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株式会社BITOCEAN
代表取締役　蒲　彦

今般、株式会社BITOCEAN（本店：東京都江東区南砂二丁目36番11号プライムタワー東陽町8Ｆ。以下、「当社」といいます。）は、Madison Holdings Group Limitedと資本・業務提携を行うこととなり、それに伴って株主が変更することになりましたので、お知らせいたします。

記

▪️  背景・目的

新たに当社と資本・業務提携を行うことになりましたMadison Holdings Group Limitedは、香港証券取引所に上場しており、子会社等を通じてワインの卸売り・小売りと並び、仮想通貨関連事業を事業の柱として営む企業です。同社は特に近年、仮想通貨マイニングビジネスに特化した企業の買収を行うなど、仮想通貨ビジネスへの投資に注力しており、仮想通貨ビジネスを支援する資金力と専門的知見を兼ね備えております。

Madison Holdings Group Limited の子会社であるMadison Lab Limitedからは、今後、資金面、人材面、ノウハウ面での包括的な支援を受ける予定です。当社といたしましては、今般の資本・業務提携が内部管理態勢の一層の整備、ひいては当社ATM事業の維持拡大に寄与すると判断いたしました。

▪️  経営体制

今般の資本・業務提携に伴い、新たに数名の取締役・監査役を追加で選任する予定です。当社は、今般の資本・業務提携に伴い、仮想通貨ないし証券取引に関する知見に富んだ人材を積極的に登用することで、より効率的な業務執行・監視体制を構築してまいります。

▪️  株式の異動

異動日　2019年1月11日（金）

▪️  今後の取り組み方針

お客様に便利、かつ安心してご利用いただけるサービスの提供を今後も目指してまいります。何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます。

（本件に関するお問い合わせ先）
代表取締役　　蒲　彦
代表電話番号　03-6666-9037

2018年7月5日

BitoceanATM-20171212 from Pu Yan on Vimeo.

You can now check BTC price on google

That’s probably for a good reason. On an as-yet-unofficial basis, the company is known to be interested in backing its own team in Japan to put Gox back on its feet and take some steps towards making creditors whole.

OKCoin CEO Star Xu told CoinDesk during a recent interview in Beijing that the idea had been suggested to him by some Japan-based friends, and that he personally thought resurrecting the once-dominant exchange and attempting to return its customers’ funds was important to the entire bitcoin community.

He also added it would be a lengthy process that could take years to realise.

OKCoin says it is not considering a direct takeover of Mt. Gox, but rather it wants to leverage its experience by licencing exchange and security technology under a new team that would possibly feature some OKCoin personnel.

Also involved is another Chinese company, BitOcean, which is already partneringwith OKCoin to produce the first home-grown bitcoin ATMs for both the domestic and international markets.

Mt. Gox proposal

OKCoin/BitOcean’s new plan would feature an immediate audit of Mt. Gox’s bitcoin and fiat currency reserves, a debt-equity swap in a new business entity for all creditors and the ability for users to begin withdrawing funds from day one.

The plan, according to people involved, was designed from the beginning to favour redress for Mt. Gox’s customers – some of whom saw up to six- and seven-figure fiat-value balances simply vanish when Gox suddenly ceased all operations in February.

CEO Mark Karpeles has claimed Mt. Gox lost the majority of its bitcoins in hacks related to the ‘transaction malleability‘ issue in bitcoin’s protocol, although bitcoincore developers and other researchers have claimed this is not credible. It also does not explain what happened to the millions in dollar, euro and Japanese yen balances also stored at the exchange.

Lack of reliable and independent information regarding Mt. Gox’s exact financial history and current situation is hampering attempts to find a solution attractive to creditors, as well as debate over whether such a solution is even possible.

The only funds known to exist at this stage are the 200,000 bitcoins the exchange said were found “in an old format wallet” in March.

Rescue vs liquidation

Rival rescue group Sunlot Holdings, which runs the SaveGox.com website, is trying to prevent the planned liquidation that would see Mt. Gox shut down completely and its assets sold.

Even that process could take years, with any remaining bitcoins treated as assets and sold at market rates before eventually being returned to former customers at some stage in the future.

At this stage any decision regarding liquidation or rescue plans rests with the bankruptcy trustee appointed by the Tokyo District Court, Nobuaki Kobayashi. Kobayashi has not yet indicated whether he favours a resurrection of Mt. Gox at all.

He posted an updated notice about bankruptcy proceedings on the exchange’s homepage on 21st May, stating that a creditors’ meeting “for reporting on the status of the assets” would take place in Tokyo on 23rd July. The deadline for filing bankruptcy claims is 28th November, and a final decision will be made on 25th February 2015.

Court rejects CoinLab’s block

CoinLab, a former Mt. Gox business partner still engaged in active lawsuits with the company, last week attempted to use US bankruptcy courts to block or delay Sunlot’s plan.

It said the bid headed by Wall Street trading veteran John Betts and backed by new Bitcoin Foundation Board member Brock Pierce lacked the experience necessary to perform its proposed investigation.

A Seattle court rejected CoinLab’s submission, however, saying Sunlot’s proposal did not have special status and there may indeed be other groups with their own plans.

Fiery online meeting

A Google hangout streamed live to YouTube on 27th April tried to clear the air by allowing the various interests to state their case. The meeting at times became heated as various parties questioned whether others had creditors’ best interests at heart.

US Attorney Daniel Kelman, who divides his time these days between Taiwan and Tokyo, has been exploring creditor-friendly solutions to the Mt. Gox problem for some time and strongly favours a debt-equity swap solution.

Kelman is not representing OKCoin in an official capacity, but spoke on behalf of its plan during the hangout, after speaking to associated people both in China and Japan.

He did reveal some basic details of the OKCoin group’s plan, though, which would probably involve at least a $1m injection of capital and the selling of shares in the new entity to raise more capital.

Chinese interest

He mentioned that OKCoin’s interest in forming a recovery plan came from Chinese expats living in Tokyo and CEO Xu, all of whom had lost substantial amounts of bitcoin when Gox collapsed.

The company had not known a rehabilitation was even possible before Sunlot’s original plan was revealed, he added. Xu then realized his expertise at operating a stable bitcoin exchange, plus OKCoin’s existing technology and security standards, could be beneficial to an alternative campaign.

Some participants in the hangout were enthusiastic about the thought of a ‘Chinese-Western’ joint venture for the good of bitcoin, saying the Mandarin and English-speaking economies (mainly the US) have been bitcoin’s prime movers so far.

“I agree completely. Bitcoin is a worldwide phenomenon, and very much a phenomenon of the English speaking and Chinese speaking worlds [...] And it would be great to see an exchange that could merge those two. I think that would make it very successful also,” said Kelman.

Creditor caution

Sunlot came under fire on bitcoin-related Internet forums like bitcointalk andreddit for various reasons, but raised eyebrows over an initial plan that appeared to use existing Gox funds to conduct its investigation and pay management fees.

The funds belonged to creditors and should not be touched by outsiders before a rescue plan succeeded, former customers complained.

Sunlot then revised its plan to include a greater injection of its own investors’ equity and offered creditors a 16.5% equity stake in a revived entity.

Other objections

Sunlot has been criticised both for being an ‘outsider’, a company with no previous bitcoin exchange experience, but also for having ‘insider’ connections, due to the involvement of two of its investors in prior Mt. Gox acquisition and joint venture attempts, one of which was over a year ago.

The company’s CEO, John Betts, took the opportunity in the meeting to defend his team’s credibility and warn critics against making claims without evidence, saying:

“Making libellous claims about intentions about people through misinformation and leaked information, rumors and hearsay is not constructive to this.”

He said his team’s offer of 1 BTC to buy Mt. Gox was twofold: it evoked the disgrace of previous finance industry collapses such as rogue trader Nick Leeson’s Barings Bank (sold to ING for £1), and prevented significant sums of money from flowing to Mark Karpeles, the owner.

The small sum should not be taken as a lack of Sunlot’s commitment, he explained.

SaveGox/Sunlot also stated on its extensive FAQ page that it has reached out to OKCoin’s team to express an interest in co-operation, though the tone of discussion on the hangout suggests they still have some issues to iron out.

The team claims to have the backing of at least 66% of Mt. Gox creditors after US class action lawyer Jay Edelson (representing the creditors) agreed to its revised plan as part of his clients’ settlement.

Seeking justice

Olivier Janssens, the entrepreneur and bitcoin early adopter who lost $5m worth of bitcoins in the Gox collapse, set up the site mtgoxrecovery.com. Initially set up to seek potential recovery plans, it now invites visitors to build a database of customers who lost money and asks if they would be interested in joining any formal legal action.

Janssens admits his campaign is not actually a plan, but instead seeks justice for customers and Mt. Gox management, by supporting whoever is best equipped to deliver that result.

That justice, he indicated, would involve not only a reasonable chance of Mt. Gox’s existing bitcoins being returned to customers as bitcoins, but also Mark Karpeles facing criminal or civil action for his part in the whole affair.

Online chat logs reveal Janssens is furious at Karpeles over his actions in the weeks surrounding Mt. Gox’s collapse.

He said he would favour liquidation if it would return some funds to investors, rather than entrusting Mt. Gox’s fate to a new and unknown company. Sceptical of Sunlot’s plan and the motives behind it, Janssens said Sunlot had operated behind everyone’s back, only revealing its plans after they were leaked.

Bitcoiners bitten before

Janssens explained that trust levels in the bitcoin community were extremely low after numerous thefts and scams at exchanges, and that users were naturally suspicious of any newcomers unless they could prove their level of commitment and be prepared to back it up with legally binding contracts.

He added that, although it was not his intention to do so, he would be prepared to contribute the $5m he lost in the Mt. Gox closure simply to find out what happened.

Questions:
* buying blackbox possible?
* buyout ending in a bid ware with sunlot? any method to make this unlikely?
* timeframe for a buyout?
* price? benefactors of the buyout (mark?, creditors?)
* agreements for selfauditing + selfinvestigation with police possible?
* solved case credits after selfaudit goes to kobayashi and team? (probably a good incentive)
* keep kobayashi in the loop, but sort of take over the whole process
* “read only” help from mark?
* core developer + okcoin expertise/help?
* chance to sue for negligence of tibanne and mark would be destroyed via buyout?
* equity dividend via new platform possible? dividend used to reduce unrecovered funds
* use mvp platform to let users fund the ongoing process by pledge recovered funds to the effort in exchange for additional equity? Ability to buy shares as investor is already possible, that’s what the 51% are for, but would that be enough?
* how to push kobayashi into agreeing to a buyout with audit + investigation + repayment as a contract? write him a snailmail?

Steps:
* buyout
* buy up blackbox
* move investigation from kobayashi
* agree on special terms
* selfaudit within 1 year?
* payback “contract” after audit to creditors via new platform (for efficiency, ease of use and cost)
* preparation
* claiming period starts right after buyout (or if necessary after the first audit of the db)
* claiming is on a per account basis
* 3-6 months claiming (unclaimed funds are used as additional funds for pro rata “refunds”)
* talk with btcbuilder to push funds to the right place as equity etc. should be done after the rightful owner is agreed upon
* better communication
* establish new mvp platform with okcoin licensed code
* use basic platform for users to see lost amount
* taking action
* make addresses public (at least non privacy? related ones aka cold addresses)
* investigation of missing funds
* investigation of trading anomalies
* investivation of tibanne and marks negligence
* involve authorities when facts evolve over fraud/hacks/insider trading etc.
* finish up audit
* show recovered amount on new platform
* show unrecovered funds, which could be filled back up via dividends
* ability to withdraw
* debt equity swap
* show % of equity on new platform
* vague ideas:
* use coloured coins/mastercoins or similar for distributing shares and integrate into platform. at least user to user sharing? and withdrawal
* implement affiliate system so that users can invite people to join the refund exchange
* add ability to distribute coins to all creditors via a single address (a refund donate address)
* launch public campaign for businesses to show the bitcoin community strength for which these companies donate .x% of their revenue to the refund address
* world domination if not already done
* after worlddomination creditors perhaps got a bit of their share back

Metrics:
* interesting metrics for users on new basic platform
* total oldgox balance (fiat + coins)
* recovered funds
* pro rata share
* unrecovered funds
* dividend total
* equity share

The holding company of collapsed virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox is looking to sell the trademarked word bitcoin, according to a company executive.

 

Associated Press

The holding company of collapsed virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox is looking to sell the trademarked word bitcoin, a company executive said.

The company hopes to raise at least ¥100 million, or about $1 million, for a package including the bitcoin trademarks in Japan and the European Union as well as thebitcoins.com domain name, the executive said.

It is unclear if any money from the sale of the rights would be used to pay back the creditors of Mt. Gox.

The executive said the company wanted to sell the trademarks because it had no use for them.

Tibanne, a company headed by former Mt. Gox chief Mark Karpeles, had its registration of the bitcoin trademark approved in Japan and the EU in 2012, according to the online databases of the patent authorities for each territory. The trademarks will expire in 2021 in the EU and in 2022 in Japan, though they are both renewable if fees are paid.

Tibanne was effectively the operator of the troubled bitcoin exchange since Mt. Gox had no staff. The two companies share the same office address in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Tibanne’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Lawyers familiar with bankruptcy proceedings who are not involved in the exchange’s case said that Tibanne has no legal obligation to repay the 127,000 creditors of the exchange.

Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in late February, saying it had debts of ¥6.5 billion and that it had lost 850,000 bitcoin. It later said it recovered about 200,000 of the missing bitcoin.

Should Tibanne raise funds from a sale of the trademark package without using at least part of the proceeds to help creditors of Mt. Gox, that would likely anger those who are out of pocket following the collapse of the exchange.

“Even though the company is not obligated to, it should repay customers with assets it has. That’s the way it should be. For anyone it’s obvious that Tibanne and Mt. Gox were operating as one company,” said Keiichi Hida, a Mt. Gox creditor.

Prospective buyers would also have to consider how enforceable the trademarks are. A spokeswoman from Japan’s patent office said that trademark holders can exercise the right of owning a word by suing anyone using it without permission, but any judgment on a claim’s validity would have to be made by a court ruling. The office could also consider invalidating a trademark if it thinks the term was already commonly used at the time of registration.

Japanese lawyers not involved in the Mt. Gox case said it would be difficult for anyone to profit from owning the bitcoin trademarks since the word was first coined by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in a 2008 research paper.

“If the holder is Mr. Nakamoto, that would be a different story,” said So Saito, a laywer at Nishimura & Asahi, a major Japanese law firm. But if anyone else is holding the trademark, “companies wouldn’t be prohibited from using the word because it has become a common noun.”

When the company registered the trademarks it said it was looking to keep use of the word free and stop others from limiting or profiting from the word’s use, according to apress release from Mt. Gox issued in 2011.

At the above link Coindesk mentioned us:

New offers possible

Perhaps most notably, the courts indicated, for the first time at least explicitly, that other offers for the exchange can be considered, a statement that may lead to more investor interest in Mt. Gox.

For example, a team involved with Chinese exchange OKCoin has expressed interest in buying the defunct exchange. However, it remains unclear if the group is still actively developing an offer.

Additionally, CoinLab may ultimately submit a formal offer to purchase Mt. Gox.

In court documents, the company suggested, but stopped short of saying outright, that it would seek to buy Mt. Gox, remarking:

“CoinLab offers a market efficiency to creditors because it can address disposition of its intellectual property rights in the exchange as well as market expertise. However, no process currently exists for competing overbids.”

Previous statements from Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Japanese bankruptcy official overseeing the case indicated earlier in the day that the Japanese courts – which will have final say on approving any measures – are not presently considering any investor proposals.