As one of the many people who lost money in the Gox implosion, this is nauseating to read.
On a less related note, I heard they recovered 1/5 of the missing bitcoins awhile ago. Anyone know what will happen to that 1/5?
Our money was lost the moment we decided to transfer it to a third party. That 1/5 probably won't recover very much of it, if any of it, for reasons explored in that thread.
Whether it's Mt. Gox or Coinbase, money we put into a webwallet is no longer ours. It's the legal entity's. If they go bankrupt, which can happen for a variety of reasons, sometimes unfair ones, then that money is gone. Best magic trick ever.
Try to be at peace with the loss. Easier said than done; it was difficult for me. If you need someone to talk to, please feel free to shoot me an email.
The simple and incontrovertible fact is that the US banking system is as close to 100% safe as you can get. Bitcoin isn't anywhere close.
[1]: http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/index.html [2]: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/index.html
[1] http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/information/fdiciorn....
In many countries currency deposits (up to a certain level) are protected by law and government guarantees.
"From a legal and financial accounting standpoint, the term "deposit" is used by the banking industry in financial statements to describe the liability owed by the bank to its depositor, and not the funds that the bank holds as a result of the deposit, which are shown as assets of the bank." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_account
"Bank deposits are simply a record of how much the bank itself owes its customers. So they are a liability of the bank, not an asset that could be lent out." - p.http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarte...