Who is Tom Williams? MyBitcoin.com, which disappeared without explanation from the internet about a week ago, is back up with a messages “From the desk of Tom Williams, operator of MyBitcoin.com.” The statement, labeled an “incident report,” is the only live page on the site. MyBitcoin noticed a large amount of BTC missing, the statement says, realized its security had been breached, and pulled the site immediately. After investigating the hack, the statement says, the “we” behind MyBitcoin realized it was bankrupt and “would have to go into receivership.” There will be a claims process for reimbursing users, the statement says.
We’re not exactly sure what constitutes receivership in a system with no central authority, or why the site’s anonymous operators would feel obligated to refund its anonymous users given the utter lack of accountability. Before the statement hit, word on the street was that MyBitcoin.com, the user-friendly Bitcoin wallet that was the go-to for most Bitcoin newbies, was an elaborate ploy set up by a group of (Canadian?) hackers who swindled naive Bitcoin users for the money and the lulz. At the time it went down, MyBitcoin.com had more deposits than the third largest Bitcoin exchange, Bitomat.pl. Bitomat.pl had 17,000 BTC on hand when it went down this weekend due to human technical error. But just one Bitcoin user, the vocal Bruce Wagner, had 25,000 BTC stored at MyBitcoin when it disappeared. Betabeat had 6 BTC there, and we’re surely not the only ones. At today’s prices, MyBitcoin had more than $250,000 in its coffers.
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