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Comment by ckastner | Hacker News Reader

> but I don’t believe imprisonment would serve any meaningful purpose

Sure it would! It would serve as a deterrent. Some people shouldn't be handling hundreds of millions of USD.

Karpeles' operation wasn't just unprofessional finance, it was a complete shit-show. The court should have sent the message to others to not attempt something as complicated and risk-laden as operating a financial exchange without even the slightest bit of know-how necessary to do that.

Startup culture can be great, but it's amazingly dangerous when operating certain trades or industries.

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> Sure it would! It would serve as a deterrent. Some people shouldn't be handling hundreds of millions of USD.

I don't think Mark ever expected to handle that kind of money. It just sort of happened. One of the things usually needed to prove a crime was committed was that there was the intent to commit it.

> Startup culture can be great, but it's amazingly dangerous when operating certain trades or industries.

Mark's about the furthest thing from a startup bro. Honestly, I got the vibe he started MtGox as a hobby that happened to make money. A lot of it doesn't make sense from a business planning standpoint. Bet you didn't know the parent company of MtGox was named after his cat and served as a hosting company and domain registrar. He's a gentoo nerd that had a pet project win the lottery. There's far more to question about what the exchange had happen before he took it over, but I suppose jed won't talk about that.

To be fair though the year he spent in jail probably added some years to his life. While I doubt it was great for his mental health, it did wonders for getting his weight under control.

> Honestly, I got the vibe he started MtGox as a hobby that happened to make money.

Mtgox was started by Jed McCaleb. He essentially gave it away for free to Karpeles when he realized that he was in over his head. It seems he was already losing money running mtgox and just wanted to get rid of it.

https://hackernoon.com/mt-gox-interviews-jed-mccaleb-on-the-...

> I don't think Mark ever expected to handle that kind of money. It just sort of happened.

That is probably true, and I wouldn't expect anyone to stand in the way of something that they had created and that developed such a momentum. How could one!

What I would expect, however, is (1) that person to recognize this momentum, (2) to recognize that this momentum is way above the person's head, and (3) to rent or hire the know-how necessary to deal with this.

IT Security consultants, legal experts, people with experience in running exchange systems, etc.

> One of the things usually needed to prove a crime was committed was that there was the intent to commit it.

There's no question of that, as the court found that he had tampered with accounts and manipulated records to hide losses.

I actually met Mark once, on the very day that it was reported here on HN that Mt. Gox had been breached. This was a couple of years before the melt-down.

I had read the story here and, having just a little experience of Financial systems (nowhere near enough) I offered to help.

Mark took my meeting on that day because, in retrospect, he was likely looking for a Hail Mary. Perhaps hoping for a ransom demand.

He was at least smart enough to know I wasn't it. Nevertheless, if there had been good options, as you seem to suppose, I very much doubt he'd have taken my meeting.

Mark was in over his head, even then. And that tsunami just kept on rolling in. I wish him well.

You seem to be describing premeditation. Criminal intent just means that you didn’t do it by accident. Did Karpeles ever knowingly misstate Mt. Gox’s bitcoin holdings? That’s intent, even if he never meant to be responsible for so much money.

Tux has really slimmed up for sure. Let's be honest and say Jed's the real Teflon Don MVP unloading the MtGox shitshow on Mark, doing the ripple thing, selling that chainless shitcoin to banks and rinsing and repeating again with Stellar.

-otc bro high-five

>It would serve as a deterrent.
This argument has never worked in the history of ever. The examples from history are far too numerous to list but if you really must need an example, the War on Drugs would serve that purpose.

With apologies for source amnesia, I've read that successful deterrence scales not with severity of punishment, but with perceived probability of getting caught.

> Some people shouldn't be handling hundreds of millions of USD.
Yes, but deterrents don't work if you don't expect to handle hundreds of millions. And I don't believe he did expect to handle hundreds of millions. Nobody did. Bitcoin just... did that.

They did send a message, they convicted him.
Plus, the guy already spent a year in jail prior to the trial .

The fact he is not capable of handling millions of dollars isn't his fault, nor should he be punished for it.
It is the fault of the law and the regulators, or of the users for not being aware that the law and the regulators were not on top of it.

> Sure it would! It would serve as a deterrent.
I'd like to see any studies to back up this theory.

> a financial exchange
as far as i understand Mt Gox wasn't a financial exchange, it was a marketplace for non-financial stuff like for example Magic cards and cryptocurrencies. People putting hundreds of millions of real money into a virtual goods traded at a place not registered with SEC have only themselves to blame.

MTGOX-USD codes were about as liquid as you could get 7-8 years ago.

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