Found it.
A group of Bitcoin entrepreneurs hoping to revive the bankrupt exchange Mt Gox has won backing for its controversial plan from a number of its creditors in the US, Canada and Europe.
The consortium, called Sunlot, is hoping that the additional support will raise the pressure on the Japanese bankruptcy authorities to halt the liquidation and transfer Mt Gox’s assets to new owners.
The plan has split the Bitcoin community, which is reeling from the collapse of the first and most prominent exchange for the virtual currency. Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in February and said that 850,000 Bitcoins were unaccounted for. It later revised the number to 650,000 after finding 200,000 Bitcoins in an old digital file.
A Japanese court appointed a liquidator this month, and customers have been warned that they may get back few or none of the Bitcoins that they entrusted to the exchange.
By offering to distribute the 200,000 rediscovered Bitcoins to Mt Gox customers and giving them a 16.5 per cent interest in a revived exchange, Sunlot said it would offer a better deal for creditors than liquidation.
For its part, Sunlot hopes to use a deal to become a large virtual currency exchange, since many of Mt Gox’s creditors would have a stake in using it.
Groups of creditors who are suing Mt Gox in the US and Canadian courts were on Monday night planning to file legal papers in support of Sunlot’s plan, saying that they would drop their lawsuits if the group was allowed to take control of Mt Gox.
Jed McCaleb, Mt Gox founder, and former marketing head Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, who were being sued, have signed on in support. Mark Karpelès, Mt Gox’s chief executive, has not.
The impact of the agreements on the bankruptcy proceedings in Dallas in the US and in Tokyo in Japan – where Mt Gox was based – will depend on whether bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi decides they give the consortium additional credibility.
Mr Kobayashi was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, a public holiday in Japan.
Sunlot member John Betts, who worked on electronic trading platforms for UBS, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, said: “This is a complex process and a unique situation, and we offer the best and most practical solution for the customers of Mt Gox and help to Mr Kobayashi in the challenges he faces representing their best interests.”
Sunlot’s other backers include entrepreneurs Brock Pierce and Jonathan Yantis, and venture capitalists William Quigley and Matthew Roszak.
The group first tried to take over the ailing exchange in February when it went offline and said that hackers had been attacking the company unnoticed over an extended period.
The idea has encountered both positive and negative reactions among the Bitcoin community, with many expressing suspicion over the motives of the group and concerns about transparency. Sunlot has launched a website, savegox.com, to drum up support.
