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Many people have withdrawn their money since last June. The red flag was there for months. People staying there were either playing with fire, lazy, or simply ignorant.
Although that might be a good idea to regulate bitcoin exchange, that is irrelevant to the bitcoin as a currency or protocol. You don't need an exchange to spend or receive bitcoin.
Many people believed in bitcoin and got badly burnt. If you are suggesting that only sophisticated investors should use bitcoin, so be it.
Anyways, regulation can be enforced only by governments and in ways that they see fit. If regulation comes into the bitcoin world, I expect it to be intrusive and impose rules on the way bitcoin works. NB When I refer to the bitcoin model I don't mean just the intellectual and technical marvels of the bitcoin protocol, but to the way bitcoin plays out in the practice of people's lives, which IMO is what matters.
I'm gonna run with this, speaking for myself rather than the OP. I think that investors should be more sophisticated. I am not good at exchange games, therefore I play them very cautiously with a goal to learning. And I EXPECT to lose, thus I do not lose that which I cannot afford. I don't INTEND to lose, but I am a novice and I know it and act accordingly.
I think the moral hazard inherent in the funny money that has been foisted upon us since the early 20th century has made most of us complacent and unsophisticated in a manner that would perplex our ancestors to no end. I guarantee that when money was still golden, people were MUCH more circumspect with whom they trusted. And those so trusted earned it. Those who didn't quite often ended up on the wrong end of a rope or a gun. Hard consequence? Yes. Effective? Yes. It was and remains a good model. The fact that bitcoin functions on that same model is a
STRENGTH of the concept, not a weakness. There is little moral hazard involved in the circulation of bitcoin, as it IS scarce, it IS irreversable, and it DOES require the individual actor to have a brain. I think this makes it superior to most other currencies. I don't think it superior to gold, but it does have some advantages even there. Mainly easy portability.
If you look at it from a market point of view, this is a good thing in the long run. It's a wake up call for the complacent, a loss of malinvestment, and a good chance for all bitcoiners to clean their own house. Exchanges are necessary, but they are now going to be under far more scrutiny FROM US than they were previously. Those who prove themselves will do well for us and for themselves. Those who try to cheat will have a much harder time of it, and the incompetent will either shape up or fail.
Bitcoin is not harmed by this event. Mtgox is slain and a lot of individuals are harmed. Bitcoin is strengthened, and the harm done to the poor bastards who lost their coin is not permanent. They made the money in the first place, and if they are competent they will overcome the setback. Doesn't make what Mtgox did right, but it does set a perspective.
Don't harm the blockchain to bail out a bad actor. It killed the dollar, and it will kill bitcoin.