Bitcoin has proven an awesome case study in the 'de-regulated' world. I cannot count the number of times some entity 'built a solid reputation' for just long enough to take their cash-out at an opportune time. Over and over again we saw (and probably will continue to see) exchanges and wallet services fold and take everyone's money. Usually the give back a pittance to preserve some plausible deniability. The ratio of people who have been chumped out of their BTC vs the number of people who ever held any is truly impressive. Were such a ratio observed in the real world where the stakes are higher it would be an unmitigated disaster.
I'll think I'll frame that and hang it somewhere.
Here is the difference.
Regulated world: Hardworking taxpayers pay for everyone's mistakes. It has gotten to the point where there is actually incentive to make "mistakes"!
De-regulated world: The people making the mistakes pay for their mistakes. There is a very strong incentive to avoid making mistakes.
Most people were born into the first kind of world. When they are faced with the second, many fail to properly protect themselves. They jump before they realize that the safety net those nice people were maintaining is missing. Change takes time and sometimes it comes with a bitter pill. I prefer a world where personal responsibility is a priority. People should think before they jump.
This is a good point; us humans are adaptable.
In a roundabout kind of way, the hackers, scammers, thieves etc are improving bitcoin. They do their misdeeds and the community begins to espouse an antidote and evolve. This is because anyone with a stake in bitcoin has a reason for it to succeed and so it is in our best interests to continue to improve the system. We've gone from web wallets and private key holding exchanges to paper wallets, holding your private keys, exchange audits and multi sig. Soon, it will evolve again; fingers crossed in the meantime we all keep our coins safe.
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