Poof! All Your Bitcoins Are Belong To Us

Holy crap!<br /><br />I think it's a reasonable thing to say that I am DAMN glad I don't have one thin dime invested in those things.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/cameronkeng/2014/02/25/bitcoins-mt-gox-shuts-down-loses-409200000-dollars-recovery-steps-and-taking-your-tax-losses/"><br /><b>Bitcoin's Mt. Gox Shuts Down, Loses $409,200,000 Dollars -- Recovery Steps and Taking Your Tax Losses</b></a></blockquote><blockquote>Mt. Gox’s shutdown is circulating like wildfire. Its repercussions are being felt throughout the world. Mt. Gox was the most public and well-known brand that represented Bitcoin’s exchange market. The company’s shutdown is rumored to be caused by a “hack” or “security breach” that resulted in a loss up to 744,000 BTC or $409,200,000 Dollars. (Based on the approximate value just hours ago from Coindesk.com) This is truly an unfortunate event that has caused the international community to shake its trust in Bitcoin as evidenced by the massive price drop. This is par the course, when a pillar in the community falls in such a funeral pyre. The best parallel would be the Bear Stearns’ failure during the 2008 global financial crisis. Hopefully, Bitcoin won’t follow in the financial system’s footsteps post-Bear Stearns.</blockquote><br />Here is a handy chart that illustrates what happened to the value of a Bitcoin yesterday.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBuWMr4fKZB835EsEhgen6uUImJQYsRDvpac0z9oPca-NtyXlZ5nV-gFyE8NROixPrhfrJIymXlEDhzfUyqd0ZaaExBYerFW7B2eDx2wV7lYgaTS4eP8rVq1IyBkq0xRgo9vs6jvoPhjT/s1600/Screen-Shot-2014-02-25-at-1.53.40-AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBuWMr4fKZB835EsEhgen6uUImJQYsRDvpac0z9oPca-NtyXlZ5nV-gFyE8NROixPrhfrJIymXlEDhzfUyqd0ZaaExBYerFW7B2eDx2wV7lYgaTS4eP8rVq1IyBkq0xRgo9vs6jvoPhjT/s640/Screen-Shot-2014-02-25-at-1.53.40-AM.png" /></a></div><br />Basically, if you had a bunch of those, they are either gone or worth one hell of a lot less.<br /><br /><br /><br />409 million dollars worth disappeared yesterday,causing panic and the price crashed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimESgXgC3eXoevoSouG6TWN6ORlDOu9BRz3pkKAbigCifKWkQZepe9wxrH3EY8ANDC4mvjMPNDKVM845do83mMEYNrJJnRGgxNEMiJHSL4L6pkqwEZYG7bO7qnZoBeHvia4W7aM25dIWdH/s1600/computer-theft-hacker-protection-1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimESgXgC3eXoevoSouG6TWN6ORlDOu9BRz3pkKAbigCifKWkQZepe9wxrH3EY8ANDC4mvjMPNDKVM845do83mMEYNrJJnRGgxNEMiJHSL4L6pkqwEZYG7bO7qnZoBeHvia4W7aM25dIWdH/s640/computer-theft-hacker-protection-1000.jpg" /></a></div><br />I'm thinking this is a damn good instructional moment here for me personally.<br /><br />I need to get some intangible currency. I can certainly imagine waking up some day in the not too distant future to find out that a roll of toilet paper will do me more good than a fist full of dollar bills. I certainly don't trust the banking system even though I use it.<br /><br />I don't know of any employers who pay in cash and still withhold taxes and such.<br />They either pay by paper check or electronic deposit.<br /><br />I actually had someone gift me some Bitcoins several years ago when they first came out but I had no freakin' clue about what to do with them. They had absolutely no value to me.<br />I put 'em in some electronic wallet thingy and then promptly lost the location and password for it.<br />Writing it down didn't do me a bit of good either because that's back when I was hittin' the bottle really hard and I know that info got tossed. They didn't cost me anything and I'm not out anything the way I see it.<br /><br />There are a whole bunch of people out there right now who just found out the hard way what imaginary money is really worth.<br /><br />Even worthless paper money is good for starting fires if it has no other value.<br /><br /><br />

Poof! All Your Bitcoins Are Belong To Us

Holy crap! I think it's a reasonable thing to say that I am DAMN glad I don't have one thin dime invested in those things. Bitcoin...

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