Bitcoin is supposed to work without the need for a trusted third party. If that were true, we wouldn't be here discussing MK's evil deeds.
Bitcoin works fine without a trusted third party.
Bitcoin users who refrained from trusting any third parties lost exactly zero bitcoins.
Bitcoin promises to let your "be your own bank". If you decide to be your own daytrader then you're on your own.
I agree. However it's a fact that an inordinately large number of people chose to entrust their bitcoins to an unreliable third party such as Mt.Gox. The resulting disaster and those that may follow along the same lines can be tackled either
a) by pointing out , not without reason, that this is a non-issue, since in the bitcoin world it's every man for himself. That's fine , but it may scare off the naive adopter, i.e. the vast majority of people, compromising bitcoin's success.
or
b) by introducing regulation for exchanges, i.e. turning them into banks, transforming the current bitcoin model into something quite different.
Or c) Holding people accountable for their actions, and requiring a high level of thought, diligence, and TRANSPARENCY from those we choose to be custodians of our treasure. Prior to being owned by governments (or the reverse, if we're to be honest) banks were beholden to their customers FIRST. Those who failed in that ceased to exist.
Those of you seeing this as a failure of a free market system need to educate yourselves on how the "invisible hand" actually works. This is a failure of a sub par company, which is a SUCCESS for the free market. A bad actor has been removed. Not bailed out. Not being "too big to fail".
If their intent was good, they were too incompetent to be in the business they were in. If they were fraudulent, then they deserve to be caught, fleeced as much as possible, hung out to dry, and consigned to the dustbin of history as a fine example of how not to run a business. Free markets are self correcting, and as in the case of most things in life, Stupidity on any actor's part is often painful and frequently fatal. The lesson to be learned from that is not to be stupid.