Thanks for that link ECB... The post pretty much states that Bitfinex is going to make a more official update tomorrow, but in the meantime, like you said, Bitfinex is considering a way to socialize losses amongst Bitfinex BTC holders.
I don't really have a problem with socialized loss in the sense that Bitfinex would later pay back those "losers"... yet, I believe that they are not considering paying back the "losers"...
I think that it is a bit irresponsible to cause the users to hold the bag... and even though we are finding out some details, we still have to wait for more specifics, which seems to be scheduled to come out tomorrow.
Really the best option for everyone. Other option is to go belly up and then after 4yrs and a bunch of attorney fees you might see some distributions (see Gox). Assuming there'd be a full investigation and it wasn't internal job etc...
We are likely a bit too much speculation regarding various details at the moment because Bitfinex has only provided a rough outline of their intentions - and they also provided one side of the balance sheet without providing some kind of indication of the other side of the balance sheet, which would likely be disclosed in more detail later today.
I guess part of what I am saying, here, is that in order to attempt to achieve more confidence from current account holders and future account holders, they have to disclose enough details in order to inspire some confidence that they are being reasonable.
I don't think that we can come to any kind of conclusion regarding what is best if we do not have some more disclosure, and likely, since they are not a public company, they are going to be somewhat sparse with the level of their disclosure... in other words, they will be disclosing mostly from an attempt to retain business rather than any kind of actual obligation to disclose.
One last point, Bitfinex is already somewhat known for being a bit shady; however, so far (at least up until this latest incident), their shadiness had not prevented them from accumulating a lot of bitcoins in their trust and to build a large volume of USD/BTC trade. Maybe some of that trade is fake, but it is likely a lot more representative of reality than some of the other chinese exchanges (Ok coin and Huobi, for example). So, their known shadiness causes me to speculate that they are continue to be less than fully transparent, and so no matter what there are going to continue to be theories and speculation regarding whether some of this is an inside job, and perhaps if they do not propose some kind of publicly acceptable plan forward with sufficient details, their history along with this latest incident and perhaps inadequate plan will contribute towards their demise. I remain with my proposition that the most likely appropriate plan forward is to at least attempt to show that they are coming really close to fully compensating all affected users - otherwise they will lose credibility from the big investors. They don't actually have to carry out such plan, merely just put forth such plan to create such an impression that they plan to fully compensate (or close to fully compensate) everyone who was negatively affected.
They really don't have many option. Coins are gone, either they make everyone whole, compromise, or declare bankruptcy. Those are really all your options.
As far as compromise need to find a thin line between appeasing pissed off investors and staying solvent. They were THE LARGES BTC/USD exchange by volume so all that talk about loosing trust is irrelevant/FUD sure some trust was lost but clearly not enough to have much effect judging by their volume which i believe to be pretty accurate.
As far as giving everyone a haircut without issuing IOUs or finexcoins with a plan to repay is also suicidal, that's pretty much a definition of being insolvent. So naturally come to the same conclusion as cryptsy in the similar situation. Everyone gets an IOU coins