The title of an article I read recently comes to mind, "You don't know the problem." That is, creating an un-hackable system isn't the problem.

It's probably unrealistic to expect that anyone will ever create a completely un-hackable system. Rather, one should design their systems to fail gracefully under attack.

If someone breaks in to my Citibank account, it doesn't much matter to me, because the banks have the authority to roll back transactions with the push of a button. Their power to do so is the greatest layer of security in the whole system; just as we have seen with Mt Gox.

Unfortunately, Mt Gox is not bitcoin, it's simply an exchange, so it's once removed from bitcoin itself. The owner of that account still lost $1000, and no one can reverse it. Contrast that with bitcoin, and you can begin to see the problem.

This is a fundamental issue with all currencies, not just bitcoin. It's a trade-off. When you hold currency, you hold responsibility for securing it. If I kept $500k in USD (paper currency, bonds, whatever) under my mattress, I'd have no recourse if someone broke in to my house and stole it. That is why I'm ok with keeping my money in a bank. I give up a lot for it, but I gain a lot of security.