What people seem to assume is that Mt Gox's back story has any credence at all: even if they did start out as a genuine Magic the Gathering trading site that just so happened to end up as the biggest cryptocurrency exchange out there, the credibility of that transformation is missing a key step in the narrative. At some point, a very big fish in Japanese power broking got involved, they could not have got such a web platform (16 major currencies?) to where it is and continue it without that kind of cooperation. I'd be very concerned about Japanese regulatory investigations into Gox's business, but there have been precisely zero such forays, not even a hint. Whoever their backer is, they're significant members of the global political food chain. They're not letting their massive gamble of a venture go down in a hurry, or without a fight. I wonder exactly what sort of turbulence this outfit has really caused behind closed doors up until now.
Anyone who really believes this is just the natural evolution of a gaming card website is excruciatingly naive. It's not going away in the short term.
That is a hilarious example of classic conspiracy theorizing. As a rule, conspiracy theories must attribute a near-omnipotent amount of unchecked power to some supernaturally competent and all-knowing antagonist. Applying this to an outfit as clearly amateurish and out of their depth as the Mt Gox crew (bless them, I wish them well, but really...) is just laughable.
Presumably their long, documented history of very public mistakes, blatant security breaches, poor technical performance under pressure, operational front-end and interface that looks like it was hacked together by some version of Dreamweaver from the 90s, legal s&*tstorms involving seizure of huge chunks of operating revenue, and near strangulation by the financial industry today is all part of their master plan!
1. stumble ass-backwards into an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
2. f*&k up publically almost every step of the way, relying on the fact that you were first on the scene and have a near-monopoly to push you through your "growing pains"
3. fail to make even basic steps towards operational competency, run afoul of the U.S. government, have your millions of casually strewn-about millions of dollars in a sketchy online financial conduit service seized, and lose not just monopoly but your ability to provide the basic services of a market to most of your customers
4.
5. Profit!
Oh man, I have not laughed so hard in a long, long time.
