Bitcoin Forum

I only learned about Bitcoin late last year so I know I'm late to the game. I bought my first BTC in December from CoinBase. I immediately withdrew it and now keep a few copies in an offline wallet (usb sticks and an external HD). I understand some people 'trade' and things like that, but why did so many people lose coin? What is the advantage of keeping coins on Gox other then trading? Converting back into fiat?

Just curious as to why, after all the security issues and dubious signs of Gox's incompetence did people still trust them to hold their BTC balances that were at one point worth over $1,200/each?

People leave buy and sell orders open.  Same as any exchange. Coins or stocks.

Yea but exchanges that deal in stocks/options/forex are usually multiple times more secure than any BTC related exchange because the technology behind them has been tested & audited and proven to work/be secure because the volume of money is in order of magnitudes larger than the BTC market.

Erm, NO.
BTC is more secure, it just depends on who you trust your coins with.

You can leave your bitcoin with me, I'll triple it in 1 hour.

I think you misread what I wrote. You are saying BTC exchanges are more secure than stock/option exchanges? Because that is false.

ignorance, laziness, and naivete.

Greed, ignorance, and laziness

Human nature. Fear of losing private keys. Easier. Quicker. Proscrastination. People are accustomed to websites with an account, and banks with an account, not to some paper or USB wallet stored under their sofa.

http://hackingdistributed.com/images/2014-01-01-bitcoin/barack-obama-searching-for-money-in-couch.jpg
(source: http://hackingdistributed.com/2014/03/22/just-so-mtgox/)

Makes sense to me. Well put.

That's why we need Bitcoin Insurance. To ensure bitcoin put on exchanges up to a certain point, like 200 Bitcoin are the max that can be deposited in a exchange per person and and Not lose incase theres a bankruptcy, similar to banks...

This insurance could work on all alt coins.

And once to move to insurance you bring in government regulation then Bitcoin's money supply will no longer be controlled by the block chain (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=528689.msg5912620#msg5912620), but by the government.

This is why roughly a year ago I realized (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=455141.0) the only way we can have our idealistic outcome is we need a crypto coin which is only for the smart people. And I set out to accomplish that. That is why I am very happy if most go with Bitcoin.

We don't need the entire world in our idealistic crypto coin. We need smart users who use decentralized exchanges and services.

The masses will destroy Bitcoin, just as they always do.

I think to really succeed in the bitcoin economy you have to unlearn some things that the bank run states teach you form the cradle. There is no FDIC with bitcoin and this is a good thing. If you want the freedom of crypto currency you also accept a level of responsibility. This includes taking extra time to evaluate where you have your money and who you trust with it. Personally I only trust me.  

With insurance someone has to pay premium. There is no free insurance

Not yet, but it is coming because the masses are not responsible. I agree with your idealism, but the reality is the masses will overrule you and Bitcoin will become what they want.

And the feature that will keep the masses out of the idealistic coin will be strong anonymity. The masses will stay with Bitcoin because they trust the government. The smart people (millions of them) will use the anonymous coin and avoid the coming trainwreck of the masses (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=365141.0).

When that trainwreck is complete by 2024 or so, then the masses will see the anonymous coin survived and everything else was destroyed in a heap of taxation and confiscation. So the smart people win in the end.

i loled..

Ohhhh now I remember you. You're the woo-peddler from all the other threads. Jeez dude, don't infect my thread with your future predicting bullshit because it ain't happening. Sorry dude. You and your anonymous coin, wish you all the best of luck but let's leave this discussion for people who actually base things on fact and not vague references about statistics (millions of smart people will... the masses will... masses are not...).. who are you to speak for the human race? You sir are not Plato or Einstein but more like a propaganda spewing Hitler.

I'd say naivity and maybe they are afraid they hardware could crash?

I also bet that most people had a lot of trust in gox and thought they would always be there if bitcoin was. Gox is the oldest and was the most reputable out there. no one thought gox would just pick up and be gone the next day.

Just study history. The masses do the same thing over and over again. If you want to join with them, go ahead. Enjoy.

Why do you associate me with Hitler? I am trying to avoid the Hitler result that the masses always cause with their irresponsibility.

But I am not forcing you to do anything. As I said, I am very happy for the masses to have want they want and the result that comes from getting what they want.

I am happy if they stay far away from idealistic solutions that prevent them from getting what they want and protect me (and others who agree with me) from them (and you if you join them).

So why be bitter? You get what you want and I get what I want. What is wrong with that if we can each have a path that is separate? Then we can compare later which path outperformed.

But masses get very jealous when one path is more successful. They like to steal it back using the government to take it for them with taxes and confiscation. So I don't expect you to be rational and fair.

Actually a lot of people were predicting it for a while. Gox users simply ignored it or failed to do their homework. It was a speculative bubble phenomenon and the psychology of that kind of thing can be intoxicating. I hate that people lost money in it but if you allow yourself to get caught up in the herd mentality you usually get burned.   

Even though people with any kind of experience in Bitcoin had known for a long time that Mt. Gox was toxic, it isn't surprising that newbies bought bitcoins on Mt. Gox and left them there.

Whenever Bitcoin was mentioned in a news story, there was always a mention of Mt. Gox. And according to most articles, the only way to obtain Bitcoins was to buy them on Mt. Gox or to mine them.

You sent your money to an (unregulated) centralized exchange. That was your first act of stupidity. So blame yourself and stop making excuses.

You could have purchased using localbitcoins in smaller morsels and used escrow, but nooooo you had to get that lower spread and the market clearing on the bid/ask. Because you are addicted to the way you think things should work, not the way they do work.

And localbitcoins is not even fully decentralized. We can do much better than that. And we will. But the dumb masses like you will always do it wrong.

How so? You didn't send your money to an unregulated centralized exchange? Then how did your money get into Gox? Did it magically transfer itself to Gox?

Nonsense.

You deserve to lose every penny that you did. Just as I did deserve to lose the 2 BTC when I accepted payment over Paypal and it was reversed.

Lesson learned. Did you learn yours? Or you will continue to make excuses and whine to the government to fix it for you?

Fixed that for you.

That's simply ignorant. MtGox has to be blamed, but if you couldn't admit your own fault, you haven't learnt the lesson and you will commit the same fault again.

Anyone that sends large amounts of money to any organization without due diligence is opening themselves to risk. I am truly sorry for the people that got burned, but there were many warnings about mt gox. A simple google search and a little reading could have prevented a lot of this.