Bitcoin Forum

We all know Bitcoin is made so that you can be your own bank, and if handled properly, it's the only way for your money to be really secure.

Nevertheless, I'm sure many of us still have a significant amount of bitcoins on an exchange, for various reasons (because we trade a lot, or because we trust an exchange more than a paper wallet).

Please answer this quick poll : https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/PPX6WK5

I will update this post to show you the poll results.
(Edit : you can also see the results of the poll right after you answer it. I added Coinbase in the list.)

Why are u giving a surveymonkey poll while we have the poll feature in the forum itself ? That way, u dont need to update the result too... we can see it ourselves.

There's no sense in holding ALL the bitcoin savings into an exchange but if I would be forced I'll deposit mine into BitStamp,
the only one I trust.

Offline wallets + paperwallets + online wallets (small amount to trade) to be secure and have some fun.

I used a surveymonkey poll because I also posted this poll elsewhere, and I want to centralize all results in one place.

I changed the settings of the poll so that you can see the results right after you answered it.

Do I trust them? No, why would I?

Do I do it? Yes, I'm an idiot :P

Other: Coinbase

They are pretty good.  I like their exchange.

What I personally do : I own about 30 btc, and I let them sit on Kraken.
I keep them there for several reasons :

- I dont trust myself to keep a paper wallet safe for a long time.
- I mostly trust Kraken, in particular because they have automated audits.
- I want to be ready to sell quickly in case of a huge crash.

I would trust Coinbase more than anyone else.  I don't see any reason to keep all of your crypto holdings in an online wallet though, especially if they are significantly large. 

Short: No.

However, I tend to keep only about 0.2btc in an exchange at any given time.

Trust no one when it comes to $$$

maybe no . but for reason manual maybe yes

I only send bitcoin to an exchange when I want to sell them, and will keep fiat there until I buy the coins back. I do not trust any exchange, not only because they might become insolvent any minute, but they might also force me into verification before I can withdraw anything.

No. I have held Bitcoins in a exchange, but normally, the amount isn't over .2BTC.  And if I hold it, it's either for a few days or a day. I don't do it because exchanges control the accounts, and your Bitcoins. Some exchanges can also glitch, like the negative balance at Cryptsy. And a example of them controlling your funds is when Vircurex froze all user's Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Feathercoin balances.

Dont put bitcoins in exchange, or if you want to, keep small amounts below 5 btc and keep monitoring the exchange very often, almost always there are signs before the shutdowns of the exchanges

If the exchange has a record of honest conduct.

Not ALL bitcoins for sure i keep max of 0.5 coins on exchanges.

me too. Even the exchange is big and stable, I still do not trust them. Do you guys still remember Mtgox why to file for bankruptcy? Hacker can steal all the BTC in the wallet of the exchange once they found the security issue and donot care how large the exchange is.

Mtgox went down largely due to incompetency and insider theft.

How many people actually believe the theft happen more than 1 year and no one discover it?

Absolutely not, have been stung several times by online exchanges, most notably by MtGox

I do not trust any exchange. I will use them, but get my money / bitcoin out asap.

Honest conduct does not mean everything. There are something which is out of their control, such as security issues, insider theft, hack attacking.

lol

The above picture sums it up perfectly.

Bitcoin is designed to be decentralized and having BTC on exchanges centralized coins, even if there are multiple centers (each of the exchanges)

without taking the survey i'm going to just say no. no. no.

because of the whole google adwords blockchain thing I had several btc stolen from me, from now on i am keeping an offline wallet and making sure that it never happens again, since blockchain and google refuse to both do anything about it. i'd prefer to be able to see my wallet, sitting right in front of me than not knowing, and forgetting passwords, and what else.

Definitely no!

I dont find a reason (except from some withdrawal fee they apply) to keep coins in there.
I need some in there for day trading but what I do not trade I prefer to get it out of there.
So I have to say that I don't trust them a lot.

This is the reason why people hold coins in an exchange in the first place, trading.

Traders wish to be able to use all of their "capital" for use in trading.

Survey doesn't have an option for 0%, which is equivalent to answering "NO" to this topic title.

well, there's no reason to trust an exchange more than a paper wallet. i do trade a majority of my coins on a regular basis. but i don't trust any of the exchanges. i trade on BTCE, Bitfinex, and Stamp, spreading out my funds for the inevitable collapse of another exchange.... just hoping to increase my $ and BTC enough that i'm still a good margin ahead when it happens.

For me, I don't.

You can trust one with few money, but who knows how his eye will charge his brain when he see a lot of money.

This strategy can still be dangerous as you are vulnerable to hackers.

I don't trust them but I have no choice.

I trust BitStamp and coinbase. There are a lot of venture capitals who went there.

Great answer!  Love it!  :)

Even if others have trusted a lot of money with them does not mean that you should as well.

Unless you plan on trading on bitstamp then you should not hold your money there.

There is no real reason to keep your money at coinbase.

i trust and feel safe with my BTC at BTC-e

I trust Coinbase and Bistamp to deliver my coins, but I would never hold them there. I move them to cold storage as soon as I have the ability.

Short answer is no.

They might be honest but government can still confiscate their bank account and seize the bitcoin.

No No NO  :D

Never
Came ever so close to being wiped out by the mtgox fiasco
Once bitten twice shy

of course not. but that doesn't mean i don't keep coins there. i have 30% in cold storage, and the rest spread across 3 exchanges -- Stamp, BFX, BTCE. if one of them runs off with my coins, i won't be crushed. just hoping to make enough coins in profit for it to be worth it, if that ever happens. never used Gox.

solid advice -- don't put all your eggs in one basket. take Gox as an example -- i don't think the "early guard" of bitcoin exchanges will all make it through the next few years. someone is bound to fall -- and it's best to position yourself wisely.

Keep a majority of mine on Coinbase and Atomic-Trade exchange.    Most exchanges seem really shady.. No idea how people could actually put money in any exchange that is anonymous.  That's just asking for trouble.  At least with the previous mentioned, there is some accountability. 

This is solid advice but after my fiasco with blockchain I don't know that I would trust any other exchange to hold my coins, as it is I can't even hold my own coins on my computer without worrying that I've downloaded malware. It's not like a click every link that says I've won a million dollars, but even that simple Google adwords thing really messed with me.

not exactly true, there are some places and companies that you can trust when it comes to keeping and handling your money/BTC

Of course I don't trust exchanges. Look at bitcoin exchanges' histories, generally. Think about Gox. I spread my coins across 5 exchanges (3 BTC/USD, 2 BTC/alt), to keep from having my trading coins in one place. I know the floor could fall out at anytime.

Mtgox problems came out around June last year when people not able to get their fiat out. It didn't suddenly just go bust.

People paying attention already use their cash to buy bitocoin to transfer out.


The current batch of exchanges have more to lose than gain from stealing.

Sure, Mt Gox problems started long before they went bust. I saw the warning signs and never sent coins there. But what you just said -- that could have applied to Mt Gox as well. I don't trust these exchanges for a second.

What is the point of keeping your coins on an exchange?

You can easily keep your coins secure with a software wallet and/or a blockchian.info wallet. You can keep an account with an exchange without any coins. You can transfer any coins that you wish to sell on an exchange within an hour or so.

I just don't see the point

I don't trust them but I'm doying it anyway. I usualy look for signs when something start to go wrong and until now it worked.

Ditto. I don't like it, but I do like to hedge...

As these bitcoin exchanges not controlled by government there is a risk.

shouldnt the question be.... ? Are you unable to run your own client and or look after your own wallet ?
sure sure if their is a price hike and you want to sell ASAP it would be nice if you could just do it.. but make sure your wallet is sync'd every few days or even constantly.

what is the real reason people need an exchange to hold coins ?
don't go on any porn sites, dont run random javascript, don't open emails that say you magically won 10 bitcoins, just out of the blue and you shouldn't get to many virus or keyloggers. people making keyloggers for bitcoin wallets arent exactly coming up with ingenious ways to do it... seems like standard ways "click here to  download this exe/jar file" and reclaim your 10000 bitcoin prize is enough to fool most people... :/

Gotta have my limit orders on the books. I'm not the type to send my coins from storage in panic once I've missed selling the top. It's hard to resist the urge to trade bitcoin's swings.

Not an active trader here so I keep the majority of my pennies on local bitcoin-qt client.  :)

Not a chance in hell. I never trusted them -- no 3rd parties, ever. So ever since I got started with bitcoin, I made sure to keep at least 80% in cold storage. Got bit by Mt Gox for 5% of my holdings. Just glad it wasn't 100% like some people! :-\

Not a chance. 100% cold storage for me.

You don't spent any coin?

With so many bad press and vulnerability, I don't think anyone should.

Even if you trust an exchange, why would you leave your coins there? they will be as liquid as if they were in your position (Wallet) so you better keep them in your position.

Nope, never trust exchanges they can claim they were hacked anytime and just steal the coins themselves and disappear right after that..or get really hacked.
Types of offline wallets are safest ones.

No i don't trust it. I keep them by me. I think it's safer so.

absolutely not, exchange can close anytime and not easy to WD from exchange they have minimum WD so if your exchange close and your balance not enough to WD you will lose all your balance on exchange

i only play the bigger swings, so as soon as i buy back, i move my coins to my local wallets. but those times waiting in fiat make me nervous...

I only trust exchange for some portion of my bitcoin, I never deposit all bitcoin in any exchange. Just play cautiously and you will be safe always.

I do not think anyone will reply with surety they trust 100% exchange and feel safe with all their Bitcoins, but mostly try to diversify their Bitcoins in different exchanges. same with me I use 2 Big exchange and only put coins their I need for trading rest in my wallet.

I assume whatever coins I have on an exchange are lost.  Not that I don't check them everyday, but a Gox can happen at any moment and honestly I don't have the financial means to pursue prosecution.

Why do you even have them in an exchange in the first place if you have so little faith in them?

I trust Kraken, Bitstamp. Why not to trust exchanges?
But I do not want to hold all my money there. Who knows...

Exchanges are for exchanging, wallets are for keeping coins.

Simply use things in the way they are supposed to be used and you will be fine.

only for small amounts while trading, then i remove the coin

I do not think so,
I get quite a lot of profits when trading, although taxable exchange

And what exchange you choose?

The problem is when you are waiting in $$ for the volatile spikes downward to buy. Wiring $$ out to your bank account means you might miss big opportunities. Hence the drive to keep $$ on the exchange -- no other way to do it.

History shows Bitcoin exchanges have relatively short lifetime, I guess 90% likelihood failure in 5 years. Thats why I keep stuff there only for shortest time necessary, to reduce my risk. So far good for me

This is true if your intent is to trade the bitcoin you have. If you intention is to save your bitcoin and/or spend it on good/services then transferring money to an exchange is a feesible option

Well, this is the "Trading Discussion" forum. :P

I wish there was a way that I could safely hold $ to send to exchanges quickly (in the way you can do with BTC), but the banking system has its drawbacks! :)

You don't necessarily need to trade bitcoin for fiat, IMO using bitcoin in exchange for some kind of service would be better for the bitcoin economy then trading it for fiat.

Of course not. Because there are so many unstable factors, such as the environment of exchanges, honesty,etc.

I wouldn't trust any exchange, even though I do have an account with blockchain any amount of BTCitcoin i receive automatically gets transferred to my wallet because i can't have what happened a month ago happen again where i was phished for everything i had.

Oh wow, sorry to hear that. I certainly don't keep more than is necessary on the exchanges, though I do keep money there to trade. I also use blockchain.info on my online computer, but only keep relatively small amounts there in case of anything phishy.

This is another good example as to why you should not keep money on an exchange.

Sure, but similar issues exist for desktop wallets. There are now many forms of malware that target bitcoin wallets, so part of the issue here is not 3rd party (exchange) vs. desktop wallet, but also general security precautions and cold storage.

Depends on an exchanger. Maybe its good to keep btc at different exchanges at the same time.

Definitely. I never keep all my eggs in one basket. For the coins I keep out of cold storage, I spread them out between BTCE, Bitfinex, and Bitstamp. I don't feel great about any of them, but there's no other way to trade. :)

In my opinion, no matter how trustworthy an exchange and its employees are, there's always a chance of losing anything kept on it.  They may have great security, but there's always a chance they missed something.

Even if the operator is trusted, there may be flaws in the systems and can get hacked. More and more vulnerabilities are surfacing everyday, there may be a chance which the exchange can get hacked.

this is my confused too
due to  mtgox ， i can't trust  exchange    but i need  use  exchange  ??? ??? ???how can i do

Do not keep any or too much btc in the exchange, try using small amounts that you know you are going to use immediately and withdraw it afterwards.

Wouldn't it just be better to keep your coins in your own "hot wallet" that you control and only keep coins at an exchange when you wish to sell for fiat?

Sure, but there are drawbacks to that. For one thing, personally, I play volatility spikes. I want my orders on the book to scalp those overbought moves and quickly rebuy. Vice versa. And in general, waiting for 3-6 confirmations during volatile times can be very frustrating. Beyond that, when hedging by holding fiat, there is nowhere to hold it but an exchange (unless you want to remove it from the BTC economy for an extended period of time -- again, missing out on big moves).

And hot wallets carry their own risks as well. If your coins are not cold, consider them vulnerable.

sure, that works for swing traders. i keep some coins/fiat on the exchanges for day trading, though. if you're going to be making multiple trades in a day, or over the course of a couple days, it makes sense to keep coins on the exchanges.

trust an exchange? ermm, heard of mtgox?

i don't trust em, but i use em, sparingly...

never.

but when i do, it's btc-e. 8)

If you are going to be trading in and out of positions often then you really have no way around having coins at an exchange. In this case you should only keep what you plan on risking for trading purposes and when you decide that you no longer want to use a certain amount of bitcoin for trading risk you should withdraw from the exchnge

I don't usually trust anyone, same goes with exchanges  but I do keep some altcoins on them, why? Because I can't download all of their wallets and install them on my pc, so its a safety precaution, and I keep them their until I can get some profits outta them and then I sell and move on to next one or turn to btc and withdraw.

Totally agree on the altcoin wallets. I don't trust a lot of the developers or the software. Lots of BTC wallet draining malware out there. It's too bad, because the best way to get in on an alt pump is to buy before it hits an exchange. :-\

Whichever exchange service. If the Exchange with a worldwide reputation is one thing and another private owner.

To answer OP.

Nope.

After seeing god knows how many exchanges get "hacked" or hacked, or close down... why would any body trust them is the real question....

This is another example as why it is not good to try to invest in altcoins. You must trade your computer's security for the security of your funds.

Trust an exchange? Never. I learned early on with BTC that third parties are a no-no if you want to keep your money safe. So, unfortunately, while I trade, my money is not safe. But I know that, and the risk-reward is worth it for me.

Its very hard to trust an exchange. Sometimes its a a necessary evil as others have said when you have to trade.

I've had a few coins lost on those bad apple exchanges. Not a great feeling.

Lo, I am the same way bro

It would require extra effort, but if you keep your altcoin wallets completely separate from your BTC wallet, you should be ok.  Ideally, it would be best to use two different computers, or at least two separate OS installations on the same machine.  But at the very least, if you keep your BTC in cold storage and make sure you don't have malware when you access it, you should be pretty safe.

I would not hold more than 10 BTC on ANY exchange.

Just wow... you are gonna get a BIG lesson in counter-party risk someday.

It would probably be a better idea to have 12 BTC at an exchange that allows 2.5x leverage and simply sell bitcoin short in the event that you wish to sell all of your bitcoin. You could keep the rest in a blockchain wallet for example.

Another option would be to use the second market bitcoin fund. You would need to pay some fees but the counterparty risk would be much less.

Nope, as the old saying goes, if you don't have the private keys, you don't have your bitcoin. :)

No way i put my coins in exchange more than 12 hours
i'll withdraw it when i'm done trading
too many scam exchange, especially in altcoin trading :(

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

But constantly wiring fiat in or out eats up any profit you've made (if any). Those wire fees are not cheap, and sometimes there is even a fee to receive a wire, depending on the bank. It just depends on your risk tolerance.

just have to compare that cost with the exchange risk of holding fiat on an exchange. these exchanges are very shady and unregulated.

If you have a large enough balance at your bank account then your bank will likely not charge you for wiring funds out of your bank account. You can send an ACH payment from the exchange to your bank account. 

ACH is often not an option from exchanges based in Europe. SEPA is great for people who live in that zone, but for people in the US, international wires are the norm. That usually means a fee from the exchange, from an intermediary bank, and possibly from your own bank. It adds up.

Can probably trust bitstamp who already have an audit.

You can but however, not fully. Anything can happen after an audit, even a hacking. AFAIK I don't think a reputable auditor did that audit, if not, it would be a good add-on.

Hello,

I used bitcoin.de (https://www.bitcoin.de/de/r/wa4g55) and I would trust them watching over my 10 months old daughter. I don't think I need to say more.

Best

iFlash

don't trust any exchanges.

yeah you can give more trust to them, but don't give all of your trust ;D
everything can happen in the future, better if you save you coin in your own wallet

German exchange? do they accept USD?

I know I shouldn't but I do leave large sums of funds on their so I won't be devastated.  It is a horrible habit to have and I will try to not do this and use more security with my coins.

well, it's a tough decision. if it's important to you to hedge against a downtrend, it becomes more than just the security of your funds, and not just as easy as sending coins to a cold wallet.

Agreed a lot of thought and planning goes into trading in my experience as a novice trader.  When you consider the risk of loss funds and fees it all makes sense for someone just playing around to leave small amounts on different exchanges.  For Others who deal in larger sums I'd think there is some serious decision making taking place.

I don't trust exchanges anymore.

Exchange is important part of the bitcoin ecology system. If exchange has no trust, then bitcoin has no trust.

I agree with the first sentence. But the second should be nuanced. Would you deposit your fiat to you local currency exchange and trust them hold it for you?  I wouldn't. I trust them to convert my USD to EUR.

The same applies to exchanges... I put in fiat x (say US dollars) and get out bitcoin. Or vice versa. I trust them to do this, but I will limit the risk by withdrawing immediately. I do not trust them to hold my belongings for long.

Also bitcoin has trust even without exchanges. I will still be able to buy a pizza with it!

Exchange shouldn't have 0 trust. They should also not have enough trust to hold a lot of bitcoins. Probably only for use immediately would be good.

Yes, up to certain amounts. Coinbase I would trust up to 5k USD. Bitstamp and BTC-E I would barely trust, maybe like 1k USD. Only what I'm willing to lose.

Maybe yes, for some exchange. But, I prefer with cold storage. Everything can happen in the future, and we will never know.

If there were no exchanges, bitcoin might still have trust, but it would likely lose a lot of its value/usefulness.  I'm not sure how many businesses would accept bitcoin as a form of payment if they couldn't readily convert to fiat...probably not many.

without exchanges, of course there would be trust in bitcoin. what do centralized entities have to do with that?

No, it is a very bad idea to trust your money to an exchange. You are just asking to get scammed.

I think trust my bitcoin on HUGE exchanger like BTC-E, Bitfenix, Bitstamp
BUt i just put them BTC to sell
not to put them permanently


If there was no exchanger, BTC won't success. and altcoin never born

Agree, why we trust exchange they can run our money anytime if they want, I just use exchange when need to sell some Bitcoins.

You want to lose your coins? Your answer is yes.
You don't want to lose coins? Your answer is no.

 :D

I would never trust all my coins with any, or even a mixture of exchanges.

Buying and selling locally is better anyway because it makes the local bitcoin ecosystem stronger

Depending on amount and how old the exchange is.

Not much about the age of an exchange. Looking at mtgox, even though they were around for many years, they eventually collapsed in the end. An exchange may be old but they are still exposed to the vulnerability which exist in the exchange. A good exchange would be one who does regular checks on security, though you still cannot trust them too much.

and if you trade bitcoin a year ago, maybe you goxxed too :(
based in age of exchange not so good reasons, everything still can happen in the future

i only trust exchange to hold my btc if its been around a long time , alot of new exchanges are popping up nd most are probly trying to swindle for your money

Depends on exchange

For example - I trust 100 times more to bitstamp, then to btc-e

Why is that? BTCE has been around forever, has always been honorable. They have partnered with MT4 trading platform and FXOpen for leveraged trading, setting up PAMM system... they have a long term plan and are churning out fees.

Long term plan is laughable term, when we are speaking about services operating in black or grey areas

I'm sure that they will either be shut down or will disappear with all the money in long term) They are operating without any license or even a company) serving US customers without being registered with FinCEN, working with underground payment systems; accepting wires "for computers" and withdrawing customers funds to debit cards "for advertisement". And no AML program at all.  ;D

Remember liberty reserve and others? The outcome can be easily predicted. The time of such "services" had ended, now you have to play by rules if you want to run payment system, an exchange, payment processor etc. But I believe these guys even don't know the rules)

Some exchanges are verified because of an audit but as you know some of them can close when they want unpredictably.

Do you remember ShareXcoin or other ones? You can do what you want with your money but IMAO I insist: put your coins on the exchanges just to trade and when you finish, resend to your wallet software.

I don't trust any of these audits. From what I can tell, none of them have been carried out in a manner that proves current possession of assets to cover all liabilities.

The problem is, how can they really prove that they own the passwords to the wallets they supposedly own without divulging those passwords?  I can maybe think of a way or two, but they'd be very complicated and still not completely foolproof.  Or they could show the auditor that they control those wallets, but then how do you fully trust the auditor?  And even if a person/company has a pristine record, that doesn't mean that someday they won't disappear with all the funds.  In the end, I guess you just have to decide to trust someone.  It may be risky, but life is full of risks.  You can only try to minimize them.

Old exchange mature quite a bit.

There are consequences for scamming customers.

Never. Occasionally I let them hold my funds for a short time, but never for long.

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

The New York regulations are going to try to change this. The goal of the regulations is to get it so exchanges must prove that they have enough bitcoin to cover all of their customers' bitcoin and fiat deposits.

it would be awesome if I didn't have to worry about coinbase failing every time I sell via coinbase.

I like the spirit of this, but if it is a full-reserve system (which is what it sounds like) then I think it risks being too limiting to allow the bitcoin ecosystem to evolve.

Full-reserve systems can certainly inhibit growth, but they're a heck of a lot safer.  I think that part of the spirit of bitcoin is to get away from banks and some of their practices like fractional-reserve banking that lead to all kinds of financial calamities.  I think it's worth it to trade some growth potential for stability.

Only online site I would trust for holding long term is maybe blockchain, and definetly xapo.com's insured vault. Other than that, it could end up like mt. gox again.

I really thing that online services are not so good to store coins...
But for you: https://blockchain.info/about - Blockchain have a detailed "About Us" so you can save It with all their info  ;)

You know...

I heard that bitstamp is closing account and keeping the BTC. Is this true? You seem to trust them a lot. Do you have any input on this?

i wouldn't use blockchain.info for long term storage. it's still an online hot wallet. and i have heard that it can be vulnerable to JS exploits. for long term storage, cold storage is the only solution.

Currently I am keeping about 0.05 BTC in my blockchain for quick access, and the rest in a xapo.com vault, cause its insured so its impossible for it to be lost. I don't trust myself with cold storage.

Yes, only to one exchanger, because I know the owner.
Www.bitcoin.co.id

Not I don't.
I just don't want to loose my money again, like I did with gox.
I have been goxxed!

Trust an exchange? That's asking for trouble. Maybe when we get some trustworthy exchanges backed by established brands.

So pretty much there all shit.

xapo has insurance? Do you have to pay a premium for that?

In their vault it is insured, for 0.12% annually.

By whom is it insured?  And under what conditions?  If xapo suddenly disappeared and the owners ran off with your coins, would you be able to collect on the insurance for that (my guess would be no)?

I'd also like to know who "insures" these deposits. The government? Xapo themselves? I don't trust Bitfinex either when they say they effectively "insure" lender swaps by collecting 15% of swap interest fees. Do the math -- that won't cover a damn thing in a real price decline.

maybe i just will save in bitstampp because theire more better than keep secure online or save in cold wallet who never online. but while waiting send to cold wallet i save more than 10 btc and send it to there  . to makes more easy to access all wallet and secure  :D

i have most of my btc on exchange, but i'm getting scared, so soon i will take off them.

People don't remember MTGox?

Yes, that exchange in which people lost a lot of money  ;)

No, this is not something I would do purely because I don't think it would be safe to and I would never have piece of mind having my coins held in exchange. I have known people to lose by doing this so it's not something I would do unless I wanted the same fate.

Even if you don't have a mtgox type situation, have your coins stored on an exchange opens you up to a lot of risks. One main risk is that your account at the exchange gets hacked and your coins withdraw from your account. You would have little to no way of proving your account got hacked and would have no way of recovering the money.

It would be very helpful to have something like FDIC or SIPC backing for exchange accounts so you could be assured that (under most normal circumstances) you won't lose your money if your account is hacked.  Of course that would require additional regulation and expense, but that's the trade-off.