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    Author Topic: Bitcoin insurance/policing companies (idea)  (Read 1084 times)
    maaku (OP)
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    September 08, 2012, 05:35:21 PM
     #1

    This is an idea that I've been thinking about for a while but do not and surely never will have the time to properly implement. I'm posting it here in the hopes that someone else will, as I believe it is a service greatly needed by the bitcoin community. Especially in light of what's happened recently with Bitcoinica and now Bitfloor.

    What I advocate would most accurately be called a bitcoin insurance company, but probably not what you think of when you hear those words. It is a security company that assumes the risk of theft or destruction of its clients bitcoins, in exchange for a premium and a contractual obligation to implement what the company determines to be minimally adequate security measures.

    Should a theft/destruction occur, the company immediately pays out the value of the lost coins to the client, in exchange for ownership of the stolen/destroyed coins--the premium being an on-going option for the insurance company to buy the coins at face value. This is where it differs from a traditional insurance company: the company takes off its actuary hat and becomes a policing organization. The company has become the legal owner of the stolen or destroyed property, and it uses whatever legal means available to find the one responsible and extract restitution (NB: restitution, not retribution--I'm talking principal + interest + collection fees, etc.).

    If Bitcoinica had such insurance, it never would have gone permanently offline in the first place. Instead the insurance company would have gotten some bridge financing to cover the rather large payout, then launched a well-funded white-hat and black-hat operation to identify those responsible and extract restitution. Bitcoinica would have been back up and running within a week, and one more scammer would have learned not to mess with the bitcoin police.

    The bitcoin economy is very fragile, and we need policing organizations to keep the scammers and con artists at bay. And there's really no reason this can't be a service provided by the community itself--and paid for through the mechanism of insurance.

    I'm an independent developer working on bitcoin-core, making my living off community donations.
    If you like my work, please consider donating yourself: 13snZ4ZyCzaL7358SmgvHGC9AxskqumNxP
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