Former Mt. Gox CEO Proposes Bitcoin Hard Fork to Recover $5.2 Billion in Stolen Assets

Odaily News: Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of the defunct exchange Mt. Gox, recently proposed a Bitcoin hard fork plan. He suggests modifying the consensus rules to recover approximately 79,956 BTC stolen in a 2011 hack, which is worth about $5.2 billion at current prices.

The proposal targets a wallet address linked to the 2011 Mt. Gox system breach. This address received nearly 80,000 Bitcoin after the hack and has remained inactive for over 15 years. Under the current Bitcoin rules, these funds can only be transferred if the corresponding private key is held.

According to the proposal, the new rules would allow control over the unspent outputs in this address through signatures from the Mt. Gox recovery address. This would bring the funds into the existing judicial oversight compensation process to repay Mt. Gox creditors.

Karpelès stated that this proposal is merely a starting point for discussion. The rule change is intended to be limited to a single address and activated at a specific future block height. However, the proposal also acknowledges that this plan requires a coordinated network-wide upgrade. If some community members refuse to support it, there is a risk of blockchain splitting.

It is important to note that these approximately 80,000 BTC are not currently part of the assets allocated to Mt. Gox creditors, nor are they controlled by the bankruptcy trustee.