It is pretty entertaining to watch the bitcoin crowd slowly reinvent all the controls that exist in the existing monetary systems as they slowly learn what they are for. One lesson down, how many to go? :)
What controls? I see some empty reassurances, but nobody that I see is proposing controls. I doubt controls for existing monetary systems would work for bitcoins anyway as it requires a central organization that has power, like printing money, and enough vested interest to through good money after bad money to save the currency. Bitcoins have neither of these.
>Acting as a custodian should require a high-bar, including appropriate security safeguards that are independently audited and tested on a regular basis, adequate balance sheets and reserves as commercial entities, transparent and accountable customer disclosures, and clear policies to not use customer assets for proprietary trading or for margin loans in leveraged trading.
I believe that anywhichway hasn’t found the names of the “independent[…] audit[ors]” in that document. He’s being harsh, but his point is technically true: the text reads ‘should’ first. Hopefully, a matter of days.
The catastrophe of 2008 (to consumers) was that the market decided to make credit scarce. It makes sense that the government can't force banks to take unjustified risks once they've wised up to the recklessness of their lending.
This is very different from money just disappearing out of checking accounts, which is what happened with MtGox. Even if that did happen, the FDIC would make the depositors whole.
And thanks to the "controlls" in place, everything changed and we're now in a situation where something like what happened in 2008 would be inimaginable !
/s
