- Bitcoin has been designed so you can actually OWN them. Owning Bitcoin means that 1) you own the private keys for your addresses, 2) no one else does. In other words, it is OK to use a wallet like Bitcoin-Qt, Multibit, Electrum or even Blockchain.info. It is NOT OK to use third parties like MtGox, Bitstamp, inputs.io, etc. as your wallet. You will get burned.
- By trusting third parties to keep "your" Bitcoin, you are actually giving them your coins in exchange for a promise from them to give them back (IOU). This is VERY dangerous and there is absolutely no reason to take that risk until a very strong financial insurance and external auditing is backing that promise. Even if you are daytrading, it's worth withdrawing all your coins at the end of the day
- The Bitcoin Foundation is absolutely not Bitcoin's regulatory body, they are absolutely not monitoring, auditing or responsible for exchanges and services in any way,
- The Bitcoin developers cannot "force" you to understand what you are doing with your coins before allowing you to download and use their software. They can only urge you to do it. In other words, they cannot protect yourself from your own lack of knowledge
Can we get this in big writing up on the front page of bitcoin.org - hell, maybe even work it into the logo somehow?