ok, so MTGox got hacked and 700000 BTC were stolen.
So are the stolen BTC actually worth anything ?.
Can they be spent like any other BTC ?
If so what a bloody daft thing to do, storing coins online. You are then at the mercy of the exchange.

I can understand that online wallets are encrypted, BUT why aren't the individual BTC protected by the owners own separate encryption methods.
That way when BTC are stolen they are worthless without the decryption key to open them and make them spendable.

That way holding coins in an online wallet becomes a lot safer and the owner has the final level of security.
Stealing BTC then becomes pointless and of no value to the hacker. Because you haven't actually stolen anything, just a series of random bits. (no pun intended).

Michael