Bitcoin Forum

Now with  Intersango  (http://bitcoinmagazine.net/intersango-shuts-down-usd-trade/) shutting down USD trading portion and BitFloor having its issues do we have to worry how we will obtain our bitcoins?  I know the squeeze will give more value to bitcoin but if nobody can get them then what happens? Even more concerning would be Mt.Gox being the only exchange that would be a disaster would it not ? Thoughts.

There is always escrow service. Plenty of sites where people enter into transactions to exchange BTC for fiat or other (crypto)currencies. If regular exchanges shut down massively, it will probably affect Bitcoin, but it would not be the absolute end of it.

Lol, nice way to make FUD

Intersango is only stopping USD trade

Lol...I'll correct it!

In a way, the exchanges have always been the weak point in the Bitcoin economy.  They're most vulnerable to regulatory action and compliance with financial services and AML/CTF requirements is astonishingly expensive for even the largest operators.  To some degree, people have become lazy and over-reliant on the Bitcoin exchanges.

If you take the exchanges out of the picture then you get to see whether Bitcoin as a peer to peer system is really viable at this time.  Will the OTC market substantially increase and will solutions to the issues which make OTC unattractive to people quickly emerge?

I'm not sure whether the Bitcoin community is ready for an economy without the exchanges yet, but it the long term Bitcoin cannot succeed as a peer to peer system if it's always dependent on the exchanges.

On the otherside, bitcoins are already a pain in the ass to get. With intersango stopping USD trade, this makes it even more difficult.

Which BitFloor issues are you referring to?

I absolutely agree, but if the will to solve the problem exists, people will come up with solutions.  In some ways, we're going to get a more realistic idea of how many people care enough about Bitcoin to put effort into solving its problems and whether it really has the critical mass it needs to survive without a high degree of centralisation of services.

The bitcoin hiest that happen with it ...it went offline because of it.

To answer this thread's title question: No. We'll still have Mt Gox.

I am still unable to withdraw my bitcoins [edit: deposited] before their September 2012 security breach. Therefore BitFloor is technically insolvent.

They are registered with FinCEN as a money-service business in the U.S. Thus I assume they are not immune to U.S. courts and U.S. bankruptcy laws.  

Thus technically, your funds held by BitFloor are at risk.

 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/5023/153

Intersango was one of just four exchange methods that accepted Dwolla USD as funding methods.   Intersango was the only one that ONLY accepted Dwolla.

So now there are three.

 - http://www.MtGox.com
 - http://www.CampBX.com
 - http://www.BitInstant.com

Also, there's nothing stopping you from doing a person-to-person trade using Dwolla, if you can trust the counterparty.  Bitcoin-otc can help lessen the risk a little.   Dwolla isn't as easily reversible as PayPal (as there must be a fraudulent claim made) but the risk is above zero, thus should be considered before trading your bitcoins for Dwolla.

Hi Stephen,

You weren't able to withdraw bitcoins before the security breach?  Can explain this more how is that possible?

Shush you a$$!  :P

About PayPal Chargebacks

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51292.0

 

What he's saying is that putting additional USD onto BitFloor could potentially result in your funds being used to repay persons who are owed BTC in the event a creditor pursues a forced bankruptcy of BitFloor.

Sorry, that wasn't clear.  I'm still unable to withdraw my bitcoins that were deposited before the September security breach.  My ~30BTC coins, and others with about 24,000 BTC in total still show "hold".

If it came to that, I don't see why the exchanges couldn't just register with the applicable government agency and comply with regulation.

I imagine that would be expensive, though.

From what I gather, the there's no threat that what they're doing is illegal per se; it may just be subject to extensive regulation and government oversight. 

As we'd expect with any link to the fiat banking system. Then again, while governments have moved in to regulate ISPs a lot in the last ten years or so (data-retention requirements, for example), they have struggled to contain or restrict free flow of information on the Internet generally - a good thing of course! - even in quite totalitarian states like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, etc.

No problem, thanks for the clarification it all make sense. Also, there are 24,000 BTC in total on "hold" ?  wow...