Bitcoin Forum

There just isn't enough that can be said about decentralized exchanges.

The US government is making sure decentralization is very difficult. Mainly the part about anyone exchanging currencies requiring huge license fees and other hoops to jump through.

One day you would be able to go down to the street and purchase BTC the same way you purchase hotdogs, I'm hoping exchanging will be a lot more convenient by then.

You even need a license for a lemonade stand (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43769978/ns/us_news-weird_news/t/girls-busted-illegal-lemonade-stand/#.UYUwtsr5Cjg) in the US.

There is a difference between the ability of making something illegal and the ability of enforcing it. They can easily demand licenses for BTC businesses or even outlaw it altogether, in the end they will just embarrass themselves when it shows even less success than the war on drugs.

More exchanges the better. Hopefully this recent Mt. Gox - Coinlab dispute may result in a separate U.S. Exchange.

If an exchange were truly decentralized i dont see how it could be regulated.

You cant just throw around the concept of decentralized and assume it is possible with any action or business model.

And even if it is done already (local bitcoins) it will never be convenient or reasonably priced

The Wall Street model would work. Stop allowing just anyone off the street from having a seat on the exchange.

Why can't we just build a tor-based exchange to buy/sell bitcoins? With multi-sig or third party escrow and credit rating system.

A decentralized exchange is a myth.  Take the last post for example, as soon as you have a third party escrow, SURPRISE you've just become centralized.

Why are you focusing on two extremes: Centralized VS Completely decentralized
I believe a partly decentralized exchange network is realistic and the best solution for most users.

i thought ripple was supposed to be a decentralized exchange?

Centralisation is not really a problem, if 10 people met up at a coffee shop each week, a lot of people will shout out that its a centralised location, blah blah. The problem comes when a place becomes so big that people that don't even use it, begin basing their prices and activities on it. So that the central location becomes a point of power, which affects peoples choices and opinions.

This is about control not centralisation, there are many people that don't use MTGox because they only trade bitcoins for products. But their shopping cart and valuation is based on MTGox. I personally do not base my investments on MTGox current price. what i do though is take on the monthly LOW as a estimate of value, which for my long term investment shows a nice slow rise.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2hzwpf.jpg

i don't worry about the panic speculation of the high prices, ill leave that for day traders. for those looking for retirement investments, use the low prices as indications of price. (there was no bubble bursting) the low price has not gone down at any time in 2013 and as long as May 2013 low stays above $51, and June stays above whatever May's low turns out to be then bitcoin is still on track for unstoppable rises

Let's hope that Satoshi is working on the decentralised exchange right now and soon as he's finished the coding he'll pop up again.