$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GBL vanishes

Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dualogy on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:10PM (#6715793)

All these incidents give more weight to the conspiracy theory that Bitcoin is a govt. or central-bank project. "See? This is what happens without central authority. Now go back to trusting our currency. While we don't guarantee decades of stable purchasing-power preservation, we're not as volatile and our banks don't just appropriate your deposits outright.." ;)

They wouldn't even have to be behind every exchange and instead could let stuff like this (and off-shoots like LiteCoin etc.) happen quite organically and still prove their point, as clearly visible..

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by anigbrowl on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:42PM (#6715882)

Oh please. Every anti-government ideologue I've ever met seems to think that absent government humanity is made up of angels or Rousseau-style noble primitives. There are plenty of scumbags to go round, always have been.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by vbuterin on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @12:53AM (#6716111)

The anti-government ideologues I talk to recognize this perfectly well; in fact, it's a core part of their philosophy. They argue that any center of power will actually serve as a magnet for sociopaths and eventually become infested by them, thereby empowering scumbags more than it controls them in the long term.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by sliverstorm on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @02:49AM (#6716389)

A specious argument if I ever heard one. For starters, what's with conflating sociopaths with scumbags? Sociopathy doesn't make you a criminal.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by Kequc on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @03:53AM (#6716598)

Sociopathy very often results in criminal activity or otherwise simply the manipulation of other people. It is confused regularly with psychopathy, which positions of power are far more likely to attract. However psychopaths are generally not criminals and can be very useful to have around in many cases. This discussion is one of baseless scare mongering and it's not really worth it to dwell on.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by 001sky on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @12:26AM (#6716026)

Every anti-government ideologue I've ever met seems to think that absent government humanity is made up of angels or Rousseau-style noble primitives.

The 'noble savage' [edit:absent government humanity is made up of angels meme] is more a favored construct of the left wing. See, for example the art of Gaugain, Picasso and early modernism. Unless your liberterian ideaolagues acquantences were closest cubists or something.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by tptacek on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @12:28AM (#6716035)

This is like something out of a Markov generator. 'anigbrowl mentions "Rousseau" and here come "noble savages", Gaugain, Picasso, modernism, cubism, and "the left wing". Huh?

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by 001sky on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @12:31AM (#6716048)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitivism also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by ams6110 on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @10:03AM (#6718182)

And most pro-government ideologes seem to think that absent government humanity is made up of liars, cheats, and scoundrels. There are plenty of good people to go around, and always have been.

In other words, there are a small number of corrupt people in private as well as government roles, and that's just the way it is. Problem is, in government, they get to dictate the rules that the rest of us have to live under.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dualogy on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @06:50AM (#6717201)

Yes. And? I wasn't mentioning or implying angels or noble primitives or scumbags or anything.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by sliverstorm on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:21PM (#6715823)

In what way do the incidents substantiate a conspiracy? This is exactly what I would expect to happen; electronic scams are older than the internet.

Unless I misunderstand, your "evidence" is like saying "the moon landing is bulletproof, impossible to disprove- which is proof they faked it, because if they faked it they would make it as real as possible"

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dragontamer on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:17PM (#6715816)

They'll need to choose a government to blame, before just generically blaming "some government" before I start listening.

Last week it was Britain, the week before that it was the US Government. Today, its the Chinese Government???

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by nwh on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:25PM (#6715838)

If a government produced Bitcoin, they probably would have made it work before they announced it. The original Bitcoin was awful. You could spend /anybodies/ coins! The fact that it gained a community is pure luck.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dcc1 on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @08:27AM (#6717633)

What are you talking about?

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by jusben1369 on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:25PM (#6715840)

No they don't. People who are predisposed to conspiracy theories will view this as some sort of data point. But given their mind is already made up they don't need more weight.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dualogy on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @06:48AM (#6717191)

Wow! Well I didn't say I subscribe to that conspiracy theory and didn't mean to peddle it either. Just that these incidents work in its favour.. funny how emotional everyone is getting here immediately! :D

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by hbags on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @07:22AM (#6717326)

Ah, and here's the post where the poor, afflicted fellow disavows his stated opinions, because he now believes that the rest of us are government agents, and the conspiracy is even larger than he first imagined.

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dualogy on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @08:49AM (#6717763)

I guess..

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by sanskritabelt on Monday November 11, 2013 @11:13PM (#6715801)

Can bitcoin guarantee weeks of "stable purchasing-power preservation"?

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by dualogy on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @06:49AM (#6717195)

And how does that question in any way relate to my little digression?

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Re:$4.1m goes missing as Chinese bitcoin trading platform GB... by sanskritabelt on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @11:13AM (#6718593)

You brought up the failure to guarantee "decades of stable purchasing-power" as a failure of g.v.rnm.nt and actual money, which is a claim that you think this is a problem solved by bitcoin.

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