I'm all for what bitcoin is trying to achieve.
I'm not. Actually I do not know what it is trying to achieve, but "unregulated" and "not backed up by anything" are certainly not what I am after.
But this is just a news story about an exchange which didn't know what it was doing, trading in a currency that hasn't been fully proven, operating in an unknown capacity from somewhere in Japan, and without any oversight at all.
I think they knew what they were doing. I think the currency is proven - to be faulty. I think the "achieve" part means "no oversight at all" so you are already contradicting yourself.
That's like millions of people asking my buddy Joe who lives in a trailer to hang onto their money for them. Oh no, bad decisions were made?
What you "bitcoin people" seem to want is anymous (i.e. can buy drugs without getting caught) which can be easily transferred (i.e. no exchange can steal or stop you) backed up (i.e. you cannot lose your money - just win with it) non-government (i.e. not backed up ...), non-fiat (i.e. er, I have no clue) money.
Then someone makes "cryptographic mathematically proven" - and you expect that to mean it holds all above. You fail to understand that money has just one necessary condition: majority of people trust it - mostly because the country they live in would collapse without it, and the persons backing it up knows this and you know they know.