imanikin]

Perhaps it's time to move your coins away from MtGox at this point ?

Why would you ever leave bitcoins in an account somewhere instead of in a wallet under your exclusive control?

+1 I think it will be a fun and interesting time when the US.gov finally runs its USD off the cliff, has its giant credit card refused, and "nationalizes" CoinLab and maybe even MtG along with everyone's B there, under the pretense of the "War on Whatever", and "a threat to national security..." 

A lot of investors worldwide will be squealing, and will have mostly their own carelessness and lack of foresight to blame.

Will be a drama not to miss, IF/WHEN it happens! 

[Monster Tent]

Perhaps it's time to move your coins away from MtGox at this point ?

Why would you ever leave bitcoins in an account somewhere instead of in a wallet under your exclusive control?

+1 I think it will be a fun and interesting time when the US.gov finally runs its USD off the cliff, has its giant credit card refused, and "nationalizes" CoinLab and maybe even MtG along with everyone's B there, under the pretense of the "War on Whatever", and "a threat to national security..." 

A lot of investors worldwide will be squealing, and will have mostly their own carelessness and lack of foresight to blame.

Will be a drama not to miss, IF/WHEN it happens! 

All your bitcoin belong to us.

[Piper67]

Perhaps it's time to move your coins away from MtGox at this point ?

Why would you ever leave bitcoins in an account somewhere instead of in a wallet under your exclusive control?

+1 I think it will be a fun and interesting time when the US.gov finally runs its USD off the cliff, has its giant credit card refused, and "nationalizes" CoinLab and maybe even MtG along with everyone's B there, under the pretense of the "War on Whatever", and "a threat to national security..." 

A lot of investors worldwide will be squealing, and will have mostly their own carelessness and lack of foresight to blame.

Will be a drama not to miss, IF/WHEN it happens! 

All your bitcoin belong to us.

Not if I keep most of mine and only send to the exchange what/when I intend to trade.

[joecooin]

i'm not sure what country you live in, but since this new entity is going to be located in the USA, there are privacy laws in the USA that would prevent such information from being handed over w/o person's acknowledgement

Oh that's good to know .

Joe

[MagicalTux]

i'm not sure what country you live in, but since this new entity is going to be located in the USA, there are privacy laws in the USA that would prevent such information from being handed over w/o person's acknowledgement

Oh that's good to know .

Joe

Actually we have the same kind of laws in Japan, and no data will be handed over without approval.

[notig]

I think a lot of you guys are undervaluing this transition. The more bitcoin companies become integrated into the US economy and follow all the laws and regulations that are in place.... the more it protects bitcoin itself. If more and more companies use bitcoin in the US and fully comply with the laws there exists a legitimacy that didn't before. Right now the news only talks about silk road. It's better to have them talking about legitimate things. just my opinion

[solex]

Can't see this obviously spelled out elsewhere...

What about non-US, non-Canadian Mt.Gox customers, do their records and day-to-day interaction with MtG stay in Japan, or is everything moving to California...?

[tvbcof]

i'm not sure what country you live in, but since this new entity is going to be located in the USA, there are privacy laws in the USA that would prevent such information from being handed over w/o person's acknowledgement

Oh that's good to know .

Joe

Actually we have the same kind of laws in Japan, and no data will be handed over without approval.

Since your statement is a little bit vague, I'm going to continue to assume that Mt. Gox complies with most or all subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants and honors all gag orders which might accompany them.  Particularly if they come from Japan or a government with friendly relations to them.  Please feel free to disabuse me of this misconception if you feel inclined.

Assuming that the conversation is supposed to be taken to mean transfer of information except those outlined above, it's not the protection of my identity information while Mt. Gox remains a viable entity which bothers me so much as what happens should Mt. Gox shutter it's doors.

[dave111223]

So...the same guy who's the head of Bitcoin Foundation is the owner of Coinlab...?

Mtgox "pays" Bitcoin Foundation 10,000BTC to be a "platinum member"
Coinlab then does a deal with Mtgox to hand over a large percent of their operations to this US company?

Anyone else think that something smells a bit fishy here?  Conflict of interest to say the least.

[MagicalTux]

Can't see this obviously spelled out elsewhere...

What about non-US, non-Canadian Mt.Gox customers, do their records and day-to-day interaction with MtG stay in Japan, or is everything moving to California...?

Non-US/CA customers have no change at all. All data remains here.

Since your statement is a little bit vague, I'm going to continue to assume that Mt. Gox complies with most or all subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants and honors all gag orders which might accompany them.  Particularly if they come from Japan or a government with friendly relations to them.  Please feel free to disabuse me of this misconception if you feel inclined.

Assuming that the conversation is supposed to be taken to mean transfer of information except those outlined above, it's not the protection of my identity information while Mt. Gox remains a viable entity which bothers me so much as what happens should Mt. Gox shutter it's doors.

Japanese privacy laws are actually stronger than the one you may find in other countries (for example USA).

If you want to know more about our privacy policies, you may want to read them. Either way there is no way a company, no matter where it is located, would be able to go against an order from a court of its own country. This said, unless you are involved in some kind of fraudulent activity, there is little to no chances that your data would be ever the subject of a court order.

[tvbcof]

If you want to know more about our privacy policies, you may want to read them. Either way there is no way a company, no matter where it is located, would be able to go against an order from a court of its own country. This said, unless you are involved in some kind of fraudulent activity, there is little to no chances that your data would be ever the subject of a court order.

The general trend in the US is toward having the security apparatus hoover up more and more information, and keep it for longer periods of time.  Of this I am fairly confident.

I also expect that at some point involvement with Bitcoin in any way could well be considered 'fraudulent activity' for the purposes of obtaining data acquisition authorizations.

[MagicalTux]

The general trend in the US is toward having the security apparatus hoover up more and more information, and keep it for longer periods of time.  Of this I am fairly confident.

I also expect that at some point involvement with Bitcoin in any way could well be considered 'fraudulent activity' for the purposes of obtaining data acquisition authorizations.

If Bitcoin involvement is ever considered "fraudulent activity", it'd mean we have failed (not only MtGox, but Bitcoin as a whole).

I have faith in Bitcoin (and our legal advisers do too) and that's why I'm still here pushing for things to move in the right direction. If you believe you are doing something wrong just by the fact of using Bitcoin then let me know.

[Monster Tent]

If you want to know more about our privacy policies, you may want to read them. Either way there is no way a company, no matter where it is located, would be able to go against an order from a court of its own country. This said, unless you are involved in some kind of fraudulent activity, there is little to no chances that your data would be ever the subject of a court order.

The general trend in the US is toward having the security apparatus hoover up more and more information, and keep it for longer periods of time.  Of this I am fairly confident.

I also expect that at some point involvement with Bitcoin in any way could well be considered 'fraudulent activity' for the purposes of obtaining data acquisition authorizations.

Handing over 80% of the bitcoin users details certainly makes network analysis a whole lot easier. When combined with access to the bitcoin foundation database thats a massive data goldmine.

[tvbcof]

The general trend in the US is toward having the security apparatus hoover up more and more information, and keep it for longer periods of time.  Of this I am fairly confident.

I also expect that at some point involvement with Bitcoin in any way could well be considered 'fraudulent activity' for the purposes of obtaining data acquisition authorizations.

If Bitcoin involvement is ever considered "fraudulent activity", it'd mean we have failed (not only MtGox, but Bitcoin as a whole).

I have faith in Bitcoin (and our legal advisers do too) and that's why I'm still here pushing for things to move in the right direction. If you believe you are doing something wrong just by the fact of using Bitcoin then let me know.

'Failure' and 'success', while they sound mutually exclusive, are not at all so.  It just depends on one's perspective.  Same goes for 'right' and 'wrong'.

I'm doing nothing wrong with Bitcoin as far as I am concerned.  In fact I am doing not much of anything at all.  I bought a bunch through Tradehill and I'm now in the initial phases of figuring out how and when to cash in my chips.  I'm actually pretty excited about the developments on the CoinLab front to be honest.  They well could be a giant positive for me personally.  We'll see.

[MagicalTux]

Handing over 80% of the bitcoin users details certainly makes network analysis a whole lot easier. When combined with access to the bitcoin foundation database thats a massive data goldmine.

You're over-estimating the number of US customers, or under-estimating the rest of the world.

[solex]

Can't see this obviously spelled out elsewhere...

What about non-US, non-Canadian Mt.Gox customers, do their records and day-to-day interaction with MtG stay in Japan, or is everything moving to California...?

None-US and Canadian Mt.Gox customers stays and will stays at Mt.Gox in Japan. This partnership (we did not sell anything) is ONLY for North America in order to speed up things there and help to the development of Mt.Gox.

Thanks guys for the crystal-clear message. Much appreciated.

[Mt.Gox_Alex]

Handing over 80% of the bitcoin users details certainly makes network analysis a whole lot easier. When combined with access to the bitcoin foundation database thats a massive data goldmine.

You're over-estimating the number of US customers, or under-estimating the rest of the world.

I concur! While everything "started" there things are moving fast, very fast pretty much everywhere!

[flug]

So will my bitcoins be held in Japan or USA in a months time if I do nothing?

[dave111223]

Will the US government have the potential ability to immediately seize any of Mt Gox/Coinlab/Customers cash and/or bitcoins after this transition?

I take it that currently the US would have no jurisdiction to seize assets from a Japanese company, in Japan, but if those assets are now held in the US, by a US company does that not open up that kind of situation?

If the US government were to seize assets from Coinlab in the US, would Mt Gox still cover all customers' balances/deposits (including US customers)?