Most cryptocurrency users are familiar with the name Mark Karpeles. He is the former CEO of Mt. Gox, the exchange which went bust several years ago due to a hack. It now seems Karpeles has given up all hope when it comes to Bitcoin, as he is no longer a believer in this cryptocurrency.
Even though Mark Karpeles is not the most popular person in the cryptocurrency industry, his opinions are still worth noting. While most people would rather see him incarcerated for the rest of his life due to the Mt. Gox fiasco, it seems his involvement may have been somewhat limited after all. That is what he claims, at least, although we may never know the full truth in this regard.
What is rather interesting is that Karpeles sees no bright future for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He does acknowledge the underpinning technology – known as blockchain – is here to stay, but claims that cryptocurrencies themselves are unable to keep evolving. It is certainly true that Bitcoin has had its fair share of scaling issues over the years, but things are slowly improving in this regard.
It appears Karpeles is hopping on the blockchain bandwagon. Financial experts have condemned Bitcoin’s lack of evolution for some time now, yet they all seem certain that blockchain technology will succeed. One doesn’t need cryptocurrencies to use blockchains, but it is evident this new form of money also poses some interesting opportunities.
As of right now, it seems Karpeles doesn’t own any Bitcoin. While that may not come as a big surprise, it is still somewhat remarkable. He also considers Ethereum, a major Bitcoin rival, to be “untested” for serious use. In recent months, its smart contract technology has been shown to be vulnerable to issues, although that is mainly due to the lack of third-party audits before pushing the code live.
The comments by Karpeles certainly come at an interesting time for cryptocurrency. With all prices crashing by 40% and more this year, faith in Bitcoin is dwindling. Additionally, the Mt. Gox trustee recently decided to liquidate some of the company’s owed assets on the open market, which also helped push the Bitcoin price down. It is evident there are forces at work to push the Bitcoin price down even further, even though Wall Street is moving in on cryptocurrencies as we speak.
All of this shows the future of cryptocurrency remains uncertain. Although few people care about how Karpeles feels about Bitcoin, his position is quite similar to that of other Bitcoin veterans. This year has shown zero positive momentum, even though there is good news to take into account. With retailers slowly embracing BTC again and scaling solutions on the horizon, something will have to give sooner or later. For now, things remain at the status quo, which may be a prelude to bigger and better things.
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