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Comment by lbarrow | Hacker News Reader

"No regulations" sounds great up until the moment when the bank gets robbed, the police don't care, and the only proof that it wasn't an inside job is a screenshot of the banker's email[1]. (Not that I think that it was an inside job. I just think this whole situation is kinda funny.)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=283756.msg3505394#ms...

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If the owner is either incapable or unwilling to refund everybody's money then it doesn't even matter whether it was an inside job or not. It's pretty telling that he's posting a screenshot that essentially says nothing instead of being open about whether or not he'll be able to fully reimburse the people who lost money. I don't think it was explicitly stated, but it seems like people are just getting whatever percentage of the remaining funds that they owned.

If that guy did not have some kind of insurance like banks do, how can he refund anyone? ( that's a question ).

And would insurances insure this kind of business ? Now are bitcoin wallets banks ? and are they subject to the same regulations ?

Is that guy a US citizen ? can he be sued by his clients ?

I would add "Must he refund anything at all by contract/policies?"

I read that he's an Australian citizen. But I'm not sure if anyone asked for his real identity (before trusting him with $1mm worth of bitcoin)

> If that guy did not have some kind of insurance like banks do, how can he refund anyone?

Bitcoin is a relatively new thing, would not be surprised to start seeing bitcoin insurance for these types of services.

> Is that guy a US citizen ? can he be sued by his clients ?

I think it would depend if his clients have contracts, otherwise its a caveat emptor deal, especially when dealing with bitcoin.

There was actually a Bitcoin "insurance" provider for a while. Like everything else in the Bitcoin economy, it was entirely unregulated, basically a scam, and ran with everyone's money.

Normal bank insurance is done by the central bank, which can lend unlimited money to cover this kind of hole.

(A large part of the Euro crisis was the Euro central bank refusing to backstop banks itself, delegating that to national central banks which can't print money and can therefore run out themselves)

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