So his coins aren't going to be returned? Isn't there some sort of moral imperative to make good? Or is this beside the point?
The twenty four thousand BTC that were heisted are gone. I understand that BitFloor doesn't have funds to cover the losses. I'm not posting here to demand the return of funds that BitFloor doesn't have.
I'm posting because I suspect those who today are carrying a balance of USDs or BTCs at BitFloor are probably expecting that they will be able to withdraw those funds on demand when they want to withdraw them. But if some account holders whose bitcoins were previously heisted decide to take legal action against BitFloor, it is today's USD and BTC balances that exist in the exchange accounts right now that are at risk.
Take a look at the depth chart at BitFloor:
- http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/bitfloorUSD_depth.html
Notice how the blue (asks) is less than 100 BTC for all sell orders at $14 or lower? Even the bids have low depth (excluding the aggressive bid at $12.30) and there would be just $4K USD of bids on the books. To me that indicates that others are concerned about leaving funds in their account at BitFloor as well.
BitFloor hasn't settled with those whose bitcoins are still on "hold" and hasn't filed for bankruptcy protection so that it can continue operating without putting at-risk the funds deposited by today's customers.
I would only suggest that you stop confusing bitcoins and USD. The two are not the same thing.
It wouldn't matter if what BitFloor was storing was its customer's gold, its customer's widgets or its customer's bananas. A debt is a debt and a company that is not able to honor its debt commitments is insolvent.
All I'm pointing out is that customer deposits with BitFloor are not safe, in my opinion, as long as there are customers such as myself who are not able to access their funds. Additionally, even customers who do withdraw all their funds might not be safe because of clawback provisions due to preferential transfer (though I'll concede that the amount of preferential transfer that is occurring probably isn't a large enough amount to warrant getting clawback approved nonetheless see any success at actually reclaiming funds from customers.)
What if tomorrow morning a judgment lien were to be granted and BitFloor's bank accounts are then seized?