the OP seems to want a decentralised exchange, yet wants it to be a decentralised platform like mtgox....

seriously. if there is 1 single website used as the order book.. its then centralised.

how about set up regular meetups and have people do local face to face cash in hand exchanging. that way its not centralised for the masses, not reliant on bank transfers (causing banking regulation issues) the prices can vary dependant on local value as oppose to mass agreement on a single website (again centralised pricing).

i just think the OP is missing the point of what he/she really wants. the closest thing to a decentralised place where there is no central pot(account) of FIAT and there is still a order list of buys and sells. would be localbitcoins.com.

anything else would be cash in hand meet ups as a full decentralised peer-to-peer exchange or mtgox as a fully centralised exchange.

so where abouts in the spectrum between face-to face 1-on-1 exchange or mtgox fully centralised exchange does the OP envision his ideal plan bet put.

best decentralised exchange= ................... dramatic drum roll........... localbitcoins.com

you don't seem to know much about running a business..

you don't seem to know much about programming...

you don't seem to know much about regulations...

you don't seem to know much about costs..

do you really think that you are the right guy to be running a exchange? honestly??

the real house wives of Bitcoin miners..

a bunch of women complaining about electricity bills, heat production coming from their basement, and lack of seeing their husbands all day and night while they are playing the MTGox markets with their produced coins.

but if it is printed on one note.. then someone can just make 100,000 notes with that same code. disperse them out knowing only 1 out person will be lucky enough to redeem it and the other 99,999 would lose out..

even having the secret code under a hologram doesn't help much for circulation. because i can print 100,000 with holograms.. and underneath them all instead of a redeem code it simply says "ha ha suckers"

rebuttle:
1.paying $30 for 1000 game gold is not a better deal then paying $120 for 1 Bitcoin. atleast in a few months time your going to get more for your money. game gold is bought but cant really be transferred back into fiat. plus you cant use game gold to buy t-shirts, fast food, a LCD TV, etc etc etc. just because you are use to receiving many 'coins' ingame for less fiat doesn't make bitcoin expensive because your only getting 1. but then again $120 gets you 100,000,000 satoshi's.
2a. read a dictionary for the words ponzi, scam. read the bitcoin white paper and read the 4 years of bitcoin history then come back to me. dont make lazy assumptions.
2b. bitcoinstore.com, foodler.com.. enough said
3. localbitcoins, bitinstant, mining, plus much more that can be listed.. there are more access points per town/county/state for bitcoins then there are places to get foreign currency. Also to add i have bitcoins so if you ever want some, come to me. (meaning you the person having the conversation with the un-initiated)
4.the HIGH price keeps changing as that is what is known as the speculative price but the LOW, which is wholesale true value (minimum price people would sell at, is on a smooth rise.

5. no one is forcing you. enjoy your game, spending fiat instead of earning.
6. google bank ponzi, bank robberies, bank scams,... now compare result numbers to bitcoin.
7. you cant tell your credit card company if your cash transaction went worng either
8. so is offering someone a couple beers for helping fix your car or paint a housewall. but beer is not only used for tax evasion either.

with avalon taking 3 months from taking orders to final delivery, and bfl.. well you know.. i dont see a legit distributor that has to abide by legal sales laws and terms and conditions being able to offer anything like that any time soon.

not until manufacturers can build products and have them shipped within a 2 week time scale without excuses, will any legit distributor take on a bitcoin project.

and if they did i know for sure that they would have each machine running for a week for *cough* quality assurance *cough* purposes, to maximise revenue

most pools love fee's, not because it helps the miners but because the pool owners 'cut' is the fee and he then gives near on all of the 25btc to the workers.

i personally think mining pool owners should have their own miners working along side other miners for their 'cut' and then not be so greedy.

Fee's should not be something that is essential for transactions just yet. especially when they end up being more then a few penny's worth, instead people should be accepting the reward alone as their reward and only require fee's in a few years, when the rewards are super small.

and this is where its always best to talk to the regulators EG UK FSA and your bank manager, instead of avoiding them and waiting for the $h!t to hit the fan.

my bank manager has no problems with bitcoin at all, and they like seeing the money rolling through their accounts. as long as you stick to the rules and know the limits.

atleast half of these exchanges have the teenage mentality of "its my life i can do what i like" which leave their parents worrying what they are upto and ending up snooping on them just to figure out and ensure their kids dont get into trouble which would lead to problems for them also, leading to needless arguments and problems.

.. much the same as the bank manager/customer relationship.

so have a conversation, be polite, be open and honest and mature about things and you will realise the headaches and arguments need not happen... as much

new hampshire project adding bitcoin

the otc-uk meant to be used for trading coins not general UK chitchat but theres nothing stopping us UK lot starting a UK chat hash on IRC,

me and mark lyford have already had some skype chit chat with a couple other like minded UK lot. so skype is another option for those wanting to get businesses set up where anonymity is not going to be an issue to argue about

ok we have newyork, sanfransisco as the main bitcoin hubs of USA, i think amsterdam is the bitcoin capital of europe. and looks like brighton will be the bitcoin capital of UK

inedible thanks for the defense but um.. yea.. nycsquire was talking about the OP.. meaning JackH .. not me

so nycSquire was asking if JackH would go to an attorney.

that being said. if/when i set up an exchange or anything involving fiat i will be FSA regulated.(or maybe wink wink i already am under my real life birth certified identity.. just not as this franky persona)

http://blockchain.info/q/addressbalance/1YourPublicAddressGoesHere

if using PHP
$atoshi = file_get_contents('http://blockchain.info/q/addressbalance/1YourPublicAddressGoesHere');
$bitcoin = $atoshi /100000000;
echo $bitcoin;

or something like that

a ATM roll out can be done cheaply.

instead of "international company ATM" buying licence for every state, every province and every country of the world. they simply need to franchise.

where lets say a franchisee works as a subsidiary of "international company ATM" and only pays for the licence of that state they wish to work within.

that way "international company ATM" is then covered in that state and the franchisee can then run the business from that state (refilling the machines, maintenance, and placing the machines in key locations within the state) and they get a nice cut of the spread in return.

think about it 50+ franchisee's in america each just paying for a licence for the state they wish to cover.
The UK as another franchisee only paying for the UK regulatory FSA approval.
all under the umbrella name of the ATM company. making it world wide legal to offer fiat/bitcoin swaps.

putting the bitcoin into a third party service such as a bank is countering the point of decentralisation. and here is why.

1) trusting any third party to look after your funds requires trust, insurances, and full disclosure of that persons life, and legal contracts to ensure of limitation of losses.

2) for safety i would never say trust a third person to look after your funds. instead there are products that do not touch other people in which you can store your private keys on for safe storage: BitSafe, USB memory stick, paper..... need i say more

3) there will be services to make transactions of pocketmoney amounts easier such as escrow services which can ensure payments to merchants by having it pre-paid into an escrow service to get the confirms. and later in the day spend at a whim throughout the day with 0 wait time. EG deposit under 1btc while taking morning shower. which will then be ready to spend at starbucks by the time you get there, saving you waiting.... But storing your life savings of bitcoin, definitely don't trust it in a third person.

if you want to see the risks of the 'bank' model where even the owner revealing their name and address.. simply research Trendon Shavers AKA Pirate@40.

if you are not a licenced, regulated service then do not expect anyone to trust you as a bank.

not even sure why jack H thinks he is an expert.

he is obviously american. but even from his first post i had a few face palms reading his advice.

firstly
to avoid SEC/fincen he is right trade in europe.. but then your going to get hit by their eu regulations. which if you look at the history of american bitcoin exchanges trying to offer UK/EU services (covered by euro money laws) get shut down alot more harshly for not having the licences.

secondly
avoiding the licences of the country which the bank account exists in is not good legal advice.

thirdly
SEC/Fincen/EU regulations dont care about bitcoin. all they care about is the fiat side so concentrating on rebranding bitcoin as a bond wont change anything. because your still avoiding the fiat licences. so your still going to get caught.

my advice if you want to be a good exchange, be a expert money manager, with proof that you can with confidence handle large sums of fiat/bitcoin. and the best proof to achieve this is.... by putting your own money where your mouth is and pay for the fiat licences required by the law of the country you have the bank account set to.

if you want to legally avoid the liceneces/regulations. avoid FIAT. and only trade the different alt-currencies between each other.

now here is some actual practical advice.
knowing the licences are expensive here is the solution.
get 10 qualified and eager people that want to set up exchanges but cannot themselves afford the licences. combine your funds and form 1 business, and 9 subsiduaries.

for instance. bitcoin-central has licences for europe. bitinstant has licences for the US, and there is another exchange starting up in the UK which will have UK licences, all three partner up and form a official international company FIAT gateway, and then have their own business(which i already named) as the subsiduary business for each of their own area's of expertise.

everyone is individual and unique, exactly like everyone else......

for the whole lobbying government to help free market and entrepeuners, i would prefer to use the people in new hampshire as oppose to the bitcoin foundation as they seem to have a community philospohy, where as the bitcoin foundation as a more commercial philosophy.

the only way to change that is not by arguing against them, but to change them from within.. that goes for the foundation and government departments

SOME of you guys have little to no clue about real world stuff..

if you want bitcoin to fiat conversions then you have to accept that things need regulating. and if you want more relaxed regulations such as cheaper regulatory licensing to allow small businesses have the ability to compete against the centralised giants then that requires lobbying.

those that dont want lobbying or regulations. give me your FIAT and stop using it. find other methods of dealing with bitcoin EG trading bitcoins for bread, milk, meat and veg. dont touch the FIAT if you want a free market.

that is the simple answer.

regulations will not/have not made bitcoin owned by governments, what regulations do though is ensure that FIAT transactions are traceable, which is the same laws that have been around for years. the regulations have not changed.

bitcoin is not money. remember that. FIAT is money. and the government regulations are about FIAT.
you know the coins and bank notes with £$ symbols on them, they are trademarks of their respective governments/countries.
$ is a trademark of the US governments. £ is the trademark of the UK government. its their property so they have the rights to licence it however they please.

if you trade milk for bread that is not making a profit, due to the fact that with bartering it is a straight swap. but if you then sell the swapped item back to FIAT they will then want to know about this sudden appearance of their property.

so make your own personal decisions, do you want some lobbying to make it more fair and cheaper to offer bitcoin/fiat exchanges or will you get out of the basement and start up grocery stores to trade and barter bitcoins for other items.

arguing on a forum is just whispers that can be ignored if you think that just revoking membership from your sofa cushion will change anything.

bitcoin can never be owned by any sole person/entity/business... because bitcoin is not a single thing. the bitcoin is the blockchain, which can never be taken away.

if the government were to buy up or take ownership of the trademark "bitcoin" that is fine too.. it does not affect the blockchain, all it means is we rename the blockchain currency satoshi's or something else, within minutes we are back in business without any damage.

so stop getting hysterical about government taking over bitcoin.
if the government wanted to take a 20% cut of virtual currency(which is impossible). then make some game-bots to make billions upon billions of game gold in zynga, world of warcraft, etc and send that to the government as a form of protest, while still "paying them".. they will soon see that the value they get given is not as valuable as what we hold. and will soon learn to work with us, instead of against us.

the new hampshire project is working in the right direction, so is the sea-steading projects, actually speaking to government departments to make it easier to trade freely. which will surprisingly make their beloved FIAT move more freely from bank account to bank account. rather then being hoarded in secret off shore accounts.

think about the big picture guys and stop getting hysterical about "government is out to get us" .. seriously arguing on a forum wont change the laws for our benefit and ignoring the laws that have been around for many many years wont benefit you either.