Cheaper than building mountains, at least.

What happened to you sucks big time, but you are blaming the wrong people. The EU just gave the Cypriot government billions in a "loan" that will likely never be repaid. If anything, you should thank them. It's the bankers that gambled with depositors' money and lost. And it's the Cypriot government that is responsible for creating an environment in which such banks could function. Fortunately, Bitcoin is immune to such shenanigans, provided you keep your private keys safe.

Yes, but it's the ECB that said "in order to get this loan, you must steal from your depositors."
Cyprus government was stupid.
Cyprus banks were stupid.
ECB was evil.
The little people foot the bill.

They didn't steal from their depositors, they merely refused to bail them out beyond the E100k limit enshrined in law. Bailing them out beyond that limit would have been outrageous theft from the taxpayers who would have had to foot the bill.


Check. Or actually, corrupt. They were corrupted both by the banks and by voters.


Selfish. And evil.


Only to the degree it stole from those with euros by printing new ones to bail out governments in the periphery.


The little people are not footing the bill, EU taxpayers like yours truly are footing the bill.

I'm not defending the EU at all, it has lots of faults, and so do its various institutions, including the ECB. But I'm also pointing out those who are really responsible for the Cypriot mess, and that's not the EU, it's the banks, the failing Cypriot oversight bodies, the Cypriot government and Cypriot voters. As Erik Voorhees puts it so nicely: democracy is the original 51% attack. Not that I know of another, more just but still viable system of government. The worst possible system except for all the others that have been tried, as Churchill is said to have put it. I'd prefer anarcho-capitalism, but I don't think it's viable, which is why we have social democracy forced upon us.

I think some you are still missing the point, that according to the law, in the event of a liquidation of a bank, the debtors of the bank must repay their debts (mortgages etc.) prematurely or face liquidation. This was not effected.

Think about it. The creditors get stolen from, before even trying to make the debtors pay. A clear breach of the law (and common sense).

The ECB has sealed the fate of Bitcoin. It will go to $300k in 2016.

Could you tell us more about this please ? Where does that rule come from, is it true worldwide (or nearly), and do you know when this kind of rule has been put into place ? Thx

You're very close to correct, here. Let me fix the sentence.
"But I'm also pointing out those who are really responsible for the Cypriot mess, and that's not just the EU, it's also the banks, the failing Cypriot oversight bodies, the Cypriot government and Cypriot voters."

I would like to point out, however, that had the EU not existed, this mess would likely not have happened in the first place.

So, why do you think that security, justice, and risk-management cannot be provided for on the open market, and must be forced upon us by a monopoly provider?

Alas, the fact that most governments inside the EU are actually acting irresponsibly, all the while the EU officials pretend to say it's all good and support stupid national policies, pretend that leaving the eurozone is satanic, and are feeling comfortable with the ECB policies, puts the EU at fault in my book.
No cypriot money was stolen by the EU to its own profit, but the EU did steal cypriot money to the profit of cypriot bank shareholders and other supposedly first-line capital holders. They even tried to break their promise not to touch deposits under 100k.
Cyprus benefits from a loan, all the while it is denied the right tools to put itself out of the shithole. Now it needs a bigger loan, and next month an even bigger one will be required. Yay for that kind of help that doesn"t help.
(I'm not saying cyprus government and central bank are all white, far from it).