So bitcoin has given us untraceable currency without the state, except that without traceability, you also have no accountability, no justice, no law. This libertarian nightmare will soon come crashing down.
Yeah, exactly. That's why no one uses cash anymore. Just think of it! If you give someone your cash, they might just disappear!
/s
Bitcoin won't die just because people that want to ride the bubble lose some of their investments. It'll slow down, of course, but storing wealth is not bitcoins selling point, and trusted central exchanges are not essential to the model.
I'd love to say it's because I'm smart, but inaccessible to bad actors on other continents is the default setting for my wallet. Hell, I'm not smart enough to even figure out how to change the setting. :)
I've never had someone on another continent take Bitcoin out of my Bitcoin wallet, and it's incredibly trivial to ensure that it stays that way. What's your point?
Maybe because it's a new technology and we are just learning about it? Who told them to jump in anyway? Didn't they know hackers existed? I bet these are the same persons who leave their $3000 cameras or other gear unattended when they visit less lucky countries, and are surprised when they are stolen from them.
How do you exactly expect to convert your current dollars into BTCs without an exchange?
Also, exchanges are natural monopolies. The more people that go to a particular exchange increases the network effect of an exchange. More people == faster trades, faster trades == more fair prices.
Exchanges will centralize because the economics and network effects of exchanges demand centralization.
I bought my Bitcoins at the BXB (Bitcoin Exchange Berlin: http://www.bitcoin-exchange-berlin.com/p/was-ist-die-bxb.htm...) where I met the seller in person for a long enough time so he could not run with my money. You should organize a Bitcoin Exchange in your city.
I am well aware of local exchanges. But you know, there is this thing called "the internet", which ought to allow me to trade BTC with anyone in the world.
With a local exchange, you get the best price for BTC in your city. With an internet-exchange, you automatically get the best price for BTC in the world... INSTANTLY, without having to schedule a meetup.
The more BTC exchanges converge, the better things will be overall. Trades will execute faster, at a lower cost, with maximum convenience with maximum fairness. It is damn near impossible to settle on a price without an exchange.
Its simply a matter of which BTC exchange will be trustworthy enough to hold the title of "defacto exchange of the entire internet".
It sure is, because Mt. Gox messed things up with their customers. Mt. Gox WAS the central exchange for some time, but they have squandered their position.
Anyway, the forces of physics can be resisted: A thrown ball goes against the flow of gravity, and even Airplanes and Birds can fly for extended periods of time. But in the long term... almost everything follows gravity in the long term.
Similarly, centralizing market forces (in particular: the formation of "natural monopolies") are a known and documented phenomenon. But in the long term, the BTC Market gains more benefits from centralizing... than decentralizing.
I wonder how the Bitcoins mentioned in the article have vanished? Every body that put money in there should have close look at the Bitcoin block chain and find out where his Bitcoins went.
But as always these kind of articles lack useful details.
