They should open a BTC_B/BTC market. Customers with coins lost in the hack can sell their BTC_B at a discount to speculators banking on Bter making good on repaying them eventually.
Fully support idea of btc_b/btc market.
It may turn out in the end, that bter may like the idea of these virtual bitcoins, and their total amount will be higher than the number of actually stolen btc. If it increases turnover, raises liquidity and brings profit, why dispose of a working device?
Valid point.
It could become so successful, that Bter may purposely delay further repayments simply to milk the market for more trading fees. Also, rather than directly paying back all the BTC, it would be advantageous of them to secretly buy up BTC_B at a discount on the open market. Now that I start to think about it, there are a plethora of ways a system like this could be abused by Bter. It would require trusting them, and trust is not exactly a commodity they are holding in abundance at the moment.
What if the BTC_B were made into a token on Counterparty or NXT? It would allow trading to be trustless and completely transparent.
I've got no skin in this. I just wandered in here because the GAW thread has been a bit slow lately. So it's up to you guys really. If you demand a way to make BTC_B liquid so you can sell off the risk to speculators, there are ways to make it happen but demand it loud and clear so Bter can't avoid listening.
EDIT : There really isn't a way to stop Bter from buying up BTC_B on a decentralized market either. I don't know, it sounded like a good idea at first but it may be an unworkable solution.