IMO the only way in court you might successfully win damages is if you showed they were negligent regarding their security.
Well, before you can determine that, you have to determine how vigilant their security should have been, and that depends on whether you think Linode was marketed as suitable for high-value, easy theft targets like hot Bitcoin wallets.
I think that would be pretty hard. You'd probably have to show they were aware of the vulnerability or open "customer service portal" and disregarded it. Or maybe they knew an employee was involved in malicious accesses but ignored it. In either case it would probably require an inside whistle blower. So far there haven't been indications that negligence occurred.
Well, we don't know yet. But from just the evidence we have so far, I think it's at least reasonably probable that negligence on Linode's part was involved if you think the appropriate standard is sufficient security to host high-value Bitcoin sites.
Take my $50,000 Rolex in the coat room example. If the coat check attendant goes to the bathroom and doesn't have another employee watch the coat room, is that negligent? Yes if the coat room is supposed to be suitable for storing $50,000 Rolexes. Otherwise, no.
