it's not much like MF global when you think about it, other than a financial institution failing.<p>MF global collapsed due to risky behavior by management team. left a lot of assets, and operates in a regulated sphere where principals are known and subject to courts. the scandal of MF global was that the former governor of new jersey, and goldman sachs bigwig, was so arrogant that he though he could prop trade with customer funds...and lost.<p>Gox collapsed due to incompetent security procedures, if i understand the story correctly. a bank robbery of a sort. outside of the jurisdiction of many of the victims.<p>we now know that something around 6-7% of the total bitcoins in circulation are now owned through theft. that's a staggering amount. in any normal currency - the heist of a millennium. there's no court system to adjudicate this or try and recover assets for those who lost money.<p>we know who is responsible for MF global and we know where to go to recover assets. John Corzine might be politically connected, and the folks who lost money might have a hard time overcoming "the system" to get funds, but they know where to go.<p>And - quick google search - there was $1.5bn in missing funds, which apparently will be recovered: <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/mf-global-customers-will-recover-all-they-lost/" rel="nofollow">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/mf-global-customers-w...</a><p>With Gox? Tough luck I guess. (I lost a token sum, FWIW).<p>It's enough to make you wonder - if digital currencies are now well understood, flaws analyzed and hacked... and we are starting to know enough to say - digital currency is awesome...<p>Maybe we should start over with another alt-coin. i'm not particularly thrilled about putting real money or time behind a coin which now has a large chunk of it owned through theft.
I don't understand why Mt Gox isn't able to pursue the thieves. You can only withdraw funds if you have a verified account. For verified accounts they would have proven the users identity.<p>It must be possible to work out which accounts have withdrawn more money than deposited.<p>Obviously the people who did this would have covered their tracks. However that being said, there should be ways that they can account for which user accounts stole coins. Go from there.