Kolin Burges Travels from London to Confront CEO of Mt. Gox

Kolin Burges Confront Mark Karpeles

The frustration with Mt. Gox seems to be rising as of late. Ever since the Bitcoin exchange fell, the digital currency’s value plummeted, and people are beginning to get angry. Kolin Burges, a software developer in London traveled to Mt. Gox’s headquarters to confront CEO Mark Karpeles.

Burges’ Long Trek from Home

Kolin Burges flew 12 hours from London to Tokyo in order to get answers from Mt. Gox. Known on Reddit as K_meister, he wrote,

“I will be protesting outside the MtGox offices in Tokyo starting from either Thursday (13th Feb) afternoon or Friday (14th Feb) morning and continuing until some satisfactory progress has been made.”

Thus, Kolin Burges made the decision to travel all the way to Tokyo from his home in London in order to get to the bottom of the Mt. Gox problem, and also to get his money back. Kolin Burges said,

“They haven’t answered anybody’s support requests, they seem to have just taken people’s money – they’ve taken my money.”

Kolin Burges’ Inspiration

Reddit user CoinSearcher was Burges’ inspiration to head out to Tokyo. CoinSearcher traveled from Australia to Tokyo in order to figure out what was happening with Mt. Gox. He campaigned for three days outside of Mt. Gox’s headquarters; however he did not get any useful information. After the three days, he had to return back home. Upon seeing Kolin Burges’ Reddit post, CoinSearcher commented,

“Well done mate; its important to keep up the pressure. The more they feel the heat, the less likely they are going to do a runner with people’s money…”

Setting up Camp

Kolin Burges tried to schedule an appointment with Mt. Gox’s executives, but was unable to. Instead he decided to take the matters into his own hands. He set up camp outside the Bitcoin exchange’s offices in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. In his hand, he held a sign that read “MtGox where is our money”

Despite the chilling temperature in Tokyo, Kolin Burges was insistent in getting answers. He finally confronted CEO Mark Karpeles this Friday outside Mt. Gox’s front door. Burges demanded Karpeles to withdraw his coins, however Karpeles responded with:

“We can’t right now.”

Kolin Burges then asked Karpeles, “Do you still have everyone’s bitcoins?” However, the CEO did not respond.

Burges says that he is going to stay in Tokyo until the following week. He is even willing to camp outside of Mt.Gox’s offices again in order to get a suitable response.

Click here for the video of Kolin Burges in Tokyo.

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