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Comment by babesh | Hacker News Reader

Isn't the corollary of unregulated finance taking the law into your own hands when someone steals your stuff?

Okay internet tough guy. People say this all the time, but users still went to the SEC when Pirate@40's Ponzi collapsed, instead of meting out justice themselves.

AFAIK no one who has had money stolen in any of the countless bitcoin scams like BMR, Sheep, etc. used vigilante justice, even though many of them threatened to.

Talk is cheap.

I don't think babesh was endorsing vigilantism, just making a parallel.

Vigilantism was presented as a false dichotomy, though, conveniently forgetting about that thing called the justice system.

That is correct. I am not endorsing vigilantism. I am saying that it has happened a lot in the absence of law.

What does it mean for bitcoin to be unregulated? Do people want bitcoin regulated and how?

Is someone stealing your bitcoins illegal? What if an exchange steals your bitcoins? What if you conduct a transaction in bitcoins and you never receive the bitcoins? What if someone conducts a ponzi scheme with bitcoins? Would front running and faking trading activity be legal?

EDIT: Note I hold no bitcoins, never have, nor am I shorting them so I have no skin in the game.

How do you know it hasn't happened in the case of BMR, Sheep, etc?

It's one of those things you can't really know in those cases.

not regulated != anarchy.

Vigilantism is not anarchy either.

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