Is Bitcoin in any way valuable?

[Loudly]

17. If Yahoo closed up shop tomorrow, would e-mail cease to exist and be used?

That's the way the collapse of MtGox was described by one commenter I read.

Bitcoin seems pretty robust despite the apparent attempt to destroy it by stealing enough to undermine confidence in it.

If it was stolen to be spent, then whoever stole it still needs to figure out how to be able to pass it off in commerce as wealth.

Because Bitcoin is all about provenance, and that is something which seems impossible to counterfeit. {The approach has been to corrupt or fool the online wallet holding it.}

So perhaps these stolen Bitcoins were never intended to be "spent" per se.

It might be just an operation by a government or a banker or consortium of such vested interests to nip this Bitcoin menace in the bud through the introduction of fear of loss.

A misbegotten effort to slander Bitcoin, so to speak. To tarnish it in the minds of those who are still struggling to understand what it is.

Or it could just be digital vandalism by hackers, which seems to be an end in itself for those types.

Bragging rights for their own perverse sake.

Which would be a sad irony because they are the ones who best understand its usefulness and could advance the spread of its benefits.