I'd be more interested in how many of those who lost (or rather, will lose if MtGox does indeed die) cannot easily afford it. 8 people so far, for instance, have said they lost more than 1000 BTC, which would be over $600k.
I wonder how many of these fall into the following categories:
1. The mined the coins themselves back when it was cheap to mine, or bought them when they are cheap. They are not actually much worse off then before they got into Bitcoin.
2. They put a lot of money into acquiring those Bitcoins. They are going to actually end up a significant fraction of that $600k worse of than when they started. However, they have millions of dollars or dollar equivalents elsewhere, and this loss is not really going to impact their lifestyle in any noticeable way.
3. They put a lot of money into acquiring those Bitcoins, and are going to end up a significant fraction of that $600k behind where they started. That represents a significant fraction of their wealth, and it will impact future plans to live a more extravagant lifestyle, but it won't knock them down to a lower class. They'll keep living where they live, and buying the same kind of luxuries they currently buy.
4. Similar to 2 and 3, but they had most of their wealth in this. They may have to move down a class or two on the social/financial ladder.
5. Similar, but they had so much of their wealth in this that "ruined" would be an accurate description. They basically have to start over financially.
Really, especially with btc where keeping it local is literally just getting the blockchain and sitting on wallet backups.
Also, who in the world would invest money on MtGox after the repeated bullcrap incompetence out of them since 2011? They have never had a good month of operation.
In mid October before the huge rise in value, I started a USD withdrawal of $2700 to my american bank account and despite repeated emails claiming that the bank transfer process was simply delayed, it has never come through.
Luckily I only lost $500 in this grand btc experiment since most of that value was gained through trading
It's hard for me to understand why anyone would have kept any money in any form in Gox. The signs of a poorly run institution have been there for the better part of the past 10 months. As soon as I read about the US Government seizing their US Bank account last May and the suspension of Dwolla for USD transfers I got out of there ASAP and never contemplated going back. With the rise of Bitstamp and Coinbase plus the other players there was just no reason to go anywhere near Gox any more.
There's also no reason to keep BTC or USD at any exchange for more than the time it takes to make a trade, unless you're arbing between exchanges (in which case this type of event does suck but should have been priced into your whole strategy). Mt gox was an exchange not a bank.
I started mining bitcoin years ago; this sounds awfully "hipster", but it was still a relatively new, unheard of thing. I had no clue what I was doing, and mined 1 BTC. I lost it when I lost that hard drive; it took me until a year or so ago to even remember that I had it.
I consider myself lucky that I did not invest more of myself in BTC at that time. I think this MtGox event would be a huge hit to me.
I successfully withdrew what I had there but that was a long time ago. I know it's easy to say now, but I always suspected they were a bit of a clownshoes operation because of the simply awful web design they deemed acceptable.
I transferred some in a while ago as an experiment but never managed to get it out. It wasn't very much but it still makes me sad I'll never see it return.
Will anyone be able to get their bitcoins from MtGox?
They said the bitcoins were safe. What changed? Will they be transferred eventually? What are the chances?
Don't keep cryptocurrencies in an online wallet/exchange, unless you're actively using it to do day trading and understand/accept the risks. Otherwise always transfer it to a local wallet or cold storage as soon as you make the exchange.
Bitcoin is a decentralized currency for a reason. Don't trust centralized systems with your money when you can easily protect it much better than they can.
Maybe so on the Fear, but there's certainly a certain Uncertainty when the service is not up, and undoubtedly a lot of Doubt when it's been rapidly declining before it fell.
I wonder how many of these fall into the following categories:
1. The mined the coins themselves back when it was cheap to mine, or bought them when they are cheap. They are not actually much worse off then before they got into Bitcoin.
2. They put a lot of money into acquiring those Bitcoins. They are going to actually end up a significant fraction of that $600k worse of than when they started. However, they have millions of dollars or dollar equivalents elsewhere, and this loss is not really going to impact their lifestyle in any noticeable way.
3. They put a lot of money into acquiring those Bitcoins, and are going to end up a significant fraction of that $600k behind where they started. That represents a significant fraction of their wealth, and it will impact future plans to live a more extravagant lifestyle, but it won't knock them down to a lower class. They'll keep living where they live, and buying the same kind of luxuries they currently buy.
4. Similar to 2 and 3, but they had most of their wealth in this. They may have to move down a class or two on the social/financial ladder.
5. Similar, but they had so much of their wealth in this that "ruined" would be an accurate description. They basically have to start over financially.