i agree (although i'm still pissed about probably losing 3.5 btc but whatever). Although it really does suck that we seem to be plagued with thieves it does show that overall the currency is valuable and has a future. Its the same as when the trolls started showing up on sealswithclubs.eu lobby. They annoyed the crap out of everyone but my point was they are a sign of growth. Of course a thief is much worse than a troll and what happened on btc-e today is awful and my heart goes out to ppl who were burned for more serious amounts of money. Same way with the bitcoinica fiasco, it really sucks that ppl have the capacity to stoop so low. But big picture is that btc gets stronger.
Both bitcoinica and btc-e are (were) financial sites and on the surface looked sketchy as hell. Go figure, there were holes in both. Anyone who is severely distressed by losses from either wasn't cautious and placed funds they couldn't lose in something that looked fucking crummy with a cursory examination. Survival of the fittest refers to those who put significant sums they couldn't afford to lose in either of these as well.
Bitcoinica seemed all but crummy. Sorry, it was manager by a team of "security expert", had a fund supporting it, and a well know community member (zhou) behind it.
The business model was sound as well, and I spent hours doing my researchs.
Basically if someone should be crazy to put money in such a venture then there is 0 safe bitcoin company.
If all bitcoin is used for is under the matress home stash and you need 1000 hours code review before putting money anywhere then I am not sure about how usefull it is.
Of course one of problem is "trusted" member of the community marketing themselves as security experts when obviously they are not and as such they should be exposed so they dont run this joke again