"It would certainly be an unprecedented intervention by the core Bitcoin community. But if it would restore public confidence in the protocol and economy, then it would be in enough people's interest that I think there's a slim chance it could be made to happen."
This would do even more harm than good. The entire thesis of Bitcoin is that the rules have been set, they will never change, and they can never be circumvented. We can't just say "Just kidding, let's make this one exception" without destroying confidence in the sanctity of the blockchain.
However, it would be really interesting to see what would happen if Gox created an actual GoxCoin fork of Bitcoin and distributed it to their customers who lost bitcoins, one GoxCoin for every bitcoin lost.
GoxCoin would certainly be worth far less than Bitcoin, but consider Litecoin’s market cap is 5% of Bitcoin's, compared to GoxCoins representing the 6% of all bitcoins lost by Gox.
This would do even more harm than good. The entire thesis of Bitcoin is that the rules have been set, they will never change, and they can never be circumvented. We can't just say "Just kidding, let's make this one exception" without destroying confidence in the sanctity of the blockchain.
However, it would be really interesting to see what would happen if Gox created an actual GoxCoin fork of Bitcoin and distributed it to their customers who lost bitcoins, one GoxCoin for every bitcoin lost.
GoxCoin would certainly be worth far less than Bitcoin, but consider Litecoin’s market cap is 5% of Bitcoin's, compared to GoxCoins representing the 6% of all bitcoins lost by Gox.