and by you sponsoring it you are part of the immorality?

i am christian so i have to admit sometimes i have trouble sleeping at night.

as proven by its history before june, bitcoins' price will drop off unless there is big influx of new committed users.

bitcoins is already all over the press - people who would hear of it would have already done so.

unless there is some big new development that proves bitcoins can have exciting new users, people will become inactive and its users will drop off.

in fact the slow drop has already started as we all now witness.

i hope to hell it is mt gox.

holding no position overnight so that every day is a fresh start?

i don't trust fiat currencies because they are inherently worthless, including bitcoins.

i have only had one of them, so i think bitcoins are more attractive.

i think somebody out there took all the email addresses on the mt gox database and put them on spam mailing lists.

and possibly take out mortgages and credit card debts as well?

he made me promise not to say his account username so i won't, and anyway it is only about 60 btc so it is no big deal.

basically he has a very common mt gox account name, something like "simpson" (but it is not simpson!). when the hacking episode happened my friend wasn't too worried because he only had a couple of btc and a couple of u.s. dollars in his account.

when mt gox reopened he checked his account balance and was surprised to find it says it had about 65 btc and $200 in his account.

he said nothing, and as soon as mt gox allowed withdrawal he tried to withdraw all btc to his own address, and successfully got them.

he says he is waiting mt gox to start trading, then buy btc with all $200 and then transfer them out to his own address, then abandon the account and start another one with mt gox for his own proper trading.

i agree with him this is not theft, as it is just some extra money from mt gox mismanagement, like that guy in nyc walking around the diamond district and picking up gold coins.

did you expect more or less?

as we all know mt gox is just one of many exchanges of bitcoins and no more...

yet this widespread anger with mt gox exposes that bitcoins is just a hanger-on to u.s. dollars, and cannot survive on its own.

i was in europe, and subsequently enjoyed the few days when no one worked.

i'll start - 7/1 10am tokyo time

you see on newspapers people are brutally murdered over $2000 or less.

after the first bitcoin website, forum, lobby organization, tv show etc...

the first bitcoins murder will come sooner or later.

maybe two businessmen have a serious disagreement on some business arrangement based on bitcoins transactions?

i have a hunch it will happen in tokyo though...

and decided not to participate?

between all the problems with mt gox, hacking, speculation, hoarding, price crash, not a viable currency etc...

i understand where you are coming from really.

anyone in this boat?

he think he had about $1500 in his account but he wasn't sure.

anyway he tried to claim his account, but got an email from mt gox that his request failed.

then someone else (the thief) emailed him gloating that he took over my friend's account, with a screenshot of mt gox's email to the hacker that the hacker successfully claimed the account.

my friend is furious and tried to contact mt gox but got no replies.

he is seriously thinking at this point to go to japan to set things right.

what developments at mt gox should or should not happen such that you would ask for leave at work, buy a plane ticket from jal/ana, hop on the red-eye flight, navigate the tokyo's subway and knock on their office door?

most people buying bitcoins are speculators hoarding them and not use them, so i know there is a lot of you out there.

despite what you hope, there are many reasons why bitcoins may never enter mainstream, and just limp along in the periphery of society.

so no, the bankers are not going to send in federal agents to crush bitcoins to 0, but neither is it going to replace the u.s. dollars.

so perhaps the trading price will just random walk between say, $5 and $40.

now what?

me neither.