http://nypost.com/2014/03/01/hackers-stole-437m-worth-of-bitcoins-in-tinker-toy-currency-mess/Hackers stole $473M of ‘Tinker Toy currency’ bitcoins
By Jonathon M. Trugman March 1, 2014 | 9:35pm
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Hackers stole $473M of ‘Tinker Toy currency’ bitcoins
Only a ban will solve this bitcoin currency mess.
Photo: Reuters
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Mt. Gox — formerly known as Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange — made 750,000 bitcoins worth $473 million disappear, the company said Friday.
The former trading-card exchange declared bankruptcy after CEO Mark Karpeles announced that hackers had plundered all the coin on the site.
Once again, let’s be clear: Bitcoin is not a currency, crypto or otherwise. A legitimate currency is a store of an economic value based upon a nation’s level of economic strength.
Anybody referring to bitcoin as a currency is either slimy or just plain stupid.
A bona fide currency has a homeland, and it is that country’s specific approved form of money, with a seal and a traceable serial number, backed up by gross domestic product, taxes and oversight.
Even commodities like gold, diamonds, silver and oil have measurable, underlying values that can be precisely weighed.
Bitcoin is closer to the Dutch Tulipmania of the 1630s, only you can’t put a bunch of bitcoins on your Sunday dinner table.
So unfortunately for the young man standing outside Mt. Gox HQ in Tokyo, there is no liquidity left, no paper trail and certainly no profits.
So, moving forward, can we stop with the quasi-official talk from federal and state officials?
As Fed chair Janet Yellen explained it perfectly to senators, “It’s not so easy to regulate bitcoin, because there is no central issuer.”
Even so, New York state regulator Benjamin Lawsky has been leading the charge to possibly “regulate” or rein in bitcoin. Well-respected after having won a major $340 million settlement from Standard Chartered Bank in a money-laundering case, he is almost beyond reproach and working tirelessly on bitcoin.
Better would be to take a cue from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who called for a complete ban on bitcoin in a letter to regulators last week.
“I urge the regulators to work together, act quickly, and prohibit this dangerous currency from harming hardworking Americans,” the senator wrote.
Give the guy credit: He tells like it is, even if some of the Bitcoin sponsors like Marc Andreessen are politically active donors and have lobbyists converging on Washington and New York en masse.
While it’s clear that politicians’ and regulators’ intentions are good, they do need to be careful not to mistakenly lend even a scintilla of credibility to what amounts to a Tinker Toy currency.
