To most people there is no difference. The consequence is that Bitcoin seems unsafe because there has been lots of money stolen. It's like the Oracle bug I am tackling today, my customers don't care if it's Oracle's fault, they just know my product doesn't work.

My entire wallet was stolen [i] -- all that hard work. But that is great news Bitcoin never got hacked -- I got nervous there. /sarcasm

http://www.cryptsysettlement.com/ [i]

I'm sorry you lost funds but there is a finer point separating the bitcoin network and the bitcoin protocol and an exchange losing their funds.

Yes, this is not a Bitcoin vulnerability. Getting access to your wallet is not the same as cracking it.

Don't understand why I'm being downvoted. Don't put your coins on an exchange, ever, unless you want to risk them being lost. This is cryptocurrency 101.

Cryptsy was a middleman, he specifically covered this case. Bitcoin never got hacked.