Blockchain Sleuth Kim Nilsson on the Mt. Gox Saga

In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Kim Nilsson, a former user of the oldest (and long defunct) Mt. Gox crypto exchange. Nilsson has investigated the infamous crypto theft and has been watching the effort to repay the exchange’s creditors.

When Mt. Gox stopped functioning and filed for bankruptcy, Nilsson didn’t just sit back and see what happened. He set up his own bitcoin node, coded software and tracked the stolen bitcoin to where it landed. He’s also been an active member of the Mt. Gox creditor community over the years.

Nilsson explains why it takes so long to resolve all the seven-year-old situations, why most of the creditors are still holding on to their claims (instead of selling them) and what’s next for those who have been waiting for repayment since 2014.

We also asked him to chat with us about the most interesting global crypto stories of last week. That was fun!

For example, Canadian exchange Coinsquare was obliged by a federal court in Canada to disclose data on some of its 20,000 users to the national tax agency, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The taxman is knocking on crypto exchanges’ doors, and that, Nilsson believes, is basically the end of privacy in crypto.

The rumor mill is working overtime in India: Will the nation ban all cryptocurrencies? Start blocking IP addresses of crypto exchanges? Maybe, maybe not. India is a big economy with a young and crypto-curious population, so the threat of crypto regulation has resounded.

Meanwhile in Turkey, the national currency, the lira, is tanking, and people are buying bitcoin to protect their savings. There are neither regulations nor a specific tax on crypto in the country, and the interest in bitcoin is surging in the time of fiscal uncertainty.

Stories mentioned in this episode:

• WSJ: The Man Who Solved Bitcoin’s Most Notorious Heist
• CoinDesk: Mt. Gox
• CoinDesk: Mt. Gox Creditors to Vote on Draft Rehabilitation Plan
• CoinDesk: Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Ordered to Hand Thousands of Customers’ Records to Canadian Tax Agency
• CoinDesk: Crypto Is Not Regulated in Turkey, and It’s Thriving
• CoinDesk: India May Block IP Addresses of Crypto Exchanges: Report

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