Some investors who lost thousands after Mt. Gox's implosion are weighing a new plan: Taking over the exchange to recoup some of their cash.

The idea, which some consider pie-in-the-sky, made the rounds on the Bitcoin sub-Reddit. The gist: Investors will take over Mt. Gox and use its remaining equity to and it running for a few years. Over that time, they will generate enough money from trading fees to pay back at least some of the money they've lost. As Redditor Xeldel explained:

A new Xchange wouldn't be mt gox, it wouldnt have any of the employees or management, not even the name. Call it anything. the idea would be to maintain the account balances. Take the data , put together a transparent secure exchange and run it. There is no reason to say i want anyone's account balances dissolved and forgotten, if that is able to be preserved. There are plenty of cheap gox coins for sale right now. A working solution of this idea would be more than enough incentive for some very talented people to get involved.

Under such a scenario, Mt. Gox's management would be crowdsourced and the community would appoint a management team. "There are likely to be over a million individuals interested in recovering their account holdings from this now defunct exchange. Despite the reality of insolvency, it may still be possible to honor those debts. The process would be slow, and yet ultimately feasible," wrote Redditor Coastermonger.

The idea appeals to investors like Kirk Ouimet, who sunk about $40,000 into Mt. Gox (his investment is now worth about $200,000) and doubts he'll ever get that money back. "If the community can pull through for some type of arrangement, that's way more hopeful than just being completely screwed," he says. Ouimet, the Utah-based developer of Coined, an iPhone app that provides updates for Bitcoin and Litecoin prices.

Some Redditors dismissed such talk as fantasy. "Here's the thing, it's unlikely to attract much "new money" into the exchange, who would want to touch gox now?" asked Redditor Zeeterm. "Basically, this idea is akin to starting a new exchange but instead of starting from scratch, starting with a ~700k bitcoin debt," wrote Redditor R_val. Another said the idea was an example of the Sunken Cost Fallacy in which investors continue on the wrong path by reasoning that they've already invested too much to turn back.

Mt. Gox's filing for bankruptcy protection on Friday also threw a wrench in the works. As Phil Sanderson, managing director of IDG Ventures, told Mashable, "I don't believe this is a viable idea. Since Mt. Gox has filed for bankruptcy, the users are just another creditor and will have to let the courts sort it out at this point. In terms of reviving Mt. Gox, I believe if it were revived, there would be "a run on the virtual bank."

Reviving Mt. Gox isn't the only scheme that cheated investors are considering. Chicago-based law firm Edelson PC filed a class-action suit Thursday in a federal court in Illinois on behalf of one named plaintiff, Gregory Greene, and all other U.S. residents affected by the collapse of Mt. Gox. Greene is said to have lost a trove of bitcoins worth $25,000.

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