[aegiso]

I won't speak to this particular case, but look at the incentives for any service that stores people's coins:

-You can cash out (steal) an arbitrary amount of people's coins, blaming it on a "hack". If technically competent you can make it look as legitimate as you like, even giving a detailed post-mortem.

-This will probably tarnish your operation and possibly your internet rep if the Google juice flows that way.

So how much is your internet reputation worth? Personally, there's probably a number that would sway me.

Until these incentives are changed somehow, with regulation or otherwise, it will happen.

[DennisP]

Instead of changing incentives, we could remove the technical ability for services to do this.

One solution is m-of-n transactions, which Bitcoin already implements. Set things up so that any two of three keys can sign a transaction and spend your coins. The online service gets one key, you keep another on your computer, and a third goes in your safe deposit box.

Normally, you spend by signing a transaction from your computer and asking the service to do the same. The service can't spend coins without hacking your computer. If the service goes away, you pull the third key out of your safe deposit.

[kiba]

Which will shift the burden to individuals to secure their safetyboxes and safe, and backup their computers. However, it's a hell lot better than losing everyone's coins in one fell swoop.

[mschuster91]

This protects you from a busted exchange but it does not protect the exchange against fraudulent users or criminals.

[logicallee]

>Personally, there's probably a number that would sway me.

Uncharitably, I could say "So we've determined you're a thief, now we're just haggling about the price."

But actually I don't think that thinking that there is a number that would probably sway you, means that that number really would. I'd like to think you'd actually say no to any number, through to billions.

At the end of the day, morality isn't nearly as elastic as people suppose. You either have it or you don't.

[acjohnson55]

At the end of the day, morality isn't nearly as elastic as people suppose. You either have it or you don't.

I'd like to believe that, but most of what I've learned about sociology and economics says otherwise.