Just a few days ago, it was reported that American investors were hoping to acquire and revive disgraced bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox for one bitcoin (saying they would later relaunch and repay investors).
This morning, we’re getting some more information on the topic via the Wall Street Journal. According to John Betts from Sunlot Holdings (one of the investors involved with the proposed acquisition), creditors who owned over 70 percent of the bitcoins stored on the Tokyo-based exchange are in support of the idea to revive the operation.
That, of course, must first be approved by a bankruptcy court in Japan. And with recent news that Mt. Gox would be trashing plans to rehabilitate and moving to liquidation (due to troubles consulting with more than 127,000 of its creditors around the globe), it’s unclear as to whether or not this idea will materialize.
The Wall Street Journal report notes that three other investors involved with Sunlot holdings — Brock Pierce, Matthew Roszak, and William Quigley — have agreed to purchase a 12 percent stake in the company from Jed McCaleb, the man who created Mt. Gox. He sold the exchange (which was first designed to allow players of the “Magic: The Gathering” playing card game to trade cards with others) to Mark Karpeles in 2011.
But why all the effort to save an exchange that very few will trust moving forward?
“This is about bitcoin and preserving the value of the bitcoin ecosystem,” said Betts. “This is our collective opportunity to demonstrate the commitment of [the bitcoin] community, that we don’t need government bailouts and that the community is self-healing.”
“We are prepared to invest heavily in this business once we have conducted a full accounting of MtGox’s assets and legal liabilities,” the investors wrote on a newly-set-up website that outlines their plan at SaveGox.com.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] Wall Street Journal