Another Problem at the Bitcoin Foundation

Problems first developed for the Bitcoin Foundation when the vice chairman of the foundation, Charlie Shrem, was arrested on money laundering charges. He has since resigned his position.

Now focus may turn to a Bitcoin Foundation board member, Mark Karpeles.

Karpeles is the president and founder of Mt. Gox. The Bitcoin exchange that has temporarily shut down because of "technical" glitches.

The Bitcoin community appears to be throwing Karpeles under the bus.

Business Insider reports:

Roger Ver, known as Bitcoin Jesus, told Wired Magazine's Robert McMillan and Cade Metz in their November profile of Mt. Gox that despite being friends with Mt. Gox head Mark Karpeles, he would not recommend using the exchange.

"Anybody who has enough information about what's going on in the Bitcoin world, you would not buy your bitcoins on Mt. Gox," he said.

In an email to BI Friday, Ver said: "Mtgox has been losing marketshare quickly over the last few years. I think this latest glitch will hasten that decline, but for the betterment of the entire Bitcoin ecosystem."

Bitcoin users say Karpeles and Mt. Gox have gained a reputation for being unresponsive to the various issues. Wired says Karpeles dropped off of bitcointalk.org in June, and was rumored to have limited his conversations to the obscure Internet Relay Chat forum.

Karpeles actually serves on the Board of the Bitcoin Foundation. In an email to BI, the Foundation itself declined to comment on Mt. Gox business issues.

I don't expect Karpeles to survive much longer as a Bitcoin Foundation board member.