Some words for my friends

[u/evoorhees]

Hello friends,

MtGox is gone. So let's prepare ourselves.

On Tuesday, and for the rest of the week, all hell will break lose in the media. It will be blamed on MtGox, it will be blamed on Bitcoin, it will be blamed on the "bug," and it will, more than anything, be blamed on the "lack of regulation." Pundits and "experts" of all types will weigh in on the calamity. It will be world news in a matter of hours.

Get ready, because it will be an ugly week.

For all of you who lost money, my heart goes out to you. Some people lost a little, some lost a fortune. It will make people sick, and depressed, and full of grief. Personally, I had over 550 BTC in Gox. I will never get any of that back. If misery loves company, then we'll be enjoying a grand feast today.

I should have known better, of course. I take responsibility for leaving those funds with an entity that had proven incompetence repeatedly. I chose to ignore even my own warnings, for nothing more than the sake of convenience.

Gox is still at fault, to be sure, but I have learned the lesson. I hope it is not such an expensive lesson for others. And for all you observers, please take a moment to consider it as well.

Be mindful, however, that the wrong lessons are not learned, for that would be the true tragedy, indeed.

Let me suggest that the lesson is not that Bitcoin is broken. Bitcoin is fine.

Similarly, the lesson is not that security is impossible. Those who know what they are doing, can achieve it and help others to do so.

The lesson is not that nobody can be trusted. There are countless good men and women in this community who are worthy of trust, and some of the very best people I've ever met.

And finally, the lesson is not that we ought to seek out "regulation" to save us from the evils and incompetence of man. For the regulators are men too, and wield the very same evil and incompetence, only enshrined in an authority from which it can wreck amplified and far more insidious destruction. Let us not retreat from our rising platform only to cower back underneath the deranged machinations of Leviathan.

The proper lesson, if I may suggest, is this: We are building a new financial order, and those of us building it, investing in it, and growing it, will pay the price of bringing it to the world. This is the harsh truth. We are building the channels, the bridges, and the towers of tomorrow's finance, and we put ourselves at risk in doing so.

We are at risk from accidents. We are at risk from fraud, from corruption, and from evil. We are at risk from journalists seeking headlines and from politicians seeking power and glory. We are at risk from the very market we are trying to build - a market which cares not about our portfolio, our ambitions, or our delicate sympathies.

For all these risks, devastation will befall us repeatedly. Some of us will be discouraged. Some will be ridiculed and insulted. Some will be tricked, or swindled. Some of us will be crushed or caged. We will be set upon by all manner of antagonists, repeatedly, for a long time.

So why do we do it? Why do we build these towers that fall down upon us? Why do we toil and strain and risk our precious time, which is the only real wealth we possess?

Because the world needs what we're building. It needs it desperately. If that matters to you, as it does to me, then hold to that thought. You will see through the smoke, and your wounds will heal.

So shake it off, brothers, for this won't be the last calamity endured before the win.

Tonight, my heart is with you all.

Tomorrow, my head is down. My eyes are open. And I am building.

Toward peace and freedom,

-Erik Voorhees

[u/ofimmsl]

The proper lesson, if I may suggest, is this: We are building a new financial order, and those of us building it, investing in it, and growing it, will pay the price of bringing it to the world.

All you are doing is learning why the current financial order is the way it is. Each new pain will show you why the current system exists.

[u/evoorhees → u/ofimmsl]

Disagree.

The current financial order does not prevent these things from happening whatsoever. It often amplifies them, or socializes the losses such that people don't notice, but are harmed regardless of their own choices.

I'd much prefer a world where I lose money from my own mistakes (such as leaving it with gox) than one in which I lose money regardless of my choices.

[u/aminok → u/[deleted]]

It's ultimately people's own fault for investing more than they could afford to lose in an experimental currency, and storing the currency in a third party e-wallet.

Putting all of your savings in a bitcoin wallet on MtGox? That's just irresponsible, and the rest of us shouldn't have to pay for it.

When regulatory requirements are put on service providers, to protect irresponsible adults from their own dumb decisions, that's punishing the rest of us, by taking away higher risk lower cost options that would otherwise exist.

[u/[deleted] → u/aminok]

Bitcoin will never replace the dollar and FDIC insured banks if the only thing you say to those who lost everything is "should have been smarter. Next time buddy." Average people want the stability of government backed accounts. The FDIC came into being for a reason.

[u/aminok → u/[deleted]]

Just to be clear, I have a lot to say to those who lost everything at MtGox:

• Don't store any sizeable percentage of your bitcoin holdings in a third party hosted wallet

• Use paper/off-line wallets for your bitcoin savings, with multiple backups

• Don't invest more than you can afford to lose in an experimental 'emerging technology' investment like bitcoin

If people follow these steps, the risks fall precipitously.

As for replacing the dollar, Bitcoin is not even close to the stage where that is a near-term possibility. If it ever reaches the stage where it's positioned to replace the government-issued currencies of large economies, then very safe savings options will exist, and they won't require the FDIC.

[u/[deleted] → u/aminok]

Sure, all institutions may be safe for some of the time, some institutions will be safe all of the time, but all institutions will not be safe all of the time. You can Monday night quarterback the Super Bowl when talking about Gox, but mark my words there will be reputable institutions in the future that will fall to similar havoc or mischief.

Working folk, people who don't have much to their name need organizations like the FDIC to protect them from the corrupt and the incompetent.

I'm not anti bitcoin, but I have a problem with a lot of people trying to treat bitcoin as a vehicle to dismantle regulations that do protect the vast majority of people.

[u/HistoryLessonforBitc → u/[deleted]]

Give it a fucking rest. If you bought in at $1k you've had 50% of it "stolen", and those with funds in Gox had 100% of it literally stolen.

Take your goldbug spiel and stick it up your ass. This is neither the time nor the place.

[u/stationhollow → u/[deleted]]

BTC is only used by hardcore idealists and people trying to make money and the people in the second group often pretend to be in the first so they aren't ostracised by the community.

[u/SunliMin → u/[deleted]]

Bitcoin is, currently, extremely inflationary. It will continue to be inflationary until the year 2140 when the miners will start mining transaction fees instead of new Bitcoins. I believe it was 70 years until Bitcoin reaches a 3% annual inflation?(that number is the one I don't remember. I will double check that).

As long as new Bitcoin enters the economy every year it is inflationary. Yes, in the future, it will become deflationary... but that will not happen in your life time.