Former Mt. Gox CEO proposes Bitcoin hard fork to recover $5.2 billion in stolen assets

The former CEO of the collapsed exchange Mt. Gox, Mark Karpelès, recently proposed a Bitcoin hard fork plan, suggesting that approximately 79,956 BTC stolen in the 2011 hacking incident could be recovered by modifying the consensus rules, which is valued at about $5.2 billion at current prices.

The proposal targets a wallet address associated with the 2011 Mt. Gox system breach, which received nearly 80,000 Bitcoins after the hack and has remained untouched for over 15 years. Under the existing Bitcoin rules, these funds can only be transferred if the corresponding private key is held. According to the proposal, the new rules would allow the unspent outputs in that address to be controlled through signatures from the Mt. Gox recovery address, thereby incorporating the funds into the existing judicial oversight compensation process for repaying Mt. Gox creditors.

Karpelès stated that this plan is merely a starting point for discussion, intending to limit the rule modifications to a single address and activate it at a specific block height in the future. However, the proposal also acknowledges that this plan requires coordinated upgrades across the network, and if some community members refuse to support it, it could lead to the risk of a blockchain split. It is important to note that these approximately 80,000 BTC are currently not part of the asset distribution for Mt. Gox creditors and are not controlled by the bankruptcy trustee.