[panhandlr]

"Do they not plan on there being an official investigation?"

How do you officially investigate someone stealing your monopoly money?

Where is the FDIC insurance? Exactly what are they suppose to tell the police? The FBI? ... oh thats right, nothing, because they are not a bank, and the only thing "stolen" was some ones and zeroes off a hard-drive.

Seriously though... where is the police report on this? Or any of the other hacked bitcoin exchanges for that matter?

[akerl_]

It doesn't matter if you're storing bitcoins or roflcoins or pictures of kittens: in most places, maliciously accessing somebody else's computer system and stealing data is a crime.

The government investigates stolen "ones and zeros" all the time. The FDIC provides protection for users, but the lack of FDIC doesn't mean that no laws apply.

[panhandlr]

What about the laws the operators of the exchange broke by running un-audited code to handle financial transactions?

[akerl_]

Assuming such laws apply to them, and assuming they broke them, "so?". Their guilt or innocence does not have any connection with any investigation of somebody hacking into their systems.

[toomuchtodo]

> Where is the FDIC insurance? Exactly what are they suppose to tell the police? The FBI? ... oh thats right, nothing, because they are not a bank, and the only thing "stolen" was some ones and zeroes of a hard-drive.

This is a slippery slope. How do you think the Federal Reserve pops money into existence before they go on a QE tear? The bits ("ones and zeroes") pop into existence in their account, and they start buying assets/mortgages/whatever.

Currency only has value because of the shared belief that is has value.

[fnordfnordfnord]

>nothing, because they are not a bank,

Are you implying that a bank would somehow be held accountable for breaking the law or ripping people off? Since when?

[toomuchtodo]

My rebuttal to the post I replied to was that all currencies are ones and zeros now. The "> " was me quoting their post.

[fnordfnordfnord]

My mistake. I'm on mobile. I rarely comment on mobile.

[baddox]

It's possible with a small bank.

[Lazare]

You have a valid point about FDIC.

The rest of your comment is nonsnese.

You think the FBI is never interested in ones and zeros on a hard drive? How do you square that with the facts discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9044805

You think there's never any police reports or official investigation? How do you square that with the facts surrounding the collapse of Mt Gox? A recent headline announced that the police are closing in on the fraudsters: http://www.welivesecurity.com/2015/01/02/bitcoin-fraud-mt-go...

Apparently police are quite capable of investigating the theft of "monopoly money", and understanding the issues involved.

[pron]

I have no love for BTC, either, but whatever it is that was stolen -- be it a bunch of ones and zeros, some paint smeared on canvas or your rare comic books -- if it has market value (more than monopoly money, certainly) then valuable property was stolen. The higher the value, the more serious the crime. And if there was a theft of property, the FBI can certainly investigate.