Warning people about exchanges

[lechef]

How does the community determine which exchanges to trust? It seems there is little legal recourse if an exchange runs off with your cash deposits or your bitcoins.

I am having trouble at the moment with Intersango - a deposit I made has not been credited, and their support department seem to communicate only once every 3 days. I can't tell if this is a scam that they pull on newbies, or if they just have poor customer service.

Is there any trusted review site for the various exchanges out there, or a place to log complaints?

[Luno]

Oh, I've been there. Took me weeks to judge which exchange I considered the safest. You also have to consider which exchages are easiest to do business with.

If you intend to do some trading, the size of the exchange in volume, and which currencies it handles, is also an important consideration.

Eventually you form your own opinion, choosing the exchange most popular is a way to choose. Everybody using one, or a few exchanges puts Bitcoin in the crosshairs of regulation.

Do research, reading posts here is a good start.

[Geraldine]

I used MtGox extensively in the past. Never had a problem with them.

[DannyHamilton]

caveat emptor

OR

You pays your money, and you takes your chances.

It is up to you to do your own research and determine which exchange you feel comfortable using.  You can read through the forums and see what people have to say to get a feel for the reputation of the business, but there is no way to know if they business will suddenly decide to run off (or make a security mistake that will allow a hacker to run off with anything held at the exchange).

I'm not aware of any exchange that hasn't had anyone voice any complaints about them, you'll have to decide which issues concern you and which issues don't.

[robot_boy]

Well, I think that that was sort of the goal of this post. One way to do research is to ask people who know. While one could wonder why the sky is blue then do research on the nature of light and its interaction with air and magnetic fields and all the other things that might possibly be a factor, it seems far quicker and easier to just ask someone who knows the answer already. In a more similar example like finding out where to get a good mechanic. You could locate every mechanic in your area dig through all of their records, set up a watch outside their house to learn what sort of person they are, torture them to extract every bit of information they have, etc. Or you could ask your friends and other people who have used mechanics in your area who they prefer. Most people go for that second option for obvious reasons. It is a lot easier to ask someone and tends to get decent results as long as they are a trusted source of information to you.

If you know of complaints about all them it might be helpful to list with complaints come from each and how trustworthy the source of the complaint is. They can decide what is important, but part of that is actually getting the information. I think that was at least part of the goal here. They wanted to hear what people had to say about them as well as how people judged them so that they could make a better decision. I think that there is a significant advantage to a business that has been around for a while and has a large customer base. They have more to lose by doing their customers harm than someone who has not been around as long. That may be one indicator for you to consider.

[DannyHamilton]

Certainly, but my point is that in a forum like this, there is no way to know if the advice you are getting is coming from a trustworthy source.  You also are likely to attract a disproportionate number of people who have complain unjustifiably (either against the competition in hopes of making their preferred choice look better, or against a business because they refuse to accept blame for something that is their own fault).

Asking a group of friends which auto shops they prefer and why isn't quite the same as walking into an auto shop and asking random customers which auto shop they prefer and why.

[chrisLG]

Hey!

It actually depends on what it is that you want to do. The longer you leave your assets at a third person the higher the risk of losing those assets.

I can absolutely recommend Mt.Gox, I have constantly BTC and USD there. Make use of their security features (like two factor authentication).

If you're from germany and do not mind the 2% upmark I can also recommend bitcoin-24.com. With giropay as payment method you can buy and withdraw bitcoins within a minute or two (so almost no exposure). This method is the least anonymous though.

Hope that helped.

Christopher