It is perfectly possible. Your only task is to secure the private keys. These are short enough to be printed as a QR code or written down. keep that piece of paper somewhere safe. Alternatively, it is possible to use a good, random, long passphrase as your de facto private key. That way, the keys to your wallet are literally stored in your mind and nowhere else.

As of now, there are no known fatal flaws or weaknesses in the Bitcoin protocol itself. The network is secure and as long as you manage to secure your private keys, Bitcoin is extremely safe.

And you can always melt down your bitcoin into a pure gold.

> It is perfectly possible [to secure a bitcoin one owns].

You're forgetting about social engineering.

Social engineering applies to pretty much everything. It has nothing to do with Bitcoin (or whatever else a social engineer wants from you) and everything with your own lack of due diligence and gullibility.

I agree entirely - and that is the reason that one shouldn't say "It is perfectly possible to secure a bitcoin one owns."

Semantics. Obviously, theoretically, everybody can be fooled. The common sense definition of secure is not "secure with zero possibility of the security being broken". Storing diamonds in a safe at the bank is secure. Printing your private key and storing it at the bank is not any less secure than storing diamonds there.

It is entirely possible. Being a marketplace their software sends coins around for all sorts of reason, this is what was hacked. Someone's personal bit coins are not at risk.