Mt. Gox Ex-CEO's Bid To Rewrite Bitcoin Code Rejected In 17 Hours

Mark Karpelès, former CEO of Mt. Gox, attempted to rewrite Bitcoin's code to recover $5 billion in stolen funds. He submitted a pull request to Bitcoin Core proposing a hard fork that would redirect 79,956 BTC frozen at a single address since 2011 to a Mt. Gox trustee recovery address.

The proposal was rejected within 17 hours by the community, citing procedural reasons and substantive objections. Karpelès listed the theft as unambiguous and the coins having not moved in 15 years, but creditors rejected the proposal publicly.

Bitcoin Core contributors noted that Karpelès should have opened a discussion on the Bitcoin development mailing list before submitting code, and formally proposed a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. The core argument against the proposal was that rewriting consensus rules for one specific group sets a precedent for future exceptions, potentially allowing for confiscation of funds.