Mark Karpeles’ statements infuriate the Bitcoin community

The CEO of Mt. Gox can’t seem to catch a break, probably because he keeps solely blaming Bitcoin and its transaction malleability “flaw” to explain all the problems that are still affecting the exchange.

While all the other exchanges have already implemented the necessary fixes released during the last week by the cryptocurrency core developers, the Tokyo-based company is still inactive when it comes to process the clients’ withdrawals and more information is only expected on Thursday (20), according to Mt. Gox’s latest statement.

Meanwhile, the exchange’s CEO, Mark Karpeles, talked to the Wall Street Journal: far from calming down the community’s flared tempers, he confirmed that it was all Bitcoin’s fault.

“We sincerely apologize for this incident; however, please understand that we are not the developers of Bitcoin. We are very surprised that anyone could fault Mt. Gox instead of the Bitcoin software“, he said, causing a wave of criticism on social media.

Here are some reactions to Karpeles’ statement that were posted on Reddit.

What a scumbag. He effectively damaged the reputation of Bitcoin with that statement. And thousands of people will read that.

‘FT_clox_metoo’

Mark keeps spewing his bullshit because not enough people are loudly pointing out that he is a complete idiot. At this point Mt.Gox is damaging Bitcoin more than it is helping, it needs to be seen as the exchange that is no longer used and we should make sure that all new people to Bitcoin know not to use it.

‘OrderAmongChaos’

This statement is even more evidence of their negligence. Anyone can be a developer of Bitcoin, so should it not stand to reason that the (formerly) largest and most influential business in the industry should have its own in-house developers dedicated to developing the protocol and helping to ensure that their code is airtight?

‘mlaw1975’

This is market manipulation. He’s using his position to further depress the value of BTC. Come to think of it, this isn’t the first time MtGox causes BTC to drop. He’s back to his old game.

‘jdk’

The audacity of him to try to throw Bitcoin under the bus. Guess what, Mark: Bitcoin is far, far bigger than yourself and your ego. I can’t fathom that someone would try to discredit the technology that represents such a monumental paradigm shift for the better, all for the sake of avoiding blame.

‘DiscerningDuck’

The crisis keeps pushing Bitcoin’s price further down at Mt. Gox, as the exchange’s website is still depicting a value around $250. The price has actually decreased $50 when compared to the value registered this Monday (17).

The recent turmoil has also led a lot of users to consider that Mt. Gox could be suffering pressure from the Japanese authorities due to its connection with cryptocurrency. However, Karpeles also told the WSJ that he previously discussed the business model with the local authorities to ensure that the company is “operating within the law here”.